AMD Zen 2 Ryzen 3000 Sale Brings Hot Discounts To 6-Core, 8-Core And 12-Core CPUs
Have you been thinking about building a new PC, or upgrading an existing one? Now is a great time to make the jump. The bang-for-buck that can be obtained has never been higher than it is right now, and driving that point home are a handful of discounts on AMD's latest generation Zen 2 processors spanning the Ryzen 9, Ryzen 7, and Ryzen 5 product stacks.
For anyone who has not been following, Zen 2 is the latest and greatest CPU architecture from AMD. They are the first to be built on a dense 7-nanometer manufacturing process, and they offer a nice balance of core counts and clockspeeds for the money. Whether you are a gamer or a productivity hound (or both), the Ryzen 3000 series offers plenty of power.
Here's a rundown of the discounted models...
- Ryzen 9 3900X (12 cores / 24 threads, 3.8GHz to 4.6GHz): $469.99, Amazon (save $29.01)
- Ryzen 7 3800X (8 cores / 16 threads, 3.9GHz to 4.5GHz): $339.99, Amazon (save $59.01)
- Ryzen 7 3700X (8 cores / 16 threads, 3.6GHz to 4.4GHz): $324.99, Amazon (save $5)
- Ryzen 5 3600X (6 cores / 12 threads, 3.8GHz to 4.4GHz): $209.99, Amazon (save $39.01)
- Ryzen 5 3600 (6 cores / 12 threads, 3.6GHz to 4.2GHz): $179.99, Amazon (save $19.01)
To get the most out of these CPUs, you will want an X570 motherboard. It's AMD's top-shelf chipset in the mainstream desktop category, with support for PCI Express 4.0, native support for USB 3.2 Gen 2, better power management, and a few other odds and ends.
That said, you can plop a Ryzen 3000 series processors into a previous generation socket AM4 motherboard. Just be sure to check your motherboard manufacturer's website to see if a BIOS update is required, and if so, apply that first. AMD deserves kudos for extending the AM4 socket for as long as it has.
Also note that each of the above retail CPUs comes bundled with a stock air cooler. A third-party cooler could potentially increase the cooling capacity and facilitate higher overclocks, but if you're mainly interested in running at stock speeds, you will be just fine with the included cooling solutions.
One final note—AMD is running a promotion whereby all Ryzen 3000 series CPUs purchased from a qualified vendor (Amazon included) come with three free months of Xbox Game Pass for PC and one or two free games. Users who buy a Ryzen 9 3900X or Ryzen 7 3800X can claim both The Outer Worlds and Borderlands 3, while buyers of Ryzen 7 3700X, Ryzen 5 3600X, or Ryzen 5 3600 can pick choose one of those games. More details can be found here.
