Redundant Array of Independent Disks, more commonly referred to as RAID, is a method (or methods) of storing data that ensures its survival in case of failure. You can set up RAID storage in quite a few ways, although it usually involves storing the same data on multiple storage drives to protect them from unexpected malfunctions.

How it works

A RAID system can often be found with two or more drives—these are usually hard drives, but SSDs are now becoming more and more common. These drives are working in parallel in order to prevent a catastrophic loss of data if a drive ever fails.

Basically, the way that you arrange RAID drives is by storing data on more than one disk. And this lets the I/O (input/output) operations happen simultaneously in a way such that it vastly improves performance. However, to the operating system, a RAID array will appear as a single drive.

RAID mainly uses two methods of achieving data redundancy; disk mirroring and disk striping.

Disk mirroring is a technique where each and every bit of data is copied into multiple areas of the RAID setup. Doing this is a great way to increase the fault tolerance, as well as the performance of the data.

In contrast, disk striping is where the total set of data is chipped off into blocks and written onto the Raid array one after the other. This mainly affects the performance of the drives.

It is also important to note that both disks mirroring and disk striping can be implemented simultaneously on the same RAID array.

The Different RAID Levels

When RAID was initially established as a method of data redundancy and fault protection, it was split into multiple levels of 0 through 5. However, modern implementations of RAID have expanded and separated RAID levels into different categories to better identify amongst them. These are known as standard, nested, and non-standard RAID levels.

RAID 0

This level is essentially the process of disk striping. The entirety of the system’s data is split off into different blocks and stored among each and every drive in the array (unlike traditional storage methods that store all data on one drive first). This drastically enhances the I/O performance of the drives but does little in terms of fault tolerance. Moreover, data redundancy is not the priority when setting up a storage array in RAID 0.

Benefits of RAID 0:

• Splitting and storing chunks of data all across the RAID array dramatically improves read and write performance, as well as longevity of the drives.
• Its relatively easy to set up a RAID 0 array
• When the array is using the whole storage system, so this leaves no room for any overhead.

Drawbacks of RAID 0:

• RAID 0 is not set up to be fault tolerant. In fact, if one drive fails, the entire RAID array will be lost.

RAID 1

RAID level 1 is known as mirroring. As mentioned earlier, disk mirroring is done by duplicating the set of data and storing them once on the main data drive and once on the mirror drive.

Benefits of RAID 1:

• Complete fault tolerance, if one drive fails, the data can be read from the other drive.
• Improves read and write performance as the data can be read from both drives simultaneously.
• Very easy to implement

Drawbacks of RAID 1:

• The obvious main disadvantage when using a RAID 1 system is that the total available storage is effectively halved. This can be very costly for users who mean to set up very large storage systems.
• Most, if not all RAID 1 solutions require you to power down the entire system in case of a drive failure in order to replace the faulty drive. This usually ends up being detrimental to many time-sensitive users.

RAID 5

This is by far the most secure out of all RAID levels. RAID 6 uses disk striping along with parity in order to store data. It requires a minimum of three separate disks in order to establish a RAID 5 array. This is because the parity data is spread out on three separate disks, with a third of the striped blocks having their parity data stored on the second disk.

Once the disks are striped and allocated into blocks, a parity spread applies to each drive. This then acts as a failsafe in case of a drive failure.

In a nutshell, parity is a method of checking whether the data has remained intact after a transfer or transmission. It adds checksums prior to the sending of data and compares it with the data that is on the other end of the transaction to detect any irregularities.

RAID takes this concept a step further by using parity information to rebuild data in the case of data loss or drive failure. This means that a RAID 5 array is able to withstand an entire drive failure without ever losing the data nor access to it. The specific feature set that RAID 5 has makes it ideal for systems that need secure, efficient, and adequately fast storage—such as file servers.

Benefits of RAID 5:

• Extremely fault tolerant
• Continuous and consistent access to all of the data on the system 
• Very fast read transactions

Drawbacks of RAID 5:

• Similar to RAID 1, you can only use half of your total storage.
• The larger the drive size, the longer it takes to build the data from the parity.
• Due to the sheer overhead of the parity, the write performance suffers heavily.

