It looks like the motherboard will support  1st, 2nd, and 3rd Generation Ryzen CPUs out of the box.

It could support 4000 and 5000 series, if it had the relevant bios update. Do you know if it did have that bios update?

I dont have an am4 cpu for you, just making sure you are cooking for something that will work for your situation.

Have a 3900X that will be replaced around 10 August if you still need one by then.

Hi, yes the motherboard has had a bios update. Would something like this be a good solution? It’s about his max budget. Thanks https://www.pbtech.co.nz/product/CPUAMD05500/AMD-Ryzen-5-5500-CPU-6-Core--12-Thread---Max-Boost

Jasonp:

 

Hi, yes the motherboard has had a bios update. Would something like this be a good solution? It’s about his max budget. Thanks https://www.pbtech.co.nz/product/CPUAMD05500/AMD-Ryzen-5-5500-CPU-6-Core--12-Thread---Max-Boost

 

If your son does any gaming, I wouldn't go for the 5500.
If you need something semi urgently and if no one on the board has anything lying around, you could go for something on alliexpress. 
 
3600 is about the same performance of the 5500 for 'work' tasks, but has more cache, so better for gaming. 
These are 2nd hand CPU's, where people have taken old pc's and stripped reusable parts.
https://vi.aliexpress.com/item/1005008248178170.html#nav-review

Mind you, If you can wait a bit, you might bump into someone who has something a lot better/cheaper.

In the past week a model 3700X for about $50 on the board.

If it is gaming I would get neither unless very cheap and save at least for a 5600(x). 3000 series has a multi ccx design which is not great as it relies on high speed memory & infinity fabric. 5500 is hobbled by half cache. Essentially tied for performance.

5600x is full 6 core single ccx, 3600 is 3+3 anything over 6 threads will hit the infinity fabric. Same deal with the 3700x which is 4+4.

Thanks for the replies, yes he is a gamer. Something like this would be ideal? AliExpress:| AMD Ryzen 5 5600X Processor 4.6GHz 6-Core 12-Thread 35MB Game Cache 7NM TDP 65W Socket AM4 Desktop CPU for PC Gamer
https://a.aliexpress.com/_mOg29EF

currently $158 NZ

cheers

Jasonp:

 

Thanks for the replies, yes he is a gamer. Something like this would be ideal? AliExpress:| AMD Ryzen 5 5600X Processor 4.6GHz 6-Core 12-Thread 35MB Game Cache 7NM TDP 65W Socket AM4 Desktop CPU for PC Gamer
https://a.aliexpress.com/_mOg29EF

 

currently $158 NZ

 

cheers

 

Something like that would be all around good, if you have a little more budget, you could go a tier higher, which has 2 more cores and should keep the system going if newer games start to be more multicore.  

https://vi.aliexpress.com/item/1005007812260733.html

I see the winter sale ends within 8 hours, so you might want to pull the trigger on alliexpress soon, if there isn't someone on the board that has something lying in a box.