Update: Microcenter has essentially stopped this deal, but it is still being made to look like a $70 discount. However, it still looks like $70 off. With both components priced at $599 and available everywhere else at the regular price, you no longer have to bother with Microcenter's non-offer.

Original Article Maybe affordable PC gaming is back on the menu after all, and Microcenter's latest bundle offer includes Intel's excellent Core i5 12600K and an Intel Arc A770 16GB graphics card . The two together will set you back just $508 (opens in new tab).

Microcenter's view is that the Core i5 12600K can be purchased for $228. This is actually a decent buy considering that this chip is much cheaper than it was when it was first released (about $280-$300) and has since dropped in price. This is a 10-core chip, but it is built on a hybrid Alder Lake architecture, so it contains both six performance cores and four efficient cores.

In my review of the Intel Core i5 12600K (opens in new tab), I said of this chip: "The Core i5 12600K is a bargain. With a moderately priced Z690 motherboard, it could be a bargain for a gaming PC. A PC that can deliver high-end frame rates with the right graphics card, this is a proper high-end chip masquerading as a mid-range hero, and it does a great job."

Then there is the Intel Arc A770 16GB (opens in new tab) One of the first graphics cards to come out of Intel's new GPU works, this particular card represents the best of the Alchemist generation. Intel's only problem was its effectively accessing all of them was to get the driver package for Arc, which was initially quite weak, but has steadily improved over the past few months. The performance offered now rivals that of AMD and Nvidia (open in new tab), but is often much more affordable than the latter. [In terms of 1080p performance, the Arc A770 is sometimes the card to beat from the more entry-level cards currently offered. That said, AMD's RX 6600 XT and RX 6650 XT are very competitive in many games; at 1440p, the same holds true, but Intel cards with 16GB of memory have the advantage.

Intel's Alchemist GPU performs surprisingly well with ray tracing enabled, but turning it on is not recommended if you are looking for performance in more demanding games.

With this deal, Intel's Arc A770 16GB is only slightly more expensive than the ASRock A770 8GB (open in new tab), which sells for $270 at Newegg; double the memory for $10 is not to be passed up, and the Arc A770 16GB is only $399 (open in new tab).

Other parts needed for a functional PC in this build include a motherboard (600 or 700 series chipset), two sticks of RAM (DDR5 or DDR4 depending on which motherboard you choose), some kind of storage (perhaps an inexpensive SSD) (new tab), a CPU cooler (not included with this boxed Core i5 12600K), and a power supply, but a minimum of 550W should be sufficient. You also need a decent chassis to mount everything in, but you can get a fairly inexpensive one (opens in new tab) if you need it.