If you’re in the market for a new gaming processor, you may want to think twice before picking up Intel’s recently listed Core i5-110. Despite its modern-looking name, this chip is actually built on Comet Lake architecture, the same tech that powered Intel’s 10th-gen CPUs from 2020. That means you’re essentially paying 2025 money for a five-year-old design.
What’s Wrong With the i5-110?
On the surface, the i5-110 looks like a budget-friendly CPU at $200. However, it comes with a number of limitations that make it a poor choice for gaming rigs:
- Uses LGA1200 socket – outdated and no longer supported on modern boards.
- Limited to PCIe 3.0, so you miss out on faster PCIe 4.0 and 5.0 speeds for GPUs and SSDs.
- Six cores, twelve threads – identical to the older Core i5-10400.
- Base clock of 2.9GHz and a boost clock of 4.3GHz, lower than the five-year-old i5-10600K (4.8GHz boost).
Who Is This CPU For?
At best, the i5-110 might serve as a drop-in upgrade for people still running very old LGA1200 systems with entry-level CPUs like a Pentium or early Core i3. With a 65W TDP, it runs fairly cool and won’t require expensive cooling solutions. But outside of this niche use case, it’s not worth considering.
Why You Should Avoid It for Gaming
For modern gamers, the i5-110 is a bad investment. The architecture is outdated, motherboard support is limited, and performance lags behind chips released half a decade ago. Worse still, you could build a much more capable gaming PC today with a budget AMD Ryzen 5 or Intel’s newer Meteor Lake / Arrow Lake processors for a similar price.
Final Verdict
While the Intel Core i5-110 carries a shiny new model number, don’t be fooled—it’s basically a Core i5-10400 rebrand. If you already own a 10th-gen Intel system, you won’t gain anything by upgrading. For everyone else, avoid this chip entirely and look toward more current CPUs that support modern features like PCIe 5.0 and DDR5 memory.