Micro Center Stores: Intel i5-12600KF + MSI Z790-P Pro WiFi + 16GB G.Skill DDR4 3200 Expired

Amazing deal if you don't mind the high power consumption.

150W TDP made me pause, too.

Keep in mind that the processor is the KF variant which means there is no integrated graphics, you will need a GPU to display any output from your computer

At $250 this is a good deal for those on an extremely tight budget looking to build a new system. Those with a higher budget would be best served purchasing the $400 7700x bundle, which not only has far superior performance but also provides a meaningful upgrade path.

The i5-12600kf is a 12th gen alder lake lower-midrange processor without integrated graphics. It has 6 performance cores and 4 efficiency cores. While technically 3 generations old, intel 13th gen intel cpus only had minor architectural improvements, primarily additional L2 cache for p-cores, and intel 14th gen saw entirely negligible architectural improvements. The lack of an igpu means that you will need a dedicated gpu for display output. It also means that this cpu lacks intel quicksync, so this cpu should be avoided by those who have use cases involving video encoding/transcoding. The 12600kf is clocked a fair bit slower than newer and higher end parts, so it's performance is a fair bit worse. On the flip side, this means that it is far less power hungry. The i5-12600kf performs rather similarly to amd's last gen 5800x in most situations (when using ddr4 memory), being a bit worse but trading blows overall. It has moderately higher power consumption compared to the 5800x, but is extremely tame in comparison to the 12900k, let alone the monstrosities that are the 13900k and beyond. Air cooling the 12600kf shouldn't be an issue, even with a moderate overclock.

The inclusion of the MSI Z790-P Pro WiFi D4 in this bundle is rather confusing to me, though this particular board in general is baffling. It has most of the nicer features you'd expect of a high quality midrange z790 board, while only supporting ddr4 ram. In fact, in virtually every aspect except for the memory generation it supports, this board is much higher end than it should be for a bundle of this price. This board has: the current gen higher end z790 chipset, a 14+1+1 55A vrm, three pcie x16 slots (1x gen 5.0 x16 primary slot, 1x gen 4.0 x4, 1x gen 3.0 x1), one pcie x1 slot (gen 3.0 x1), four pcie gen4 x4 m.2 slots, six sata ports, intel 2.5gb lan, intel wifi 6e + bluetooth 5.3, a competent assortment of usb (including usb-c 3.2 gen 2), four debug led, and bios flashback. While it doesn't have a gen5 m.2 slot, and the audio solution is the standard cheap realtek ALC897 chip, if this motherboard supported ddr5 ram it would cost $200 at minimum. It's completely overkill for a bundle that costs $250, and could realistically support a much more power hungry cpu, potentially even a 14900k. The fact that msi decided to release this as a current gen ddr4 board just baffles me. Here's the official specs page: https://www.msi.com/Motherboard/P...cification
And here's the manual: https://download.msi.com/archive/...FIDDR4.pdf

The G.Skill Ripjaws V 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR4-3200 CL16 ram kit is of decent quality, and should be perfectly suitable to be paired with a bundle of this price. The primary xmp timings are 16-18-18-38. The modules have a height of 42mm, so there shouldn't be an issue with cooler clearance. This ram kit is on the QVL list for the z790-p pro motherboard included in this bundle.

Overall, this bundle provides a good value to those who need a very cheap system. The lack of a meaningful upgrade path, lack of ddr5 support, and all around last gen performance are definitely major downsides, but at $250 that's far less of a concern.

Is this a chatgpt summary? Or a real human?