AMD Ryzen 5 2600, 6 Cores & 12 Threads Unlocked Processor with Wraith Stealth Cooler

I've had this CPU installed in my rig for the last few months and it's been great. No regrets whatsoever. Make no mistake, this is an exceptional CPU for the value and has a great reputation for running games well. There is a reason that most of the YouTube build recommendations, specifically for the budget-oriented, will suggest this CPU for your build. Intel should take a page from AMDs book because this card surpasses anything Intel offers at a similar cost; I might even say it surpasses some of what Intel offers at a significantly greater cost.In terms of quality, stability, performance I've had no issues. I use this computer for gaming, as well as overall work/research needs. I've been able to run several modern games without any issue (along with RX570 and 16GB DDR4/3000Mhz ram). With regards to work performance, I do a lot of bioinformatic analysis and this CPU has being able to run computationally demanding software/functions via OmicsBox and various scripts in R. Some of the data files that I've used have maybe 40,000 rows of data, all with multiple columns; I've been able to open, edit without any issues. Keep in mind that this is dependent on your ram and drive too!Overclocking? I've got this card up to 3.9Ghz with the stock AMD cooler on a B450M Aorus board. I've done stress testing with this clock and it's been totally stable. I've yet to experience a single crash with this OC. Some individuals have gotten their cards up to 4.1 or 4.2 even I think...but, this is contingent on the strength of your individual card. There is some variability in the OC potential from card to card. But, I'd say most can reasonably achieve 3.9 without issue. I plan to liquid cool this CPU in the next week and will see how that affects things. Temperatures have been a little high at times, but again I'm using a stock cooler with a decent OC, often playing highly demanding games.I'd highly recommend this card to budget and maybe even non-budget minded individuals. This is a great CPU and I'd probably put more money into a better GPU before I even thought about upgrading this.

I purchased the Ryzen 5 2600 for my sons gaming build. I personally own the Ryzen 5 3600 in my gaming machine and knew that these Ryzen CPU's are hands down the best CPU's on the market... Many may disagree with this statement but let me explain why.Price:Ryzen CPU's are priced much lower than Intel counterparts and offer a better price/performance. Pairing a Ryzen 5 2600 with a AM4 motherboard is much less than the equivalent pairing of a Intel I5-8400 with a 1151 socket. $120 for a Ryzen 52600 or $245 for the Intel equivalent.. i'm sure you can do that math.Performance:While the I5 mentioned above technically is slightly faster in single and quad core operations, the Ryzen 5 smokes the Intel I5 due to it's hexacore configuration. Pair this with a decent overclock and you have a capable processor that comes in at half the price of the competition.The Ryzen series cpu's like a good fast ram. There are plenty of options to choose from here on Amazon but I personally went with the Patriot Viper 4 16GB (8x2) 3200 Mhz ram - https://amzn.to/31vUnPi and have not regretted this purchase one bit.Future Proof:With every few iterations of the Intel CPU's comes a new chip set and corresponding board configuration. The Ryzen series processors (Now Gen 4) are all compatible with the AM4 socket. Not only does this make building your rig easy, but there is some assurance that when you want to upgrade to the latest Ryzen CPU you will not have to buy a new board and possibly ram on top of it. Most upgrades I have seen consist of a newer gen processor and a motherboard firmware update.I am not a AMD fanboy and do enjoy seeing the performance and specs coming from the Intel processors. Saying this, I do know how to spot deals and at sub $130 this CPU is an absolute monster.Recommended pairingsPatriot Viper 4 16GB (8x2) 3200 Mhz DDR4 ram - https://amzn.to/31vUnPiMSI B450 Gaming Plus Max Motherboard: https://amzn.to/2UtQF7mAMD Ryzen 5 2600 Processor - https://amzn.to/39cvPO9Thanks for reading, hopefully my review helped provide information towards your purchase.Happy Gaming!