RAID 6

Raid 6 is very similar to RAID 5, with the main difference being that it has a secondary parity that is used to protect data. This means that a RAID 6 array requires a minimum of 4 drives to function. However, the upside to this is that it can handle two separate storage drives failing simultaneously. In comparison, RAID 5 only handles one, if another drive fails while the parity is rebuilding the lost data of the first drive, you will end up losing all your data anyway. Even though the odds of two different drives failing together are slim, it adds an extra layer of security that many users will appreciate.

Benefits of RAID 6:

• As with RAID 5, read transactions can be very fast.
• Users have easy and consistent accessibility to the data
• An added level of redundancy due to the secondary parity layer which protects a second disk.

Drawbacks of RAID 6:

• Very slow write speeds due to the double parity implementation
• Rebuilding lost data takes even longer due to the sheer complexity of the array.

RAID 10

RAID 10 essentially combines the features of both RAID 1 and Raid 0. This is known as a nested (hybrid) configuration. Mirroring applies to two storage disks. After which striping is also applied. While this drastically increases the overall cost, it also increases redundancy while also benefitting from RAID 0’s high performance.  RAID 10 is perfect for scenarios that require high data security as well as fast information transactions.

Benefits of RAID 10:

• The combined powers of mirroring and striping make the RAID 10 array fast and highly fault tolerant.
• It is a very secure method due to the use of mirroring.

Drawbacks of RAID 10:

• Vastly more expensive than other alternative RAID levels
• Only half the storage is available for use.

Conclusion

These are the different levels of RAID that are commonly used. However, it is very important to know that no RAID array is a substitute for old-school backups. While you get data redundancy and security, to fully protect your data, one must always have backups of the data stored in RAID at hand.

Most general users would gravitate towards either RAID 1, 0, or RAID 10 due to their ease of implementation and high fault tolerance. Those with NAS (Network Attached Storage) systems commonly opt to set up their storage in RAID 10 due to its high performance and security.

The post What is RAID? RAID 0, 1, 5, 6, 10 Explained appeared first on PremiumBuilds.

The recently released Intel Core i9-11900K is a very fast processor. With a max turbo of over 5 GHz—it’s hard to say otherwise. While the question of whether the 11900K is an upgrade over the 10900K is debatable; one thing that everyone unanimously agrees on is that the 11900K gets very, very, hot.

Intel inexplicably reduced the total core count from its 10^th Gen i9 processors, going from 10 cores to 8. With heavy competition from AMD bearing down with the likes of the 5900X, consumers were somewhat confused as to what Intel’s game was. Turns out, it was pretty simple. Team Blue’s game plan was to push the 11900K as fast as technologically possible. This was in hopes that it will keep up with the competition. While they succeeded in some instances (gaming), AMD still managed to decimate the mere 8 cores of the 11900K. In fact, even the last-gen 10900K managing to keep up or surpass it in certain tasks. Add to this the fact that it runs hotter than the sun itself, and you’ve got a very confusing high-end CPU.

How Hot Does The 11900K Get?

With Intel pushing their 14nm technology to its absolute limits, the 11900K was bound to get hot. How hot, you ask? Well, when running a simple 10-minute stress test, the 11900K shoots up to its recommended maximum temperature of 98 degrees Celsius. You can however get this temperature down to around 88 degrees by sacrificing some performance; which is quite absurd for a high-end consumer CPU that sells for north of $500. Moreover, the 11900K easily overheats when using even a 240mm AIO. This already gives a sign of how extreme of a cooling solution you will need to tame this beast.

The 11900k also draws an average of nearly 200W at peak. This is definitely on the higher end. In comparison, the AMD Ryzen 9 5900X with its 12 cores only reaches an average of 135W.

With all that said, what caliber of CPU cooler must you get in order to effectively cool the Core i9-11900K? The short answer is water cooling. This is generally the only way to go— with one exception, which you will see below).

