Intel hasn't confirmed the release date for its first Alder Lake processors, but we have had some pretty strong hints, teasers and leaks over recent weeks. The weight of the unofficial information points to a launch in late October, with availability in November. The initial salvo from Intel is expected to be aimed squarely at enthusiasts and thus the following unlocked trio will be among the first out of the gate; Intel Core i9-12900K, Core i7-12700K, and Core i5-12600K (plus iGPU-less KF variants). Suitable high-end gamer and enthusiasts motherboards will debut too, with Intel Z690 chipset boards form all the majors hoping to show the potential of Intel's latest and greatest CPUs for desktop PCs. Other ADL-S CPUs and motherboards are expected in early 2022.
Several CPU cooler makers have announced (free) upgrade kits to enable their modern socket supporting products to be re-tasked to cool-down an ADL-S processor (Noctua, Arctic, and Enermax, for example) . The LGA 1700 chips are physically bigger, to squeeze in all the extra pins/pads, but a recent image leak shows that the socket fixing apparatus has been redesigned so that it doesn't eat away any more PCB space.
MSI has decided to join in with its own LGA 1700 upgrade kit announcements, but might have made a bit of a mistake. On a page crowing about its MAG CoreLiquid R and MPG CoreLiquid K Series upgrade kits being available for ADL-S "free-of-charge", MSI shared the free event period being from 4th Nov 2021 to 30th April 2022.
VideoCardz has indulged in a bit of detective work around the date of 4th Nov and found out from its sources that 4th Nov is the "sales and review embargo," for the first ADL-S chips. The WCCFTech editor commented on the VC story, saying that pre-orders for ADL-S go live a week earlier, at the Intel Innovation event. Moreover, 27th October will be when we see an outline of the actual SKUs being launched.
