AMD Ryzen 5 1600X Processor (YD160XBCAEWOF)

Pros: Powerful enough to blow the socks off of my old FX-8350, both in single core and in multitasking. It draws less power, produces less heat, and has a much higher thermal ceiling (95 degrees Celsius) than the old Bulldozer core did. This was not a small incremental upgrade. This was a HUGE upgrade and for the price I can't say enough good things about this processor line. And to think...this is just the first iteration of Zen processors! I wonder what Zen+ / Ryzen 2 is going to be like. My Motherboard automatically overclocked the processor to 3.9 GHz without me having to make any modifications whatsoever. Under heavy loads this processor never goes above 48c. I'll be trying for 4.0 GHz later and believe I will be able to easily achieve it.Cons: Didn't come with a stock cooler. Had to get a new backplate for my old AM3+ AIO Water Cooler.Other notes: If you are making the transition from any other architecture then PLEASE READ this information about RAM compatibility. It will save you a ton of headache and trouble down the road.Ryzen Processors scale very well with RAM speeds, both MHz and timings. However, getting anything to run stable above 2666 MHz has been tricky and near impossible for some people. One type of RAM that works pretty well all the way up to DDR4-3466 speeds and at their rated timings, far more reliably than any other, are RAM chips that have single rank & single-sided Samsung B-die memory chip configurations. There are 31 kits that have this configuration that I know of. Yes, those memory kits generally cost more than those that have other Samsung die or SK Hynix but right now the Hynix memory chips are causing all sorts of compatibility problems once you get into overclocking territory (anything above 2400 MHz). I had a "cheapo" kit of 16 GB Corsair LPX DDR4-3000 that after 3 weeks of tireless testing simply wouldn't go past 2666 MHz and would only go that speed at CAS 16. (We're not talking about an old, outdated BIOS here. We're talking about a June BETA BIOS that contains AGESA 1.0.0.6) However, the G.Skill TridentZ Series 16 GB kit works flawlessly and at rated speeds of 3200 MHz at 14-14-14-34 timings. Both kits were on my MBs QVL. The difference? The G.Skill TridentZ uses single rank, single sided Samsung B-die. The model number is F4-3200C14D-16GTZ. The price is high and it goes out of stock regularly now because Ryzen users are aware of it's superior stability when compared to other ram types. Don't have the money to spend on your ram? I get it. Then my recommendation would be to get a solid 2400 or 2666 kit and stay away from 3000 - 3200 kits for a while until the majority of Motherboards have their Hynix compatibility problems sorted out. I believe the Hynix problems will be sorted eventually and if you can settle for running at lower-than-rated speeds for a while and hope / pray for a fix down the road then have at it. But make no mistake, the benchmark tests are very conclusive that the differences between 2666 @ 16-18-18-38 and 3200 @ 14-14-14-34 are HUGE.Do some google searching on this subject before you buy if you need further convincing. If you go the cheap route on memory you are limiting your processor's ability to amaze you.

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'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.