Best Coolers for i9-11900K – Our Recommendations

Overall Best Cooler for 11900K: NZXT Kraken Z73

To effectively cool the fiery inferno that is the Intel Core i9-11900K, you’re going to need a pretty beefy cooling solution. Most people don’t want to go through the hassle of setting up custom loop water cooling. Luckily, NZXT has the next best thing.

NZXT’s Kraken Z73 is an AIO that’s well-equipped to handle almost any thermal load you throw at it.  With its 360mm radiator along with the triple 120mm fans, the Z73 is able to keep up with the rigorous heat output of the 11900K.

The Kraken lineup of liquid coolers has long since been a fan favourite. This is mainly due to their clean, minimalist design along with top tier cooling performance.

The Kraken Z73 also features a circular 2.36-inch LCD display over the pump. This can be customised according to your liking to display a variety of system stats such as CPU temperature, pump speed, and many more.

The Kraken’s build quality is also very good, with the water block primarily using high-quality plastics and copper. With its muted colours and sleek design, you would find no trouble making the Z73 blend in with the rest of your system.

While the NZXT Kraken Z73 offers stellar cooling performance, it is quite expensive at an MSRP of $280. With that said, if you’re dishing out over $500 for a high-end Intel CPU— the chances are that you probably won’t mind spending some more for an adequate cooler.

Best Air Cooler for 11900K: Noctua NH-D15

It probably doesn’t come as a surprise to many of you that the only air cooler capable of sufficiently cooling the Core i9-11900K is the revered NH-D15 by Noctua. This is a 6-heat pipe, dual-tower behemoth of an air cooler. Furthermore, it is universally known as one of, if not the best CPU air cooler that money can buy.

The NH-D15 comes with a pair of 140mm PWM fans along with Noctua’s special blend of thermal paste. Its large size allows the NH-D15 to keep up with the hefty water coolers and AIOs. In most heavy loaded tests, the 11900K managed to boost up without thermal throttling—which is a testament to the amazing Noctua engineering at work.

The NH-D15 also comes with Noctua’s state of the art fans that run extremely quiet. They’re durable and well-built so you won’t have to worry about any unnecessary rattling. The PWM supported fan headers allow you to freely control fan speed and set custom fan curves depending on your usage.

The award-winning air cooler is iconic for its beige colour and industrial-looking design. Although you can also get the sleeker Chromax Black version if you wish for a more muted look.

For $100, you really can’t go wrong with the Noctua NH-D15. Especially since it manages to keep up with AIOs and water-cooling solutions that are three times its MSRP.

Best Budget AIO for 11900K: Cooler Master MasterLiquid ML240L

If you really want to run an AIO solution to cool your Core i9-11900K without breaking the bank, Cooler Master has got you covered. The MasterLiquid ML240L does not come with all the bells and whistles that you might find on a Kraken. But nonetheless, it manages to do an exemplary job of cooling the 11900K.

What the ML240L lacks in flair, it makes up for with a large pump and a 240mm radiator.  Cooler Master has opted for a dual-chamber water pump design. This leaves more horizontal space on the motherboard so your components won’t be cramped.

However, the MasterLiquid ML240L does lack a pump head display like that of the NZXT Kraken, which some may find incredibly useful to get system information at a glance. The good news is that the ML240L packs a strong pump with extremely quiet fans that does a no-nonsense job of handling the strongest thermal loads thrown at it.

At $85, the Cooler Master MasterLiquid ML240L is an absolute steal for an AIO. Moreover, when you pair it with a high-end processor like the Core i9-11900K, you won’t have to worry about running into any thermal constraints. Plus, you can spend the money you saved elsewhere on your system!

Conclusion

There you have it, our top three choices for the best CPU coolers to pair with the Core i9-11900K. While the all-new Rocket Lake generation of processors by Intel was met with a lukewarm reception, supply constraints with Team Red mean more and more consumers are gravitating towards what’s readily available.

