Rumors are flying left and right as the release of Intel's 12th Generation of processors, Intel Alder Lake, draws closer. No official release date has been confirmed as of yet, but MSI made an announcement today that strongly points to a November 4 launch.
MSI released a form enabling users to apply for free upgrade kits for their Coreliquid CPU coolers. The DIY kit is a mounting upgrade to fit the cooler in order to match the upcoming Intel LGA1700 socket. Although MSI didn't mention a specific release date for either the CPU or the kits themselves, the application process is only going to be open starting from November 4.
Once Alder Lake hits the shelves, there will be at least three new processors available at launch: the Core i9-12900K, Core i7-12700K, and Core 15-12600K. We can also expect to see KF-series CPUs launching on the same date or soon after. Those processors don't feature integrated Intel Xe graphics as the K-series CPUs do.
According to rumors and early benchmarks, Intel Core i9-12900K is going to offer a 5 GHz all-core boost clock with a 3.70 GHz base. This is combined with a mix of 8 P-Cores/8 E-Cores and 24 threads. The other units vary in terms of specifications, but all of them have a TDP of 125W.
Intel Alder Lake-S processors will also require brand new Z690 motherboards with the upcoming LGA1700 socket. While the release date of those motherboards remains unknown, it's pretty safe to assume they'll be available by the time the market can get its hands on Alder Lake.
Previous rumors pointed to a November 19 release date for Intel's next generation of processors. It's possible that this was just a wrong prediction, but it's equally likely that Intel decided to speed up the release date and move it to the 4th. However, it's important to remember that any rumors are to be taken with a grain of salt, and we're unlikely to hear a word from Intel until the Intel Innovation event on October 27-28.
