Was considering Ryzen but when this CPU dropped I picked it up and it is definitely a fantastic CPU if you do not need overclocking

Great core for a mid range build can run most games with a breeze

I needed HDMI 2.1 without a graphics card for my HTPC and a reasonably low power draw, gen 12 gives me that.

I bought this as it has double the gpu power of the 12400 for my NAS, perfect for transcoding and more than enough cores for all my applications.

I bought the i5 12500 for my new PC. It really fits in that 'performance at an affordable price' range that Intel seems to nail with their 12th gen i5 chips. The stock cooler is a little bit weak, with the CPU reaching 60 degrees C under full load. While this CPU can boost all the way up to 4.6 GHz, you will only see this on single-thread workloads. At 100% CPU with a multi-threaded workload, my personal experience is the chip will hit 4.08 GHz and stay there reliably. Overall I'm pretty happy with the i5 12500, and it serves my gaming and workload needs just fine.