So, if you’re buying a ridiculously power-hungry CPU like the Core i9-11900K, going with any of the above coolers will be your best bet. The Kraken Z73 offers stellar water-cooling performance for a premium price. On the other hand, if you don’t want to deal with the hassle and unreliability of AIOs, the Noctua NH-D15 matches the top water-coolers in its ability for a much cheaper price. However, if you desperately wish to add an AIO to your system; but do not want to spend exorbitant amounts on one—the Cooler Master ML240L is a strong budget contender.

The post 3 Best CPU Coolers For the Intel Core i9-11900K appeared first on PremiumBuilds.

It’s a rough time to be a PC enthusiast in 2021. Last year brought on massive shortages in nearly every major component—with graphics cards getting the short end of the stick. With the global silicon shortage that seems like it won’t go away for a long while, GPUs are nowhere to be found. Their prices jacked up by ungodly amounts. Those who were planning on upgrading their old GPU have had their hopes shot down. Many users have found themselves put on waiting lists for months on end.

But still, many people want a functioning computer with graphical power in it to be able to get work done. Be it regular office users, workstation users, or even gamers. With graphics cards looking like they’ll be out of stock for the foreseeable future; it’s important to talk about alternatives.

What is an APU?

APUs, or Accelerated Processing Units—have famously been underpowered when it comes to their graphical prowess when compared to a full-fat graphics card. But with the latter nowhere to be found (at least at reasonable prices), can an APU suffice for those who require a working PC right this moment?

Exclusively made by AMD, the Ryzen APUs became known for their healthy combination of fast and sturdy CPU performance in conjunction with integrated graphics power that wasn’t total garbage. Year by year, Team Red has made incremental improvements to their APU lineup. With the inclusion of the Radeon RX Vega graphics, AMD manages to make their APUs stand apart from the competition. But the question still remains—can a Ryzen APU fill the void that a graphics card has left in your PC?

Can You Fully Work Off an APU?

In short, no. APUs in 2021 still do not offer anywhere near the level of graphical performance that a top-end or even mid-range GPU is able to give. But that does not mean that APUs should be written off as useless. Depending on your workload, an APU just might be enough to hold on until graphics cards are widely available again.

If you’re used to playing AAA titles with details cranked to the maximum, an APU probably won’t cut it. But it will still be better than having no graphics card at all to play games on. On the other end, if you’re playing eSports titles, an APU might actually be enough to get by till the world returns to normal.

If you’re in dire need of a functional computer to get any sort of work done, but are hesitant on buying your components because you won’t have a GPU; why not go for a Ryzen APU? At the end of the day, you will have respectable enough graphics performance to hold you off till you secure a proper graphics card. Once you do, your trusty old APU will happily live out the rest of its days as a CPU!

If you fall under any of the above types of users, then by this point you’re probably wondering which APU to go for.

Zen 3 Based APUs

It is important to note that, after Team Red’s Zen 3 line-up of Ryzen 5000 processors arrived last year, they followed up with the release of the Ryzen 5000 series of APUs. While initially only available via OEMs in prebuilt systems, AMD CEO Dr. Lisa Su announced during Computex 2021 that the Ryzen 5000G series of APUs will finally be available to general consumers. What is unique about this rollout is that AMD seemed to imply that the Zen 3 line-up of APUs will be replacing the usual “non-X” variants of Ryzen 5000 processors that many were expecting to be released at a lower price.

The APUs that are available for retail markets include the Ryzen 7 5700G and the Ryzen 5 5600G.

While both the Ryzen 7 and Ryzen 5 have a TDP of 65W, the rest of the specs are not too dissimilar to the mainline Zen 3 processors. This bodes well for those who were eagerly waiting for “non-X” Zen 3 processors. The Ryzen 7 5700G and Ryzen 5 5600G are priced $359 and $259 respectively, and will go on sale on August 5^th.

Since you cannot get yourself a Zen 3 APU (yet), let’s look at the next best thing. The AMD Ryzen 5 3400G was launched as a successor to the Ryzen 5 2400G. its 4 core 8 thread configuration along with a base clock of 3.7GHz and a boost of 4.2GHz makes this APU a very competent processor. On the graphics side of things, it boasts AMD’s Radeon RX Vega 11 Graphics with 11 graphical cores at a frequency of 1400MHz.

