Intel Core i9-12900 for under US$530 and i5-12400 for less than US$210 as Alder Lake price leak shows Team Blue means business

Prices for various Alder Lake chips have purportedly been accidentally leaked by Best Buy. While the product pages for these SKUs are no longer publicly visible, they were captured and shared by leaker @momomo_us (via VideoCardz). It appears Intel has gone with an aggressive pricing strategy for the mainstream and entry-level hybrid chips, with prices starting at US$59.99 for a Pentium G6900 (2P+2E/4T) and going up to US$529.99 for the 5.1 GHz clock-rate-capable i9-12900 (8P+8E/24T).

A top-end variant of the Alder Lake series, in the form of the i9-12900F (no iGPU), can be had for US$509.99. Another record for the i9-12900 shows a price of US$359.99; however, before PC builders prepare to make a rapid purchase of that SKU, it is clearly a data entry error as the model number reveals this is for the mid-range i5-12700. The i5-12700F is listed at US$329.99 while additional “i9-12900” records reveal prices of US$239.99 and US$219.99 for the i5-12600 and i5-12500, respectively.

Heading up the cheap and cheerful section are the i5-12400 and i5-12400F, which must be seen as very attractive options for DIYers at US$209.99 and US$179.99, respectively. Both of these workhorse chips come with 6 performance (P) cores, 0 efficient (E) cores, and 12 threads. The i3-12100 is listed at US$139.99, the i3-12100F at a bargain US$109.99, and the two Pentium chips, the G7400 and G6900, come in at the sub-US$100 prices of US$79.99 and US$59.99, respectively. Team Blue is expected to launch these Alder Lake-S chips on January 5, 2022.

Buy the Intel Core i9-12900K on Amazon