Last year, there were two big developments in the PC tech arena: one was the launch of AMD’s disruptive Ryzen processors, which offered much better performance than the company’s earlier CPUs, and Intel’s answer to this with the release of their 8th gen, Coffee Lake processors.
And while Coffee Lake CPUs were well-reviewed across the board and were competitively priced, an issue at launch was the lack of budget motherboards to pair them with. Actually, aside from the fact that Intel’s 8th gen processors were hard to get in the first few months after release, many who were looking to build themselves a gaming PC lamented the lack of low-priced motherboards to go with the likes of the Core i5-8400, a great budget CPU which however cannot be overclocked.
This means that pairing the i5-8400 with a high-end motherboard based on the Z370 chipset (the only ones available at release) did not make much sense as these boards are meant to be used with processors which can be overclocked, but thankfully Intel has now remedied this situation with the release of a whole range of budget chipsets which will now find their way to budget motherboards from manufacturers like ASUS, MSI, Gigabyte and the like.
These are the B360, H370 and H310 chipsets, and should enable both system integrators and enthusiasts to build lower-priced PCs with an Intel 8th gen processor at their core. Motherboards based on the B360 and H370 chipsets also have support for the latest USB 3.1 Gen 2 standard (which Z370 boards lack) which is definitely a plus too.
It’s a good thing too that Intel has now released more desktop 8th gen processors as well, giving gamers on a budget even more choices when it comes to buying a PC or building their own. These new CPUs are the i3-8300 (which has a recommended customer price or RCP of $138), the i5-8500 (with a RCP of $192) and the i5-8600 (which has a RCP of $213).
It’s a great thing for PC gamers, then, that Intel has now fleshed out its 8th gen ecosystem with the release of new processors and chipsets, meaning those looking to get hold of an affordable gaming PC now have plenty more choices available. And no doubt things will soon get even more interesting with AMD’s highly anticipated launch of their Ryzen 2000 processor line, meaning this could definitely be an exciting year for PC enthusiasts and gamers no doubt.