Gaming Benchmarks

In order to accurately gauge how well the Ryzen 5 3400G would perform, let’s compare how it fairs against an entry-level graphics card from Nvidia—the GT 1030. This card was chosen solely on the fact that many users would tend to buy a CPU and a GT 1030 until a better graphics card becomes available. All of the following games were tested at the lowest graphical settings.

The results show that the Ryzen 5 3400G comes off as a clear winner in raw gaming performance. Granted, these results were taken at the absolute lowest possible levels of graphics and resolution. But it’s commendable to see Team Red’s APU being able to outperform a low-end discrete graphics card. These results give all the more reason to be excited for the launch of the Zen 3 APUs—as they will surely bring superior processing and graphics power.

The Ryzen 5 3400G usually retails for around $289, with prices expected to come down closer to the launch of its successor—the Ryzen 5 5600G.

Conclusion

The bottom line is: no, an APU won’t be replacing a dedicated GPU anytime soon. But given that it’s easier to find gold than a graphics card at MSRP, an APU is a solid middle-ground for those of you who just want something to work with. An APU isn’t able to provide you with the hallmark PC gaming experience, but it is something that you can actually get your hands on right now—which is apparently a lot to ask for these days!

Related: Best Gaming PC Builds without Graphics Cards for 2021

The post Can an APU Replace Your Graphics Card In 2021? appeared first on PremiumBuilds.

If you’re a gamer or any productivity user, deciding on which CPU to buy is always a tough choice. Moreover, if you plan on building on a budget but still want the best performance for your money; you’d be asking yourself “Intel or AMD?”  

As it stands now, its Team Blue who offers cheaper options in their latest line-up. The surprisingly competent Core i5 11400F is a tiny beast of a CPU. Nonetheless, it’s only fair that we compare it to Team Red’s cheapest offering among their latest Zen 3 processors; the Ryzen 5 5600X. Read on to find out whether you really need to cough up more dough for AMD, or if you’ll be just fine sticking to Intel’s newly crowned budget champ.

Specifications

Model	Core i5 11400	Ryzen 5 5600x
Design
Cores/Threads	6/12	6/12
Base Clock	2.6GHz	3.7GHz
Boost Clock	4.4GHz	4.6GHz
TDP	65W	65W
Included Cooler	Intel Stock Cooler	Wraith Stealth
MSRP	$157	$299
Availability	Amazon.com	Amazon.com

At first glance, the specifications show that the Ryzen 5 5600X will vastly outperform the Core i5 11400F. However, it’s also clear why since Team Red’s cheapest Zen 3 offering costs nearly twice as much as the 11400F at its MSRP. The base clock speed of the Ryzen 5 is much higher than that of the Core i5 11400F, while its boost clock is another 200MHz higher than that of Team Blue.

Both have the same advertised thermal design power; however, this means little since in real use cases the power draw of both chips will be higher.

In order to see just how much these two processors differ in terms of performance, let’s turn to the benchmarks.

1080p Gaming- Mixed

*Benchmarks courtesy of Benchmark– YouTube

The 1080p gaming benchmarks show the Ryzen 5 5600X being mostly ahead of the Core i5 11400F. The only exceptions being Assassin’s Creed Valhalla and Red Dead Redemption 2; two very GPU intensive games that both have equal average framerates on both processors. Cyberpunk 2077 sees a slightly higher framerate on the Core i5 11400F. But this difference is a tossup between either, so your mileage may vary. The largest variation in FPS is shown in Metro Exodus, with the Ryzen 5 gaining 12 frames per second over the Core i5.

All-in-all, the eight game averages for Team Blue and Team Red are 134 and 137.25 respectively. It goes without saying that for games, paying nearly double for an average 2% increase in framerate does not seem all that worth it.

