Intel Pentium Gold G5500

The Intel Pentium Gold G5500 brings 2 cores and 4 threads. It drops into the LGA1151 socket with a 54W TDP — about 27W per core. Integrated Intel UHD Graphics 630 graphics let it run headless-GPU builds and troubleshooting. 4MB of L3 cache helps in cache-sensitive games and workloads. Clocks span 3.8GHz base to 3.8GHz boost.

Confirm motherboard socket compatibility before anything else, then size the cooler to the TDP. At $128.70 it sits in the budget processor bracket. Use the PlanMyPC system builder to verify it works alongside your other components and to watch live retailer pricing. Intel backs the product through its standard warranty channels; check the listing for region-specific terms.