In brief: Intel's new Core i9-10900K is now available for preorder in the US, but as is usually the case for early adopters, being one of the first to own the chip comes at a high price.
Tom's Hardware reports that US retailer B&H Photo Video has listed the new CPU on its site as "coming soon." At the time of writing, it's available to preorder for $599.99, which is quite an increase over Intel's MSRP of $488.
A manufacturer suggested retail price is, of course, a recommendation for retailers. New processors often arrive at inflated prices, and the Core i9-10900K is no exception, but that's unlikely to put off consumers who have to be the first to own new tech.
That $600 price is higher than the launch price of its predecessor, the Core i9-9900K, which released for around $525.
Intel boasts that its 10th-gen Comet Lake flagship is "the world's fastest gaming processor." It features 10 cores/20 threads, an integrated GPU, and can reach 5.3 GHz using Intel Thermal Velocity Boost (TVB). One caveat is that the CPU's operating temperature needs to be lower than 70 degrees for TVB, so an adequate cooling solution is required. There's also native support for DDR4-2933 RAM modules, and 16 PCIe 3.0 lanes.
There is no indication on B&M's website of when the Core i9-10900K will be in stock, though it's expected to launch sometime this month.
If you intend to buy a Comet Lake-S desktop CPU, be prepared to pair it with a 400-series motherboard sporting the LGA1200 socket. And if you're an overclocker, you'll need a Z490 board such as ASRock's $1,100 Aqua. The good news is that you can insure some Comet Lake-S chips against overclocking damage through Intel's Performance Tuning Protection Plan, and your old LGA 115x cooler will work on the new mobos.