Micro Center is offering
Computer Build Combo: Intel Core i9-12900K Processor + MSI Z790-P Pro Motherboard + 32GB G.Skill Ripjaws S5 Memory on sale for
$400.28 (price shown in cart) when you add the items listed below. Select free store pickup where available.
Thanks to community member
BeigeRoad455 for finding this deal.
Note: All three items must be available for pickup at your local Micro Center to get this deal. Availability will vary by location.
Add each of the items listed below (sale price will be reflect in cart):
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Secondary Edit: Since people keep getting confused, and the rewritten post for frontpage fails to mention this, please be aware this is not the official microcenter 12900k bundle. This bundle is created by manually mixing and matching components from the two separate 12900k and 13700k microcenter bundles. The initial link in the rewritten frontpage post will take you to the 12900k product page instead of a bundle page, this is intentional. You must manually add the 12900k, the msi motherboard, and the ram to cart individually. The discounted price will then be visible when you have all three in cart.
This bundle is especially well suited for those building a midrange computer who would benefit from a cpu with strong multithreaded performance for non-gaming productivity workloads (photo/video editing, code compiling, cpu based 3d rendering, etc.) on a budget. It's also worth noting that the 12900k supports the current version of intel quicksync with two multi-format codec engines, which means it is a far more attractive option for those whose use cases involve video encoding/transcoding. The 12900k still remains an excellent option for gaming, but it's high power consumption and lack of platform longevity make it less appealing for those who don't require strong multithreaded performance. Still, at this price for the combo, it's arguably a meaningfully better value than the $380 7700x bundle for those with mixed uses cases (aka. those who aren't building a system only for gaming, basic office productivity, and basic web-surfing). The $380 version of this 12900k bundle has a substantially inferior motherboard, so the $20 premium is definitely worthwhile in my opinion.
The i9-12900k is a 12th gen alder lake sixteen core (8 performance + 8 efficiency cores) cpu on the lga1700 platform. While technically 3 generations old, intel 13th gen intel cpus only had minor architectural improvements, primarily additional L2 cache and a slightly better memory controller. Intel 14th gen saw entirely negligible architectural improvements. In most respects the i9-12900k is a somewhat slower and less power hungry i7-13700k. The 13700k has the same core configuration, higher clocks (with boosted power usage to match), and more L2 cache for better performance, particularly in gaming. The 12900k's gaming performance on average trades blows with the 7700x (being very slightly slower overall), and while not top tier is absolutely more than sufficient for use with all but the most expensive gpus. Where the 12900k solidly beats the 7700x is cpu intensive productivity workloads. On top of many productivity applications being better optimized for intel, the 12900k has far superior multithreaded performance compared to the 7700x, which is a huge advantage in certain types of heavily multithreaded workloads. Intel quicksync, as mentioned above, also makes the 12900k the obvious choice for any type of video encoding or transcoding. The 12900k is a very power hungry cpu, and isn't very power efficient. While not as power hungry as the 13700k and up, you will need a fairly beefy cooling solution, and depending on what gpu you pair it with you may need a more powerful psu. The 12900k in this bundle does not come with a cooler. Air cooling is technically possible, but you'll want a high performance dual tower air cooler if you don't want to get a 240mm or larger aio. I personally recommend the thermalright phantom spirit 120se (ps120se) for ~$35.
Here's the puget systems content creation review for intel 13th gen (the latest review including the 12900k): https://www.pugetsystem
And here's gamers nexus analysis of intel cpus power draw and efficiency: https://gamersnexus.net/cpus/inte...onsumpti
The motherboard's specs page can be found here: https://www.msi.com/Motherboard/P...cification
And the manual can be found here: https://download.msi.co
The motherboard in this bundle is solidly midrange, and uses the current gen high-end z790 chipset. It has a 14(55A)+1+1 vrm configuration, so it can handle a 14900k, let alone the far less power hungry 12900k in this bundle. This board has: 4 ram slots (supporting ddr5 7000+ 1DPC 1R), 3x PCI-E x16 slots (1x gen5 x16 primary, 1x gen 4 x4, 1x gen3 x1), 1x PCI-E x1 slot (gen3 x1), 4x m.2 2280 slots (all gen4 x4), 6 sata ports, intel 2.5gb lan, intel wifi 6e + bt 5.3, the low end realtek alc897 audio chip, a competent assortment of usb ports, debug leds, and bios flashback. Please refer to the specs sheet and manual I linked above for more detailed specs. As you can see, while it doesn't have all the absolute top end features that would be nice to have (such as a gen5 m.2 slot, higher end audio chip, 8-layer pcb, etc.), it is solidly midrange and should be more than sufficient for basically anyone looking at a bundle in this price range.
