AMD's Ryzen 7 5800X is a great CPU for a mid-range gaming PC and it's on sale for $398

AMD has won enthusiasts over with its Zen 3 architecture, and if you're building a new PC, it deserves strong consideration—Zen is a mature architecture at this point, as are the accompanying X570 and B550 chipsets. Stock has been somewhat of an issue, though the Ryzen 7 5800X has been a lot easier to find than the Ryzen 9 parts. It's even been prone to discounts, including right now.

Amazon is selling the Ryzen 7 5800X for $397.99, which is $51.01 below its list price. It's actually dipped down to that price fairly often over the past few weeks, so perhaps we are looking at a permanent price drop (time will tell). Either way, you're getting a capable Zen 3 CPU for below MSRP.

The 5800X is one of the best CPUs for gaming, and ideally suited for a mid-range setup. It is an 8-core/16-thread part with a 3.8GHz base clock, 4.7GHz max boost clock, and 32MB of L3 cache. A great all-around workhorse, it can power both your gaming and productivity needs with aplomb.

Motherboards based on AMD's X570 chipset typically start at around $130. MSI's MPG X570 Gaming Edge WiFi is on sale at Newegg for $119.99 after rebate (down from $159.99), or another option is ASRock's B550M Pro4, on sale for $89.99 (down from $114.99), if you're looking to piece together a micro ATX build (and stay around $100). Being a mature platform, you won't find a lack of motherboard options.

Hopefully you already own a GPU, because otherwise building a new PC from the ground up is a tough task. If you do, the 5800X, while not the sexiest Zen 3 of the bunch, makes for a great mid-range foundation.

Paul has been playing PC games and raking his knuckles on computer hardware since the Commodore 64. He does not have any tattoos, but thinks it would be cool to get one that reads LOAD"*",8,1. In his off time, he rides motorcycles and wrestles alligators (only one of those is true).