Productivity Benchmarks- Ryzen 5 5600X

Moving onto CPU intensive productivity workloads, we can see how the $157 MSRP Core i5 11400F fares against the much more expensive Ryzen 5 5600X.

 Starting off with the Cinebench R20 Multi Core benchmark, the Core i5 11400F cores 3954, while the Ryzen 5 5600X scored 4462; an expected gain. Moving onto the Single Core workloads in Cinebench R20, Team Blue manages to obtain a score of 541 with Team Red blasting past with a score of 600.

The 7-Zip File Manager Compression test shows the Core i5 11400F achieve a score of 59002. The Ryzen 5 5600X again trumps Intel with a score of 72344. In the Decompression test, the 11400F scored 64461 while the 5600X was ahead by a good margin with 86940.

In the SiSoft Sandra Cryptography Multi Threaded performance test, the Core i5 11400F achieved a speed of 18.2 GB/s, and as usual the Ryzen 5 5600X was faster at 19.2 GB/s. Meanwhile the 11400F managed to complete the Chromium Code Compile test in 7995 seconds, while the faster Zen 3 5600X completed it in 7047 seconds. The DaVinci Resolve 4K benchmarks scores show that Team Blue and Team Red are quite close, with the former having a score of 969, though the latter outdoes it with a score of 1017.

The Adobe Premiere Pro 2020 benchmark results award the 11400F and 5600X with scores of 677 and 746 respectively. The two processors are again quite close in the Adobe Photoshop 2020 test, with the Core i5 having a score of 1017 and the Ryzen 5 having a score of 1076.

Finally, the Blender Open Data render times for both CPUs show that the Ryzen 5 5600X reached completion in 1122 seconds while the 11400F took longer at 1233 seconds.

Unlike the gaming benchmark, the productivity results for the two CPUs give a very binary result. The Zen 3 based Ryzen 5 5600X is clearly much faster than Intel’s Rocket Lake budget counterpart. Users primarily aiming for a workstation build would appreciate the added performance and faster render times provided by Team Red; even if it means it costs much more. However, it is impressive to see the results of the Core i5 11400F often surpassing last year’s Core i5 10600K; which was a much pricier processor at launch.

*Benchmarks courtesy of Hardware Unboxed– YouTube

Power Consumption- Ryzen 5 5600X

When it comes to total system power draw, there are no surprises here. Intel’s notoriously high power consumption is again evident here, as the Core i5 11400F equipped system had a total power draw of 181W during the Blender render. Meanwhile, the Ryzen 5 5600X consumed less power at 157W while outperforming the Team Blue variant during the same test. So, if you wish to build a cool Small Form Factor PC, it might be worth spending extra to get the less power-hungry CPU.

Compatibility- Both

In terms of motherboard inter-generational compatibility, both Intel and AMD are on their last legs. The long-supported socket AM4 ends its compatibility with the Ryzen 5000 series of processors. Similarly; as Intel only supports two generations of CPU per socket, the support for LGA 1200 ends with the Rocket Lake line-up of CPUs. So, if you ever wish to upgrade from either processor, you will need to spend extra on a newer motherboard as well.

Verdict

If you’re planning on solely gaming on your PC, there really is only one way to go: Intel. But this is not because they’ve got the most powerful gaming processors. In fact, it’s only because of the enormous demand and supply constraints that have affected the Ryzen 5000 series that you will be better off with the 11^th Gen Core i5 11400F. Currently, the Ryzen 5 5600X sells for $450 US Dollars on Amazon. In contrast, the street price of the Core i5 11400F is only $174. Since it’s simply dull-witted to spend $276 dollars more for a 10 FPS gain, gamers are better off with the newly crowned budget champ; the 11400F.

If you’re a workstation or productivity user on a budget however, you might need to consider ponying up the premium for a Ryzen 5 5600X. It outperforms the Intel counterpart in productivity workloads by quite a margin, and since time is money; you will probably be glad you chose AMD in the long run.

