# Intel i9 10900X series - scarcity



## Cat (May 21, 2020)

The 10th generation X series i9 cpu’s (10900x, 10920x, 10940x, 10980xe) have been out for quite a few months now. Theoretically. Practically I haven’t been able to find one to buy (well, not the base 10 core one) anywhere in the past 3-3 months. What is Intel’s problem? Difficulties in production? Or the cpus are just in such high demand?!


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## Gerhard Westphalen (May 21, 2020)

I was also designing a system for someone with one of those and Newegg wasn't even listing it on their website (unless you go through Google and then it just says the item isn't available). Didn't a similar thing happen with the 9900k or the big one before that? I remember that being out of stock everywhere for at least 6 months.


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## Technostica (May 23, 2020)

Intel are currently generally supply constrained, so as the bare chips in these can also be configured as Xeon chips which have a larger profit margin presumably that is what Intel are doing.
As well as that they will probably fulfil orders with large OEMs first before shipping retail chips.
Saying that, the 10, 12 & 14 core are in stock in the UK but the 18 core still seems MIA.


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## Synetos (May 24, 2020)

Same problem with the newly released 10900k. Impossible to find, except those who are scalping them on eBay for hundreds more than they really cost.


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## jamwerks (May 24, 2020)

Synetos said:


> Same problem with the newly released 10900k. Impossible to find, except those who are scalping them on eBay for hundreds more than they really cost.


Have the 10900k's already released?


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## Technostica (May 24, 2020)

Synetos said:


> Same problem with the newly released 10900k. Impossible to find, except those who are scalping them on eBay for hundreds more than they really cost.


In stock in the UK at multiple suppliers for ~£530.
The 8 core at ~£410 might make more sense: i7-10700K.


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## Synetos (May 24, 2020)

jamwerks said:


> Have the 10900k's already released?


Yup...but they disappeared like there were maybe 10 total on NewEgg. Amazon still has no listings.
It is super frustrating. Waited forever for 10980XE, still none. Got all the other parts ordered to build a new Rig and no CPU to be found. Intel is gonna lose some of us to AMD. I guess that's not as important as corporate buyers of XEONs.


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## Cat (May 24, 2020)

so is the demand THAT high, or is it that Intel's production output is very low?


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## Isaak_Hamilt (May 26, 2020)

New 18-core Core i9-10980XE can now be bought cheaper than the 10-core Core i9-9900X of the previous generation, and the updated 10-core Core i9-10900X model is almost equal in price to the eight-core five-GHz Core i9-9900KS processor for the mass segment. it is possible due to the fact that the price is constantly changing and new products are becoming cheaper.


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## Manaberry (May 26, 2020)

I got my 10980XE on https://siliconlottery.com/. They usually give a rough ETA and send an email when items are available.


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## ridgero (May 26, 2020)

In Switzerland the X Series CPUs are in Stock


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## Guy Rowland (May 26, 2020)

I'm still finding DAW info on this series thin on the ground, Scan's one article in Feb was useful though. Anyone got any idea if the 10940 or 10980 can overclock to around 4.2 or 4.3 on all cores and not require liquid oxygen cooling?


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## jamwerks (May 26, 2020)

I'll be purchasing an 10900k for a new build, but not even on Amazon yet here in France.


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## AR (May 30, 2020)

Guy Rowland said:


> I'm still finding DAW info on this series thin on the ground, Scan's one article in Feb was useful though. Anyone got any idea if the 10940 or 10980 can overclock to around 4.2 or 4.3 on all cores and not require liquid oxygen cooling?


I just finished building a 10920x with 256ram with a deepcool assassin iii (which is pretty much the best air cooler on the market right now). So far, running prime95 stable at 4.5ghz, but will test it further. Got to say though that I invested pretty heavy on case cooling, as well as a additional Heatsink cooler. All in all it's not a silent PC though. But will put it in my server room, that's why I didn't care.


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## Guy Rowland (May 31, 2020)

AR said:


> I just finished building a 10920x with 256ram with a deepcool assassin iii (which is pretty much the best air cooler on the market right now). So far, running prime95 stable at 4.5ghz, but will test it further. Got to say though that I invested pretty heavy on case cooling, as well as a additional Heatsink cooler. All in all it's not a silent PC though. But will put it in my server room, that's why I didn't care.



Thanks AR. No good for me - thinking this entire generation isn't much use for those of us with PCs in our working room, if those PCs are overclocked to decent (but not extreme) levels.


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## GNP (May 31, 2020)

I really wished I had a dedicated server room to store the best and noisiest PCs...but alas I don't! A decent PC that's relevatively quiet is still best for me.


