AMD has refreshed its Zen 2 stack and introduced several higher-clocked "XT" chips, but the best deals are still among the original Zen 2 models. One of these is the Ryzen 5 3600. If you are looking for a reliable mid-range CPU, this is a great choice for gaming.

Amazon has the 3600 for $159.98. This is well below the list price of $199, which is the cheapest it has ever been sold at this price. This price is also a penny below Micro Center, which usually sells its CPUs at the lowest price, although Micro Center is only available for in-store purchase. [The 3600 has 6 cores and 12 threads, a base clock of 3.6 GHz, and a maximum boost clock of 4.2 GHz. It also has 32 MB of L3 cache and 3 MB of L2 cache and a TDP of 65W.

All of this means a capable slice of silicon for a middle-class gaming PC. If you have a top-of-the-line GeForce RTX 2080 Ti, you may want to buy a higher-end chip. But for a mid-range GPU like the Radeon RX 5700, the 3600 is a solid match.

It also boasts the benefits of AMD's latest generation architecture and platform support. Namely, PCIe 4.0 support when paired with an X570 or B550 motherboard (the latter is an ideal combination for this chip). Of course, the Zen 3 is also on the horizon, but at this price, it is likely to experience buyer's remorse when a new one is introduced later this year.