The ram in this bundle is good compared to most you'll find in bundles (including the ram that used to be included in microcenter bundles). While the better cas latency (cl32 instead of the more common cl36) shouldn't cause a major difference in performance under standard use, this ram kit uses hynix memory chips instead of samsung memory chips. Hynix memory chips are superior in just about every way, and all high end ddr5 kits (6000 cl32 and better) exclusively use hynix chips. The primary advantage of hynix memory kits is that they have far superior overclocking potential. If you're willing to manually overclock/tune your memory you can achieve an absolutely massive increase in performance compared to a similarly tuned samsung memory kit. Even if you don't intend to overclock or tune your ram beyond stock xmp settings, this ram will be slightly faster and likely more stable than the ram included in previous bundles.
Overall, this bundle is a good deal for those who in the near term would benefit from strong multithreaded performance and/or intel quicksync on a budget. While having worse power efficiency and no upgrade path on the dead-end lga 1700 platform are definitely downsides compared to the $380 7700x bundle, the massively superior multithreaded/productivity performance and similar gaming performance make this bundle a no-brainer for those whose use-cases fit. It should be noted that the $500 13700k bundle has the exact same motherboard and ram, so it's basically the same core configuration and less than 10% performance uplift for an additional $100, which is obviously not worth it. As mentioned previously, I personally wouldn't recommend the $380 12900k microcenter bundle, since a mere $20 premium gets you a much better motherboard.
However, by mixing and matching components from the 12900k bundle and the $500 13700k bundle, this deal that I've posted includes the msi z790-p pro motherboard. The msi z790-p pro motherboard is even better than the asus z790-p prime motherboard that was in the short lived but extremely popular iteration of this bundle that went frontpage 2 months ago.
In conclusion, this deal is simply a superior version of the prior several frontpage 12900k bundles at the same price, hence a good deal.
That suggests between 10M and 20M SDers live within 25 miles of a Microcenter. That is 20-30% of sders living within 25 miles of a microcenter. A minority? Yes. But hardly an insignificant number
(used chatgpt and brief searching, feel free to fact check)
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65 Comments
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If you need something now, this isn't terrible, but the power usage will eventually cost more than a more efficient chip.
No different than the plethora of YMMV clearance stuff.
These are truly slick deals for those that can leverage.
No different than the plethora of YMMV clearance stuff.
These are truly slick deals for those that can leverage.
That suggests between 10M and 20M SDers live within 25 miles of a Microcenter. That is 20-30% of sders living within 25 miles of a microcenter. A minority? Yes. But hardly an insignificant number
(used chatgpt and brief searching, feel free to fact check)
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https://www.microcenter
They have a black one for a few bucks more and a white one for a dollar more.
This bundle is especially well suited for those building a midrange computer who would benefit from a cpu with strong multithreaded performance for non-gaming productivity workloads (photo/video editing, code compiling, cpu based 3d rendering, etc.) on a budget. It's also worth noting that the 12900k supports the current version of intel quicksync with two multi-format codec engines, which means it is a far more attractive option for those whose use cases involve video encoding/transcoding. The 12900k still remains an excellent option for gaming, but it's high power consumption and lack of platform longevity make it less appealing for those who don't require strong multithreaded performance. Still, at this price for the combo, it's arguably a meaningfully better value than the $380 7700x bundle for those with mixed uses cases (aka. those who aren't building a system only for gaming, basic office productivity, and basic web-surfing). The $380 version of this 12900k bundle has a substantially inferior motherboard, so the $20 premium is definitely worthwhile in my opinion.
