What is it?
The Central Processing Unit (CPU) acts as the brain of the computer. It executes instructions from programs on the computer. It tells other parts of the computer what they need to do when certain actions are performed. When you click on a program, the CPU will fetch the program and its instructions, it will decode these instructions, carry them out and tell other devices what they need to do such as telling the GPU to render the graphics.
Popular brands and their prices
When it comes to CPU brands, there are two main brands and many little known brands that often make CPUs for specialized purposes. The two brands that dominate the market are:
Clearly there is a huge price range. How much you spend comes down to what you are intending to use your PC for. If you are just browsing the web, you can get away with an extremely cheap CPU. On the other hand if you are trying to play newer games, do 3 rendering or have multiple programs open at the same time, you may want to invest in a higher end CPU.
Other things to consider
The biggest thing to consider when picking a CPU is motherboard compatibility. Some
motherboards only take intel chips while others only take AMD chips. Motherboards that only take AMD chips will
either be AM4 or AM5. AM4 chips have the pins on the CPU (like the one shown to the left) whereas AM5 chips are
completely flat and all the pins are on the motherboard. AM5 chips will not fit into an AM4 socket and vice
versa.
Another thing to consider is thread and core count. Cores are like workers in a factory. Each core can do one
job.
Having more cores is like hiring more workers so more tasks get done. Threads are as if each worker learns to
multitask. Threads allow cores to handle more tasks at a time. Having more threads per core allows the CPU to
handle tasks more efficiently and run faster.