Building or upgrading a budget-friendly desktop? The Intel Core i3-12100 is a fantastic little chip. It's a 12th Gen Alder Lake processor with 4 solid cores and 8 threads – plenty of power for everyday tasks, office work, web browsing, and even some lighter gaming, especially when paired with a decent graphics card. It runs at a base speed of 3.3 GHz but can turbo boost up to 4.3 GHz when you need the extra speed. It's super efficient at just 60W, comes with 12MB of cache, and fits the modern LGA 1700 socket (so you'll need a compatible 600 or 700-series motherboard). It doesn't include integrated graphics, so you will need a separate video card. For the price, it delivers excellent performance and is a huge leap over older i3 models. A great value pick for a reliable home or office PC.
