Published May 5, 2026, 10:06 PM EDT
Timi has been writing about technology for over a decade, focusing on smartphones, computers, and anything that he finds interesting in the tech space. He started writing for XDA, covering all things mobile, but has transitioned to covering deals, with a mission to shed light on some of the best discounts around the internet on the greatest tech products.
PC component prices are at an all-time high right now, making it harder to build a new PC. Of course, if you’re just looking to build something cheap or want to use some spare parts you have lying around, this AMD Ryzen 5 5500 chip is just the thing.
We loved it when it first debuted, and think it’s an even better deal right now thanks to its reduced price. This isn’t the cheapest we’ve seen this CPU, but it’s still well below its original retail price. You can now get it for $79 when you clip the coupon on Amazon before checking out if you’re quick.
What’s great about the AMD Ryzen 5 5500?
It’s going to be all about the price right now. When a budget CPU falls to an even lower price, it’s harder to ignore. This model features 6 cores, 12 threads, and a max boost that takes it up to 4.2GHz.
It’s built on AMD’s AM4 platform, which means you can use DDR4 RAM and PCIe 3.0 SSDs. So, it’s not the latest in terms of hardware and support, but it still provides enough power to do all the things you need to for everyday use.
With that said, the upgrade path here is going to be a little more limited in the long run, but if this is the starting point, you still have a ton of CPU options to look at in the future.
Cores
6
Threads
12
Architecture
Zen 3
Process
7nm
Socket
AM4
The Ryzen 5 5500 is a low-end AMD CPU that has six cores, 12 threads, and 16MB of L3 cache, half that of its higher-end but more expensive counterpart, the Ryzen 5 5600.