Check out some of our guides below to help you with your next Intel or AMD build:

Core i5 11400F Builds:

• Best Intel Core i5-11400(F) Build for 2021 (Gaming / All-Round Use)
• 6 Best Z590 Motherboards for Intel ‘Rocket Lake’ Builds

Ryzen 5 5600X builds:

• 4 Best CPU Coolers for the Ryzen 5 5600X
• 4 Best Power Supplies for Ryzen 5 5600X Builds
• 5 Best Motherboards for the Ryzen 5 5600X
• $1400 Ryzen 5 5600X Gaming Build – The Best Value PC Build for
• 4 Best Graphics Cards for Ryzen 5 5600X Builds
• $1800 Ryzen 5 5600X ITX Gaming Build for 2021

The post Intel Core i5 11400F vs AMD Ryzen 5 5600X: Which Is Best For You? appeared first on PremiumBuilds.

If you’ve been eyeing to build your own gaming or workstation PC, you may have asked yourself where in the world all of the graphics cards have gone. If you look up GPUs in Amazon or Newegg, you’ll be greeted with hundreds of listings that are almost all sold out. The few that are in stock have had their prices hike up by hundreds of dollars. The reason for this is none other than the fact that the industry is currently facing the largest GPU shortage in history.

In a completely unprecedented sequence of events, the world— which underwent a harrowing series of trials and tribulations last year— is facing extreme supply issues in many industries. When it comes to graphics cards (or lack thereof), the situation has only gotten worse since. Even low end and midrange GPUs like the GTX 1650 has seen inflated prices that are up to 300 to 400 percent of its MSRP.

Industry analysts and insiders have come forward and said that the graphics card shortage boils down to consumers’ demand exceeding the current supply. Both Nvidia and AMD have stated that the current demand for GPUs has exceeded their expectations, mostly due to the generational leaps in performance that both Ampere and Navi cards brought along with their releases.

However, demand exceeding supply is not unusual for the PC hardware industry. It’s the fact that manufacturers are unable to produce new graphics cards in order to match the exceeding demand that has got everybody in a rut. Thus, the question on everyone’s mind is: why are supplies so low?

There’s more than one answer to this question. Its mostly due to the triple threat of scalpers, cryptocurrency miners and the global silicon shortage that has affected the electronics industry’s need for semiconductors.

1. Scalpers

Whenever there’s a highly anticipated product launch, you can expect to find scalpers prowling at the front of the line. A scalper is a term given to people who buy freshly launched products and sell them on eBay or StockX at highly inflated prices to make a profit. Its usually not much of a threat to face one scalper who works as a lone wolf by snagging a few RTX 3080s to sell at 200 percent of its MSRP. However, the last few months of 2020 brought out scalpers by the droves out of the woodwork. Many often work as groups to buy thousands of products in bulk in order to sell them at ungodly markups.

Scalpers were especially notorious during the launch of the long-awaited PS5 and Xbox Series X/S.

In an article written by PCMag in January, it was reported that scalpers had sold nearly fifty thousand RTX 3000 series graphics card since their launch on eBay and StockX. In a report submitted by Michael Driscoll, the total in sales amounted up to $61.5 million. He reported that scalpers made off with an estimated $15.2 million in profits during this time. The fear of missing out on new product launches run rampant among consumers, causing them to spend copious amounts of money to buy these products from scalpers.

To add to the problem, the launch of the RTX 3000 and AMD RX 6000 series of graphics cards saw markups on their MSRP by the manufacturers and AIB partners as well. In late 2020, the Trump administration—as part of their trade war with China— imposed tariffs of up to 25 percent on motherboards and GPUs that were being shipped from mainland China. Notable board partners such as EVGA and Zotac were shown to have increased the MSRP of their graphics cards by $70-$100. AMD CEO Dr. Lisa Su claimed that the company is trying their level best in order to keep prices of their cards down. In a quote transcribed by AnandTech, she claimed:

“We knew about the expiration of some tariff policies, and in advance worked towards a more flexible supply chain as it relates to AMD. We are committed to keeping GPU pricing as close to our suggested retail pricing as much as possible, because it’s the only way to be fair to the users. