Today is a big day for Intel, at least potentially. It all depends on how DIY system builders react to the company's first round of Core-X series processors, which are now available to preorder starting at around $250.
There aren't any surprises here—Intel had given a heads up to preorder availability last week. It also provided some details during a presentation at E3, and everything looks to be just as Intel promised.
Here are the processors that are available to preorder:
- Core i5-7640X: 4C/4T, 4GHz-4.2GHz, 6MB cache, 16 PCIe lanes—$250
- Core i7-7740X: 4C/8T, 4.3GHz-4.5GHz, 8MB cache, 16 PCIe lanes—$350
- Core i7-7800X: 6C/12T, 3.5GHz-4GHz, 8.25MB cache, 28 PCIe lanes—$390
- Core i7-7820K: 8C/16T, 3.6GHz-4.3GHz, 11MB cache, 28 PCIe lanes—$600
- Core i9-7900X: 10C/20T, 3.3GHz-4.5GHz, 13.73MB cache, 44 PCIe lanes—$1,000
The Core i5-7640X and Core i7-7740X are both Kaby Lake-X CPUs, and the other three are based on Intel's Skylake-X architecture. Beyond more cores and threads, one of the advantages that Skylake-X introduces is having more PCIe 3.0 lanes to play. That said, Intel's decision to open up 44 PCIe lanes only on its $1,000 Core i9-7900X is frustrating. It could also cause DIY system builders to wait for AMD's Threadripper CPUs, all of which will offer 60 PCIe lanes.
Newegg lists all of the above processors as being available June 27. Then in August, Intel says it will begin shipping its 12-core Core i9-7920X, followed by availability of its 14-core Core i9-7940X, 16-core Core i9-7960X, and 18-core Core i9-7980XE processors in October. These will cost between $1,200 and $2,000.
We will have some benchmarks to share soon. In the meantime, you can browse and/or preorder Intel's first-run Core-X series here.
