Intel, in addition to their high-performance notebook lineup, is also launching new mainstream 8th Generation desktop processors which are designed around the latest 300-series chipsets. The new lineup is aiming the more budget and entry tier market with solutions that are both affordable and performance ready.
Intel Brings More Mainstream 8th Gen CPUs and Cheaper 300-Series Platforms To The Desktop Market
We know most of what's releasing today since a long time since leaks started happening just after the first Coffee Lake-S processors were announced. The latest entrants to this segment include a range of budget tier Coffee Lake-S processors, Ultra Low TDP CPUs for desktops and the new 300 series chipset based motherboards which includes H370, H110, Q370 and B360 products.
Intel's New Additions To The Coffee Lake Desktop Family - CPU Specifications and Prices
The first SKU is the Core i5-8600 which will be priced $213 US while the Core i5-8500 will be priced $192 US. Moving on, we have the Core i3-8300 which will be priced at $138 US while the Pentium series includes the Gold G5600 for $86 US, Gold G5500 for $75 US, Gold G5400 for $64 US. All Pentium Gold offerings will be dual core and quad threaded chips which was something previously kept exclusive to the Core i3 lineup.
The Celeron parts will include two SKUs that include G4920 for $52 US and G4900 for $42 US. Both of these variants will be based on a dual core design with no multi-threading onboard. Details for these processors such as specifications are listed in the table below:
Intel Coffee Lake-S Desktop CPUs:
| CPU Name | Intel Celeron G4900 | Intel Celeron G4920 | Intel Pentium Gold G5400 | Intel Pentium Gold G5500 | Intel Pentium Gold G5600 | Intel Core i3-8300 | Intel Core i5-8500 | Intel Core i5-8600 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| CPU Family | Coffee Lake-S | Coffee Lake-S | Coffee Lake-S | Coffee Lake-S | Coffee Lake-S | Coffee Lake-S | Coffee Lake-S | Coffee Lake-S |
| Platform | Desktop LGA 1151 | Desktop LGA 1151 | Desktop LGA 1151 | Desktop LGA 1151 | Desktop LGA 1151 | Desktop LGA 1151 | Desktop LGA 1151 | Desktop LGA 1151 |
| CPU Cores | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 4 | 6 | 6 |
| CPU Threads | 2 | 2 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 6 | 6 |
| Base Clock | 3.1 GHz | 3.2 GHz | 3.7 GHz | 3.8 GHz | 3.9 GHz | 3.7 GHz | 3.0 GHz | 3.1 GHz |
| Boost Clock | N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A | 4.1 GHz | 4.3 GHz |
| L3 Cache | 2 MB | 2 MB | 4 MB | 4 MB | 4 MB | 8 MB | 9 MB | 9 MB |
| Graphics | Intel UHD 610 | Intel UHD 610 | Intel UHD 610 | Intel UHD 610 | Intel UHD 630 | Intel UHD 630 | Intel UHD 630 | Intel UHD 630 |
| TDP | 51W | 51W | 51W | 51W | 51W | 62W | 65W | 65W |
| Price | $42 US | $52 US | $64 US | $75 US | $86 US | $138 US | $192 US | $213 US |
The lineup also includes six Coffee Lake Low Power desktop processors which feature a rated TDP of 35W and range from Core i7, Core i5 to the Core i3 SKUs. You can check out the specifications in the following table:
Intel Coffee Lake-S Desktop Low Power CPUs:
| CPU Name | Intel Core i3-8100T | Intel Core i3-8300T | Intel Core i5-8400T | Intel Core i5-8500T | Intel Core i5-8600T | Intel Core i7-8700T |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| CPU Family | Coffee Lake-S | Coffee Lake-S | Coffee Lake-S | Coffee Lake-S | Coffee Lake-S | Coffee Lake-S |
| Platform | Desktop LGA 1151 | Desktop LGA 1151 | Desktop LGA 1151 | Desktop LGA 1151 | Desktop LGA 1151 | Desktop LGA 1151 |
| CPU Cores | 4 | 4 | 6 | 6 | 6 | 6 |
| CPU Threads | 4 | 4 | 6 | 6 | 6 | 12 |
| Base Clock | 3.1 GHz | 3,2 GHz | 1.7 GHz | 2.1 GHz | 2.3 GHz | 2.4 GHz |
| Boost Clock | N/A | N/A | 3.3 GHz | 3.5 GHz | 3.7 GHz | 4.0 GHz |
| L3 Cache | 6 MB | 8 MB | 9 MB | 9 MB | 9 MB | 12 MB |
| TDP | 35W | 35W | 35W | 35W | 35W | 35W |
| Price | $117 US | $138 US | $182 US | $192 US | $213 US | $303 US |
In addition to these, Intel has also announced their new 300-series mainstream chipsets. While Z370 has been around since several months, it wasn't as attractive to users building a budget PC since most Z370 boards were priced a lot. That's why H/Q/B series chipsets exist in the market to carter a range of mainstream, casual and business oriented PC environments.
Motherboard OEMs which include ASUS, ASRock, Gigabyte, MSI, Biostar, Colorful, ECS and others will be offering their own H370, H110, B360 and Q370 chipset based motherboards which will be added shortly in this article. Till then, you can check out the differences between the new chipsets below:
New Intel 300-Series Chipsets:
| Chipset Name | Intel H310 | Intel B360 | Intel Q370 | Intel H370 | Intel Z370 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| SKU Target Market | Consumer | Consumer / Corporate | Corporate | Consumer / Corporate | Consumer |
| High Speed I/O Lanes | 14 | 24 | 30 | 30 | 30 |
| Total USB Ports (Max USB 3.1) | 10 (4) | 12 (6) | 14 (10) | 14 (8) | 14 (10) |
| Total USB Ports (Gen 2 / Gen 1) | 0 / 4 | 4 / 6 | 6 / 10 | 4 / 8 | 10 |
| Max SATA 3.0 Ports (6 Gbps) | 4 | 6 | 6 | 6 | 6 |
| Max PCIe 3.0 lanes | 6 (Gen 2.0 Only) | 12 | 24 | 20 | 24 |
| Max Intel RST PCIe Storage Ports (M.2) | 0 | 1 | 3 | 2 | 3 |
| Intel Optane Support | N/A | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Integrated Intel WIreless AC Support | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | N/A |
| Intel Smart Sound Technology | N/A | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Intel vPro Technology Support | N/A | N/A | Yes | N/A | N/A |
| TDP | 6W | 6W | 6W | 6W | 6W |
