The AMD Ryzen 5 5500, part of AMD’s Ryzen 5000 series, is built on the efficient Zen 3 architecture, delivering impressive performance and responsiveness for affordable systems. Featuring 6 cores and 12 threads, it runs at a base clock of 3.6 GHz and boosts up to 4.2 GHz, providing smooth performance for gaming, streaming, and daily workloads. Though it supports PCIe 3.0 rather than 4.0, it remains an excellent choice for cost-conscious builders looking for great efficiency and compatibility with older AM4 motherboards. Supporting DDR4 memory and equipped with a 65W TDP, the Ryzen 5 5500 strikes an excellent balance between performance and value.