Unfortunately, like the other Coffee Lake processors, the i5-8400 will require a new 300 series motherboard, and at the time of writing, the only available version is Intel’s high-end Z370 which isn't an ideal pairing for the i5-8400. Priced at under $190, the i5-8400 offers fantastic value for money. The i5-8400 also features 9MB of 元 cache and an energy-thrifty TDP of 65W. This compares reasonably well to the i5-8600K which has a base clock of 3.6 GHz, all core boost of 4.1 GHz and a single core boost of 4.3 GHz. On paper, the i5-8400 has a base clock of 2.8 GHz (Intel are significantly downplaying the performance of this SKU by giving it a relatively low nominal base clock), an all core boost of 3.8 GHz (this is the effective base clock figure that counts) and a single core boost of 4 GHz. It achieves quad core mixed speeds close to Intel’s outgoing 2017 flagship the $300, quad-core, 8 thread i7-7700k, which to date has been a strong favourite for high-end gaming setups. Early benchmarks reveal that for average quad core usage (most games employ a maximum of four cores) the i5-8400 performs way above its pay grade. Like the other Coffee Lake processors, the i5-8400 is based upon an improved version of Intel’s 14nm architecture which featured in both Skylake and Kaby Lake.
Along with the release of the unlocked i5-8600K, this is the first time that six-core processors have featured in the i5 line-up. The i5-8400 is a competitively priced hex-core processor from Intel’s 8th generation of Core processors (Coffee Lake). Intel® Stable Image Platform Program (SIPP)