AMD Ryzen 5 1600X, 6 Cores & 12 Processing Threads Unlocked Processor without Thermal Solution

Excellent processor with a great price. Better than some high end intel processors. The only issues are with the motherboards since the platform is so new, it will just be a matter of patience and learning. If you already have a good cpu cooler go for the R5 1600x if you don't than get the R5 1600. A lot of reviewers have said that people should get the 1600 instead of the 1600x because it comes with a cooler and because you can overclock it to similar speeds. Parts of that statement are true, such as being a better value because of the cooler. Where I don't agree is in the fact that you can overclock it. As I said, the motherboards are all still pretty new and not everyone is able to achieve the same clock speeds as well as the same ram speed due to the fairly new BIOSs. If you want a faster processor without having to deal with the overclocking and already have a good cooler, buy the R5 1600x. If you are willing to experiment with the bios and deal with overclocking issues or wait for better motherboards than get the R5 1600. Some people might ask, is better than the I5 7600k? The answer depends on what you want. If all you want is to play games at its highest performance and not have anything else open (such as browser tabs and other programs) then by all means get the I5. That was a joke. Although the i5 gets a few more fps on average, the lack of cores restricts you from doing anything else while gaming. Meanwhile with the R5 1600x you will be getting 3-5 fps less than with intel but you will be able to do more at once without having to stress the processor so much. Another thing to keep in mind is that to use a intel K chip you need to buy a more expensive motherboard to overclock it, meanwhile with amd you can overclock the chip (although the process is a little more tidious) with almost every motherboard that's being sold today. In terms of price this is a better value than i5 and i7. And in terms of performance it is on par with both the i5 and i7.

I would give this a higher rating but the CPU arrived with bent 3 pins making it impossible to install until the pins were straightened..Straightening the pins is a very delicate process and (for me) required use of a magnifying glass because I'm getting older and the pins are just so small. I believe I successfully straightened them but until I complete the build process and power it up I cannot tell if it worked or not. I've been building computers since the early 80's so I know the bent pins were bent before I ever opened the package because they were on the inner row, where you would NEVER place your fingers while handling during opening the package or installing itWill revisit this review to make appropriate rating change.UPDATED 01/29/2018I have raised my initial 3-star review to 5-stars. The CPU runs cool at stock speed while providing perfectly acceptable performance. It overclocks like a beast, too. Currently running at 4GHz and I know it will boot up and run stable at 4.3GHz until it gets too hot in Prime 95 due to my use of an AIO cooler with a thin radiator instead of a nice, fat 360mm or 480mm Rad and custom loop.I'm confident that, with proper cooling, 4.3GHz would be 24/7 stable. It already passes Passmark and CPU-Z's benchmarks and Valley, but gets too hot in Prime95. (it runs at 4.3GHz with only 1.45v)

I've had this 1600X since June 1st, 2017, and it's constantly in use. It works extremely well and handles VR beautifully in combination with my ROG Strix 6GB GTX 1060 graphics card, 16GB DDR4 RAM, and an SSD. I don't suspect I'll have to upgrade my rig again for at least 2-3 years, and the next upgrade will probably be a simple graphics card swap.The cost of getting a Ryzen CPU for the first time is the cost of getting the CPU itself along with an AM4 motherboard and most likely new DDR4 RAM sticks as well. This is not as simple of an upgrade as a GPU card swap or even switching from Phenom II to FX. This Ryzen CPU requires DDR4 RAM to function correctly. It is a massively expensive upgrade that should not be taken lightly. Consider all your options and learn what you need before you start purchasing anything.Ryzen CPUs are awesome! If, like me, you were gaming on some kind of AMD rig from before the FX series, you may have considered switching to Intel because the FX series CPUs overheated like crazy and didn't have much greater of performance than Phenom II CPUs. Ryzen CPUs are a different story. Ryzen CPUs compete with Intel's best consumer level CPUs.After many months of testing this CPU's limits, I'm very happy with my upgrade. This 1600X CPU is also identical to the 1600 model, especially if you plan to manually overclock it, so you could save some money that way. Not only is the 1600 model cheaper but it comes with a decent-looking CPU cooler you can use until you get something more capable of getting temperatures stable for overclocking. Other than that, I like the 1600X very much and find it incredibly productive.

I bought mine a little over 4 years ago, and it served me well for 1080p gaming. I was reliably able to play games at high to ultra settings at 60 FPS. I was able to upgrade to a 1440p monitor with a much higher refresh rate, and it started to show itself as the bottleneck in my system.At the time it was a good buy, but you can reliably find the 5600 online for 140$ USD which would be a much better value. At the time of writing this, the 5600 is actually cheaper.