AMD Ryzen 5 3600 – Still GREAT Value!

The AMD Ryzen 3000 series came out in Summer 2019, July 7.

I got one finally for the last few months, a 3600 version. It is great. I did not wait for the 5600X.

I splurged and got one for $260 + TAX. I should have gotten it when it was like $230. But I thought of using my Ryzen 5 1600 first generation for a bit longer.

I use it as a daily driver. It is plenty fast. It feels about 30% faster than my old 1600. I can really feel the difference.

With stock low and demand high. I have seen this CPU priced at $280 or more at various retailers.

Get one. You won’t be disappointed with its performance.

But sometimes I wished it had integrated graphics. On my main daily driver PC, I don’t play any games on it so I don’t need a dedicated GPU. I would have paid for integrated graphics.

AMD has placed itself as a market leader and priced its CPU higher than before. They command higher prices now. No longer are they considered value CPUs or low end.

I wished they would price their CPUs cheaper. But I guess they have taken over the market and can price their products how much they want.

I still buy AMD because I do upgrade often and like the compatibility of the AM4 socket and value of cheaper motherboards that offer more features like overclocking.

I am currently running the following specification for my main PC:

• AMD Ryzen 5 3600 CPU with AMD Ryzen 5 1600 cooler with copper (It is quieter)
• 32GB DDR4 3600MHz CL18 RAM
• Gigabyte RX570 4GB GPU
• ASUS B550M-A/CSM Motherboard
• WD SN750 1TB NVME SSD

I think my PC is quite balanced. All I need is a PCIe 4.0 NVME to make it killer. I will wait until Intel Rocket Lake comes out with PCIe 4.0 and that will drive PCIe 4.0 prices down. That will take a year I think. I can wait.