With the global memory crisis showing no signs of getting any better (if anything, it’s going to get worse), the idea of upgrading an old gaming PC to a new AMD AM5 platform and Zen 5 processor might seem to be nothing but a dream. Fortunately, help is at hand in the form of a Newegg CPU, motherboard, and DDR5 bundle.
Let’s start with the main focus of the bundle, the AMD processor. It’s a Ryzen 5 9600X, with six cores, 12 threads, a boost clock of 5.4 GHz, 32 MB of Level 3 cache, and sports a very low 65 W standard power limit. If you went out and bought this separately, you’d be looking at a $200 dollar price tag, so it forms a sizeable chunk of the bundle’s budget.
With only 12 threads to its name, it’s obviously not the best choice for compiling or compression/decompression tasks. But for pure gaming, it’s a great little chip, and it’s really only beaten by processors that are double in price and packing big dollops of 3D V-cache.
AMD no longer includes coolers with its CPUs, but Newegg’s got your back here, as it’s throwing in a free Cooler Master MasterLiquid 240L AIO liquid cooler. It’s nothing super-fancy, but it’ll handle the 9600X’s 65 W with ease. Just make sure it’s been added to the cart before you purchase the bundle.
Every good CPU needs a good motherboard, and you’re getting a very nice one here, a Gigabyte B850 Aorus Elite WiFi7 Ice. You can pick one of these up for around $210 at Amazon, and it’s a very pretty and well-specified motherboard.
Obviously, if you’re not looking to have a white build with your PC upgrade, then this bundle isn’t for you, but with three PCIe slots, three M.2 SSD sockets, and 12 USB ports on the rear IO panel, it’s got a lot to offer.
Lastly, there’s the all-important DRAM kit. Team Group’s T-Force set has the right speed that you want for an AM5 Ryzen (i.e. 6000 MT/s), though its timings are a little on the slow side (eg, CAS latency is 38 cycles). You won’t notice this so much in games, and if you’ve never used any other DDR5 kit, you won’t notice it at all.
You might be worried about the capacity, but don’t worry because 16 GB is actually fine for most gaming scenarios. Yes, some games will bounce hard off that amount, but those situations are relatively rare, and with luck, by the time it becomes a consistent problem, the DRAM crisis should be over.
Gaming performance
16 vs 32 GB system memory
| Product | Value |
|---|---|
| RTX 5070 – 32 GB system RAM | 38 Avg FPS, 27 1% Low FPS |
| RTX 5070 – 16 GB system RAM | 36 Avg FPS, 27 1% Low FPS |
Put all together, this CPU, motherboard, and DRAM kit bundle is a very nice upgrade for anyone who is currently using a gaming PC with a platform that’s, say, 7 years old. For example, if your processor is something like an Intel Core i5 9600, then you’ll notice a huge difference, even though it has the same number of cores as the Ryzen 5 9600X.
The Gigabyte motherboard supports every AM5-socket Ryzen processor, so when things start to eventually make sense in the PC component market, you’ll be able to upgrade this platform even further with a better CPU, more memory, or even a PCIe 5.0 SSD.
Let’s all hope we don’t have to wait too long for that to happen.
Best CPU for gaming 2026