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## AR (May 31, 2020)

Okay, so here's the CPU-Z Bench. I compared the 10920x to the 7980xe (which costs at the moment over 2100€, still. So 3 times the price). The 10920x is clocked to 4.6Ghz (as you see in the photo). Also, just for my amusement I ran the old i7 4770k (overclocked to ~4.0Ghz), just to compare a 7 year old machine. Oh and btw, now I finally closed the case (I took a mid tower from be quiet! nothing too fancy). I like to keep the monster under the hood. Well it runs quieter than all of my HP i7 3770k machines seen here in the pictures (in which I replaced all of the coolers). Not that you can record in the same room, but having the workstation in the same room it wouldn't bother. One could get the machine running even quieter, when installing Noctua coolers only, but that would've been few hundred bucks thrown away in my case. Lets install Cubase and check how it performs... One might say, why no 3790x? My answer is "the 64gb Ram problem". Oh and sorry for the mess in my living room.


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## Cat (May 31, 2020)

Very interesting! I was wondering, any reason why you went for the 12-core 10920X instead of, say 10940X (14 cores) which was only pennies more expensive? (in Canada the difference is CAD$100).




AR said:


> Okay, so here's the CPU-Z Bench. I compared the 10920x to the 7980xe (which costs at the moment over 2100€, still. So 3 times the price). The 10920x is clocked to 4.6Ghz (as you see in the photo). Also, just for my amusement I ran the old i7 4770k (overclocked to ~4.0Ghz), just to compare a 7 year old machine. Oh and btw, now I finally closed the case (I took a mid tower from be quiet! nothing too fancy). I like to keep the monster under the hood. Well it runs quieter than all of my HP i7 3770k machines seen here in the pictures (in which I replaced all of the coolers). Not that you can record in the same room, but having the workstation in the same room it wouldn't bother. One could get the machine running even quieter, when installing Noctua coolers only, but that would've been few hundred bucks thrown away in my case. Lets install Cubase and check how it performs... One might say, why no 3790x? My answer is "the 64gb Ram problem". Oh and sorry for the mess in my living room.





AR said:


> Okay, so here's the CPU-Z Bench. I compared the 10920x to the 7980xe (which costs at the moment over 2100€, still. So 3 times the price). The 10920x is clocked to 4.6Ghz (as you see in the photo). Also, just for my amusement I ran the old i7 4770k (overclocked to ~4.0Ghz), just to compare a 7 year old machine. Oh and btw, now I finally closed the case (I took a mid tower from be quiet! nothing too fancy). I like to keep the monster under the hood. Well it runs quieter than all of my HP i7 3770k machines seen here in the pictures (in which I replaced all of the coolers). Not that you can record in the same room, but having the workstation in the same room it wouldn't bother. One could get the machine running even quieter, when installing Noctua coolers only, but that would've been few hundred bucks thrown away in my case. Lets install Cubase and check how it performs... One might say, why no 3790x? My answer is "the 64gb Ram problem". Oh and sorry for the mess in my living room.


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## AR (May 31, 2020)

Cat said:


> Very interesting! I was wondering, any reason why you went for the 12-core 10920X instead of, say 10940X (14 cores) which was only pennies more expensive? (in Canada the difference is CAD$100).


Hey Cat, 2 reasons: First. Money. The whole setup witch everything in it cost me ~6200€, which alone is pretty heavy. The 10940x would've been 150 bucks more. Second, the basic clock is 200Mhz higher than the 10940x, which in my case (air cooled) is much. Going with a water cooled system I'd probably consider the 10940x. But then again, the whole system would've cost 400-500 Euros more.
I read somewhere on a Cubase forum that it's better having higher CPU frequencies, than having more cores. But I think that article was from the time around the 7 gen processors and when the first threadrippers came out.


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## chris1981la (Sep 1, 2020)

Hi guys, I am running Cubase 10.5 on an i9-10940X and I am really satisfied with it. I made a video why I not chose an AMD Ryzen: 
So hopefully that helps some of you guys.


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## DANIELE (Sep 1, 2020)

I also have an i9 10940X (because I found it at a good price) and vs my old 7820X is great!!

I can run very big orchestral projects at 256 buffer size without problems (before I was stuck at 512).


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## chris1981la (Sep 1, 2020)

Yeah, the buffer size also improved on my system. Which audio interface are you using?


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## DANIELE (Sep 1, 2020)

chris1981la said:


> Yeah, the buffer size also improved on my system. Which audio interface are you using?



My primary interface for audio production is the Audient iD22. Great audio card!!


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## chris1981la (Sep 1, 2020)

Ah ok. Also USB2 audio interface. I have an Arturia AudioFuse Rev.2 also with USB2 and I am also happy with the buffer performance.


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## DANIELE (Sep 1, 2020)

chris1981la said:


> Ah ok. Also USB2 audio interface. I have an Arturia AudioFuse Rev.2 also with USB2 and I am also happy with the buffer performance.



I mainly produce everything on PC without external recording so this kind of interfaces are perfect for my purposes!!

Plus they have a great software, very stable and bug free. I love it.


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## chris1981la (Sep 1, 2020)

I just upgraded from a Yamaha MR816CSX I had for a very long time and love the small form factor and that I can control it through the interface. Made a video about it, also about the buffer sizes. During my research I've got the impression that USB2 might be slower than USB3, but compared to my old Firewire audio interface it is actually running on smaller buffer sizes:


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