High-end Micro Center bundle offers substantial savings on a 9950X starter kit
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If you’re one of the lucky few who live within a short range of a Micro Center store, there’s a top bundle deal waiting for you inside. In another one of its price-saving combinations, you can get a top gaming CPU, a set of DDR5 RAM, and a gaming motherboard at a decent discount on all three.
Of course, the limitation is its only available for pickup, so if you’re interested and live nearby, here’s what you can expect to receive in this set.
Bundle components
In the bundle, you can get yourself a top-of-the-range AMD Ryzen 9 9950X processor, MSI X670E MAG Tomahawk WiFi motherboard, and a set of G.Skill Flare X5 Series 32GB DDR5-6000 RAM. With a well-equipped start, you’ll want to pair it with a top-notch graphics card, power supply, and case to complete the setup.
CPU: AMD Ryzen 9 9950X
At the heart of the build is the 9950X processor, the flagship chip at the top of the Zen 5 range, only outpipped by the release of the X3D range. However, by itself, it makes up the majority of the pricing, with an MSRP of $649. Combined with the other two components, it offers a great value.
That’s if you need all the power behind it, as it provides 16 cores and 32 threads, an ideal option for some hard-hitting workloads with multithreading capabilities. Designed for more than just gaming, it requires some power to run, with a 170W TDP that can be boosted to 230W with the use of PPT.
In our review of the 9950X, we gave it a score of four out of five and a highly recommended rating. Even comparing it to the 9900X, there is a surprising uplift with the extra six cores on board the 50X version, as the benchmarks showcase big jumps in scores and performance in heavy workload processes.
Motherboard: MSI X670E MAG Tomahawk WiFi
On the other hand, the X670E motherboard may not be the latest AM5 generation available, but it certainly has more than enough features and speed for what this build requires. As the top-level chipset, it supports PCIe Gen 5 in both its storage and x16 slots.
This enables you to use the latest GPUs and fastest PCIe Gen 5 SSDs on the board without needing a more expensive and newer board. It even supports overclocking RAM above 6,400MHz if you decide to replace the one included in the bundle, along with top connectivity options such as WiFi 6E, fast Ethernet, and USB ports.
RAM: G.Skill Flare X5 Series 32GB DDR5-6000
When it comes to the memory on offer, the G.Skill Flare is nothing too special. It’s not the fastest available DDR5 as it overclocks to 6GHz, but it certainly is plenty for the build as even pushing higher speeds doesn’t gain that much more performance.
What matters is that the capacity is at 32GB, opting for a higher count beyond what is recommended by most games these days. It also provides a decent amount of resources for any workloads you want to load onto your machine, whether for multitasking or high-end processes like rendering.
Bundle price and savings
Currently, the bundle is available with a $179 savings, reducing the total price from $879 to just under $700, providing you with a high-end start to your hardware journey and a substantial amount of money to spend on the rest of your hardware. Plenty enough for a plentiful power supply, but not quite enough for a decent GPU, you’ll have to splash out a bit more for one of those.
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