With AMD's Ryzen 3, the Zen architecture has trickled down into the entry-level market. Lacking SMT, the affordable CPUs did fairly well in our tests regardless, and are most certainly a viable alternative and worthy of a recommendation for entry-level systems.
https://www.notebookcheck.net/Ryzen-3-Review-1200-and-1300X-for-Desktop-PCs.262782.0.html