JULY 2020 PCWorld 49motherboard.
The LGA1200
socket and new Z490
don’t seem to change
much. You still install
the CPU almost the
same way, and if you
have an existing
LGA1151 cooler, it’ll still
fit. Sadly, rumors of
PCIe 4.0 on the X490
proved untrue, leaving
Intel at a disadvantage
compared to Ryzen
3000 chips that have
the faster interface for SSDs and GPUs.HOW WE TESTED
For this review, we stick with Intel’s flagship,
the $488 Core i9-10900K. Its natural
competitor is AMD’s Ryzen 9 3900X with 12
cores and 24 threads. Its list price is $499, but
its street price as of this writing is actuallythe same so they’d be compatible with
existing cooling hardware. Intel officials did
say the materials used for the heat spreader
help compensate for that compromise, so
overall the new chip is better at power
dissipation.
A NEW SOCKET?!
It’s true: Intel’s new 10th-gen CPUs
bring with them a new LGA1200
socket that is—of course—
incompatible with the previous
9th-gen CPUs. Intel took flack for
introducing a new chipset with its
8th-gen desktop chips that was
incompatible with the previous
generation, so you can understand
the anger for those who just want to
upgrade the CPU, not also the
The 10th-gen Comet Lake S CPUs feature a thinner die and thermal interface
material, plus a thicker heat spreader to help improve heat dissipation.
The backside of an LGA1151 8th-gen Core i7-8700K (left), and
an LGA1200 10th-gen Core i7-10900K (right).