Intel Core i7-8700K Launching October 5th with Z370 Motherboards

Rumors have been floating around that Intel Coffee Lake processors and their required Intel Z370 chipset based motherboards would be ready for purchase on October 5th. It looks like those rumors have been confirmed by Gigabyte’s Twitter page as they have a post up about supercharged performance with a picture of an unknown Gigabyte AORUS board and the date of 10/5/17.

The Intel Core i7-8700K ‘Coffee Lake’ processor is said to have 6 cores and 12 threads and will be the flagship processor for the mainstream enthusiast lineup. Like the Core i7-7700K Kaby Lake processor that it replaces, we expect the 8700K will be fully unlocked multiplier for easy overclocking It will be interesting to see how high Intel will be able to push these 6-core processors. If end users are able to get them up to 5GHz with liquid cooling we should see some interesting battles between the new CPUs and the recently released AMD Ryzen processor series that have up to 8-cores and 16-threads. The new Intel CPUs will be compatible with the LGA 1151 v2 socket and the Z370 chipset.

We anticipate more motherboard imaged will leak before the new platform launches as we are just 25 days away from launch. You’d think more images would have been leaked out by now, but the board makers are likely trying to clear out its remaining Intel Z170 and Z270 boards. Intel brought this launch forward due to pressure from AMD Ryzen processors, so that explains some of the good deals right now. For example, you can get an MSI Z270 Gaming Pro Carbon motherboard and a Phanteks Eclipse P400 ATX Mid Tower PC case for $129.99 after rebates. That board was $174.99 just a few months back, so to get the board with a ~$70 case for $129.99 is a solid deal.