Rebadged Alder Lake CPU is priced higher than the new Arrow Lake chip in retailer listing — Core 5 120 and Core 5 120F listed for $246 and $216

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Core Ultra 5 225 currently sells for $211.

Intel Core
(Image credit: Intel)

Prices for Intel's upcoming Core 5 120 and Core 5 120F have cropped up, and they look very underwhelming. Discovered by momomo_us on X, Bottom Line Telecommunications, Inc. has listed the Core 5 120 and 120F on its website for $246.01 and $216.66, respectively. These could be placeholders, though, so treat the pricing with caution.

If you're familiar with these CPUs, you'll know that those prices are very high considering the performance they offer. The Core 5 120 series is based on Intel's three-generation-old Alder Lake architecture, with specs barely any better than Intel's cheapest Alder Lake Core i5 desktop chip, the Core i5-12400.

At a price approaching $250, the vanilla Core 5 120 is significantly more expensive than most of Intel's newer Core i5 counterparts, including K-series variants. The Core i5-14600K is priced at $195 on Newegg, while the Core i5-14400 is available for $176 on the same platform.

The cherry on top is that the Core 5 120's price exceeds that of Intel's cheapest Arrow Lake-S CPU to date, the Core Ultra 5 225, priced at $211 on Newegg. The aforementioned pricing was recorded at the time of writing.

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Core 5 120 series pricing vs. outgoing Intel Core i5/Ultra 5 pricing at Newegg (at time of writing)

Core 5 120

$246

Core 5 120F

$217

Core Ultra 5 245K

$270 at Newegg

Core Ultra 5 235

$265 at Newegg

Core Ultra 5 225

$211 at Newegg

Core Ultra 5 225F

$189 at Newegg

Core i5 14600K

$195 at Newegg

Core i5-14400

$176 at Newegg

Core i5-13400F

$130 at Newegg

Core i5-12400F

$108 at Newegg

The Core 5 120F doesn't fare any better, even with its $30 discount. Its original twin, the Core i5-12400F, is still on sale for just $108.99 on Newegg.

Sky-high pricing for newly released refreshed CPUs is nothing new; we've seen AMD do similar things with its Ryzen 3000XT and Ryzen 5000XT refreshes. We can expect the Core 5 120 series to drop in price over time, assuming nobody buys these chips.

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Aaron Klotz
Aaron Klotz
Contributing Writer

Aaron Klotz is a contributing writer for Tom’s Hardware, covering news related to computer hardware such as CPUs, and graphics cards.

5 Comments Comment from the forums
  • usertests
    The market will sort that one out.

    Arrow Lake's efficiency and improved iGPU makes it more interesting in the long run. Chips like that can last forever handling lighter duties.
    Reply
  • bit_user
    The article said:
    The Core i5-1200 5 Processor 120 features six P-cores (no E-cores), a 65W power rating, 18MB of L3 cache, a 2.5 GHz base clock, and a 4.5 GHz boost clock.
    ...
    At a price approaching $250, the vanilla Core 5 120 is significantly more expensive than most of Intel's newer Core i5 counterparts, including K-series variants.
    Yeah, anyone who wants the Core 5 120 should really just get an old Core i5-12600, instead. You can find them for about the same price, but they have a higher base and boost clock.

    Specs:
    https://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/products/sku/96149/intel-core-i512600-processor-18m-cache-up-to-4-80-ghz/specifications.html?wapkw=i5-12600
    Comparison:
    https://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/products/compare.html?productIds=96149,245112
    And while that comparison doesn't say the i5-12600 has DL Boost, I can tell you that it definitely does. They simply must've neglected to go back and update the old database entries, when they added that field.

    I also hadn't noticed the new model has a cut back iGPU and media engine. Wow, that's really quite a ripoff.
    Reply
  • dimar
    is it coming to 700 chipset or 800 platform? why is this not mentioned?????
    Reply
  • bit_user
    dimar said:
    is it coming to 700 chipset or 800 platform? why is this not mentioned?????
    It's LGA1700. It will work on all of the same boards that supported Gen 12 - Gen 14 desktop CPUs. That means 600- and 700- series chipsets
    Reply
  • dimar
    bit_user said:
    It's LGA1700. It will work on all of the same boards that supported Gen 12 - Gen 14 desktop CPUs. That means 600- and 700- series chipsets
    Might as well go back to Core 1st gen and higher and make a cheap CPU with PTT for those platforms to support Windows 11, so good working PCs don't go to trash.
    Reply