EDITOR’S PICK

Zak Storey, Editor

INTEL CORE I5-10600K

I’ve had a bit of an epiphany. Maybe it’s because I’m sat at home all day, every day on my PC, but I’m just not sure I’m a big fan of large, hot processors anymore. For my work rig, I have a 12core Ryzen 9 3900X, with two RTX 2080 Supers in SLI, all of which are liquidcooled via two 360mm radiators, and chilled by six beefy EKWB Vardar fans. Now that’s great, the system performs well and remains cool while it does it. My office though? It may as well be a Swedish sauna.

On top of that, I just can’t justify having those extra cores anymore. I don’t render, I don’t stream, I don’t output video. At home, I do my job, I game at 3440x1440, I browse Airbnb locations, and research the Norwegian real-estate market (don’t judge me). So why do I a) have more than eight cores, and b) run two GPUs in SLI, despite the fact only 50 percent of the games I play even have profiles for them?

Yep, a new system is on the horizon for sure. I’m thinking ITX, single GPU, and a decent six to eight-core processor. With Intel’s latest batch of processors finally hitting the ground, I’m curious about its latest i5-10600K. It’s effectively a more efficient, more modern variant of the Core i7-8700K that launched two years back. It comes with six cores, 12 threads, and a bevy of new features, along with (of course my biggest weakness) a swathe of shiny new Z490 mobos.

Now we haven’t reviewed this just yet, but if it hits all the marks just right, I’m going to have some serious thinking to do between building another liquidcooled rig with either this, the Core i710700K, eight-core variant, or perhaps a Ryzen 7 3700X. Decisions, decisions. $262, www.intel.com