Intel Core i3-8350K Review

[jimmysmitty]

"It's only a shame that, as with all K-series processors, you're on the hook for your own thermal solution."

Translation: "We're disappointed that Intel didn't bundle in the usual under-powered fan that you'll need to replace if you want to overclock."

I do find it slightly strange that they even mention that. Who gets a K series CPU and doesn't overclock? And while Intels stock coolers are great if you want an included and quite solution, they are and never have been sufficient for OCing.

Most people who buy this will get a high end air cooler or CLC to be able to hit that magical 5GHz clock speed.

I am interested to see what Intel can do with 10nm but we wont see desktop parts for quite a few months or at least until later next year. Hopefully it has had enough time for them to work the bugs out and drop the thermals and power while upping the clock speed and hopefully core count to push AMD a bit harder. Although I think in order to combat the thermals they will need a bigger die as every shrink tends to shrink the die size and the same core count will normally increase thermals since it has a smaller space to dissipate the heat.

 

[scart35]

I've picked 8350k. why? because i5 8400 are nowhere to be seen here, massive shortage that will end maybe sometime in january. and because i've picked it up in early black friday deal for 140€ which is more than 60€ cheaper than r5 1600. The bonus is that the shop I bought it from has "christmas" gift return policy so I can return it free of charge till 31.1. so when shortage ends I'll swap to the 8400 at almost no cost.?

I have no idea what the return policy is of the retailer you bought it from, but typically you'd have to return it unopened (unless it was defective), otherwise you'll be charged a restocking fee at the very least.

Regarding the Ryzen 1600, although the 8350K may be 60 euro cheaper for just the CPU, did you consider the cost of a cooler, plus the price difference between Z370 and B350?

Yes you're right they have 10% restock fee when opened. But that's nothing major.
Yup I've considered whole platform cost 140+110+10(second hand dark rock slim,should be good for stock speeds) grand total 260€ for CPU+MB+Cooler
Ryzen is almost the same but why should I buy cheap B350 with shoddy VRMs when I can get superior X370 with better VRM,I/O etc?
So ryzen platform is at least the same price or more expensive (replacing B350 and stock cooler).
Ranting aside, I hope in two things that AMD will reveal Zen+ sooner than 31.1 and Intel will release cheaper MBs for locked chips so I can swap that i3 for Zen+ or 8400 with cheap MB.

 

[TJ Hooker]

Ryzen is almost the same but why should I buy cheap B350 with shoddy VRMs when I can get superior X370 with better VRM,I/O etc?

There's plenty of good B350 boards out there that don't have "shoddy" VRMs. VRM quality isn't even necessarily related to chipset. B350 has plenty of connectivity for most people, so unless you want to run dual GPUs I don't see much reason to spend the extra money for X370. So by the sounds of things a Ryzen 1600 would have still had a lower platform cost for you.

 

[scart35]

Maybe, but I'm not looking for the best value per $ spent. What I want is high IPC/clock speed (because adobe suck with ther multicore implementations)
And with 8400 with cheap MB I will get both + "muh cores"

 

[TJ Hooker]

Yeah, once the 8400 is readily available at MSRP and the cheaper LGA1151v2 chipsets come out, it should be killer value.