Don't want to wait for a Ryzen 5000 CPU? Intel's Core i9 9900K is only $320 right now

You could built a high-end gaming PC around this chip. (Image credit: Intel)

AMD's Ryzen 5000 series is the shiny new toy that everyone wants to own, but given the stock situation, you might be tempted to go in a different direction. Adding to the temptation is a tantalizing discount on Intel's Core 9 9900K. It's available for $319.99 at Newegg today, after punching in the coupon code 93XPZ52 at checkout.

The promo code chops $80 off the retail cost, and knocks the 9900K down to its least expensive price ever. And by quite a bit, too—the previous low was a brief dip to around $380 earlier this month.

This is a trend that will likely play out over the next several months, especially as the stock situation for the Ryzen 5000 series improves. For example, two weeks ago I highlighted a deal on a Core i7 9700K, which at one time was Intel's second-best CPU for gaming. While no longer on sale for $283, it has only spiked to $289.99 on Amazon and still a good value.

Like that CPU, the 9900K is based on Coffee Lake and flexes eight physical CPU cores with a 3.6GHz base clock. However, it also supports Hyper Threading, so you get 16 threads, and has a higher 5GHz boost clock (versus 4.9GHz), along with more L3 cache (16MB versus 12MB).

You could build a high-end gaming PC around the 9900K. Pair it with a top-shelf or mid-range graphics card and you'd be good to go.

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).