Psst, one of Intel’s low-key best gaming CPUs is down to £108 for Amazon Spring Deal Days

While there are minor thrills to be had finding the very latest PC hardware in the Amazon Spring Deal Days sale, don’t underestimate the draw of an older favourite emerging with a new, knockdown price. So it is with the Intel Core i5-12400F: this was a great-value midranger when it was new, and now you get it at a true budget-tier price of £108.

Why make your next CPU upgrade a chip that’s just over two years old? To be frank, it’s largely down to how the newer 13th and 14th gen Intel processors aren’t that great. Or, to be more specific, they don’t really make significant performance improvements over the 12th gen Alder Lake family, which includes this Core i5-12400F. A chip which, when I tested it back in 2022, could already give its higher-end siblings a run for their multithreaded money. It’s still relevant in terms of features, too, with support for DDR5 memory and PCIe 5.0 SSDs.

UK deals:

Intel Core i5-12400F - £108 (was £203)

There’s the distinct possibility that Arrow Lake, Intel’s 15th gen range, will right some wrongs and deliver a true upgrade in gaming power. But those CPUs probably won’t start releasing until the tail end of 2024, with the more budget-friendly processors likely to arrive later still. Here and now, the Core i5-12400F is a proven, worthy contender for thrifty PC builds, and at this price it's hard to do better.