The i9-12900k is a 12th gen alder lake sixteen core (8 performance + 8 efficiency cores) cpu on the lga1700 platform. While technically 3 generations old, intel 13th gen intel cpus only had minor architectural improvements, primarily additional L2 cache and a slightly better memory controller. Intel 14th gen saw entirely negligible architectural improvements. In most respects the i9-12900k is a somewhat slower and less power hungry i7-13700k. The 13700k has the same core configuration, higher clocks (with boosted power usage to match), and more L2 cache for better performance, particularly in gaming. The 12900k's gaming performance on average trades blows with the 7700x (being very slightly slower overall), and while not top tier is absolutely more than sufficient for use with all but the most expensive gpus. Where the 12900k solidly beats the 7700x is cpu intensive productivity workloads. On top of many productivity applications being better optimized for intel, the 12900k has far superior multithreaded performance compared to the 7700x, which is a huge advantage in certain types of heavily multithreaded workloads. Intel quicksync, as mentioned above, also makes the 12900k the obvious choice for any type of video encoding or transcoding. The 12900k is a very power hungry cpu, and isn't very power efficient. While not as power hungry as the 13700k and up, you will need a fairly beefy cooling solution, and depending on what gpu you pair it with you may need a more powerful psu. The 12900k in this bundle does not come with a cooler. Air cooling is technically possible, but you'll want a high performance dual tower air cooler if you don't want to get a 240mm or larger aio. I personally recommend the thermalright phantom spirit 120se (ps120se) for ~$35.
Here's the puget systems content creation review for intel 13th gen (the latest review including the 12900k): https://www.pugetsystem
And here's gamers nexus analysis of intel cpus power draw and efficiency: https://gamersnexus.net/cpus/inte...onsumpti
The motherboard's specs page can be found here: https://www.msi.com/Motherboard/P...cification
And the manual can be found here: https://download.msi.co
The motherboard in this bundle is solidly midrange, and uses the current gen high-end z790 chipset. It has a 14(55A)+1+1 vrm configuration, so it can handle a 14900k, let alone the far less power hungry 12900k in this bundle. This board has: 4 ram slots (supporting ddr5 7000+ 1DPC 1R), 3x PCI-E x16 slots (1x gen5 x16 primary, 1x gen 4 x4, 1x gen3 x1), 1x PCI-E x1 slot (gen3 x1), 4x m.2 2280 slots (all gen4 x4), 6 sata ports, intel 2.5gb lan, intel wifi 6e + bt 5.3, the low end realtek alc897 audio chip, a competent assortment of usb ports, debug leds, and bios flashback. Please refer to the specs sheet and manual I linked above for more detailed specs. As you can see, while it doesn't have all the absolute top end features that would be nice to have (such as a gen5 m.2 slot, higher end audio chip, 8-layer pcb, etc.), it is solidly midrange and should be more than sufficient for basically anyone looking at a bundle in this price range.
The ram in this bundle is good compared to most you'll find in bundles (including the ram that used to be included in microcenter bundles). While the better cas latency (cl32 instead of the more common cl36) shouldn't cause a major difference in performance under standard use, this ram kit uses hynix memory chips instead of samsung memory chips. Hynix memory chips are superior in just about every way, and all high end ddr5 kits (6000 cl32 and better) exclusively use hynix chips. The primary advantage of hynix memory kits is that they have far superior overclocking potential. If you're willing to manually overclock/tune your memory you can achieve an absolutely massive increase in performance compared to a similarly tuned samsung memory kit. Even if you don't intend to overclock or tune your ram beyond stock xmp settings, this ram will be slightly faster and likely more stable than the ram included in previous bundles.
Overall, this bundle is a good deal for those who in the near term would benefit from strong multithreaded performance and/or intel quicksync on a budget. While having worse power efficiency and no upgrade path on the dead-end lga 1700 platform are definitely downsides compared to the $380 7700x bundle, the massively superior multithreaded/productivity performance and similar gaming performance make this bundle a no-brainer for those whose use-cases fit. It should be noted that the $500 13700k bundle has the exact same motherboard and ram, so it's basically the same core configuration and less than 10% performance uplift for an additional $100, which is obviously not worth it. As mentioned previously, I personally wouldn't recommend the $380 12900k microcenter bundle, since a mere $20 premium gets you a much better motherboard.
I've heard this memory is unreliable.
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