Posts Tagged Under: Intel


AMD Ryzen vs. Intel Coffee Lake: Full System Comparison

A Ryzen CPU and an Intel CPU. Which system is a better value if we compare the full PC?

In the past few months, we have written comparison after comparison of AMD’s very successful Ryzen CPU series to Intel’s ultra-fast 8th generation Coffee Lake chips. (For a quick recap, here are a few: Ryzen 7 1700 vs Core i7-7700K and vs Core i7-8700K, Ryzen 5 1600 vs Core i5-7600K and vs Core i5-8600K.)

These processors are often comparable in terms of price and performance, but building a complete PC is a different story. In this article I will show the differences between two comparable Intel and AMD Ryzen systems, based on the i7-8700K and Ryzen 7 1700 respectively.

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Christmas 2017 PC Hardware Buying Guide: What to Know

The Founder’s Edition GTX 1080 Ti

Christmas is just around the corner, and incredible sales are undoubtedly coming. If you haven’t been following the PC building scene for the past year or two, then some things may seem daunting at first. For instance: What’s up with crazy high RAM prices? And why are some CPUs and graphics cards out of stock?

If you’re planning to build a new PC this Christmas, then there are some important things to know about. Consider this your Christmas 2017 PC hardware shopping guide.

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Logical Increments Intel Coffee Lake Update

In early October, Intel launched its new Coffee Lake lineup of CPUs. In many ways, it’s a very exciting launch, with the entire range of CPUs receiving a core count upgrade for the first time since 2009.

However, the launch has also been plagued with some issues. Namely, availability has been extremely limited, with the most desirable CPUs selling out faster than most people can snag them.

As a result, we have been intentionally slow to add the new CPUs to the main computer parts list on our homepage. We don’t like recommended hardware that people cannot reliably buy.

That said, we are past due for addressing Coffee Lake, so this post should fully inform you of our thinking. Read all the gory analysis below:

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Building a PC with the Intel i7-8700 and i7-8700K

Like the other new 8th Generation CPUs from Intel, the i7 CPUs have proven extremely popular, continuously selling out as soon as they come in stock. The i7-8700 and i7-8700K are a jump up to 6 core/12 thread chips, which represents a significant improvement over the previous generation’s 4 cores and 8 threads.

That jump in core count means major improvements to performance, which means new possibilities the workloads we can expect from a new PC build. If you can manage to find one of these new i7 chips your local store or online, let’s have a look at what you’ll be able to build with them.

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Intel Core i3-8350K vs. i5-8400 vs. Ryzen 5 1500X

Intel’s Coffee Lake CPU stack

Intel’s new Coffee Lake processors have been very competitive with AMD’s Ryzen, as we previously pointed out in our i7-8700K and i5-8600K comparisons against the competition.

Finally, we turn our attention to the 4-core 4-thread i3 line. In this article, I’ll be comparing what we know about the i3-8350K against AMD’s price equivalent, the Ryzen 5 1500X. Intel’s segmentation has gone quite out of hand though, and the 6-core 6-thread i5-8400 falls into the same price category, costing only around $10 more than the 8350K and 1500X.

So, how do these sub-$200 processors compare in gaming and some light productivity work?

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Building a PC with the Intel i5-8600K and i5-8400

The new 8th Generation Intel CPUs have launched with much-appreciated increases in core count. The new i5-8400 and i5-8600K both upgrading to 6 cores, from the previous generation’s 4. The upgrade has proven quite popular, as the CPUs are currently selling out everywhere. Let’s see what kind of PC you’ll be able to build with these chips, assuming you’re able to get your hands on one!

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Intel Core i5-8600K vs Ryzen 5 1600 vs Ryzen 7 1700 vs. i5-7600K

The Intel Coffee Lake Core i5-8600K

With this month’s Coffee Lake release, Intel finally decided to increase the amount of CPU cores they offer to mainstream consumers. The company’s newest Core i5 CPU, the i5-8600K has been upgraded to 6 cores from last generation’s 4-core i5-7600K. In theory, that should mean significantly better multithreaded performance in addition to Intel’s typical single-threaded dominance. But how does the 8600K compare to the previous generation, as well as the price-equivalent chips from AMD?

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What is Hyper-Threading and Simultaneous MultiThreading?

With the newly released 8th Generation CPUs from Intel, one feature has gone missing from the Core i3 models: Hyper-Threading (HT). For example, the new Intel i3-8100 features 4 physical cores and 4 threads, whereas the previous generation’s i3-7100 featured 2 physical cores and 4 threads.

What is Hyper-Threading, and is it any different from AMDs Simultaneous Multi-Threading?

What is the difference between having a 2-core Hyper-Threaded CPU or a 4-core CPU without Hyper-Threading?

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Building a PC with the Intel Core i3-8100 and i3-8350K

Competition is great. If you can, think back to a year ago. AMD’s CPU selection consisted of several outdated options, and Intel were happy issuing small incremental improvements over the previous generation. What a difference a year makes! Like them or hate them, AMD has massively shifted the market with the release of the Ryzen architecture. That’s what brings us to today and the launch of the brand new 8000 series Coffee Lake processors from Intel — the biggest upgrade to the Intel lineup in years.

This article looks at the new Core i3 CPUs, which are lower-midrange chips still very capable of great performance for the price. What sort of PC should you build with the i3-8100 or i3-8350K? Read on to find out.

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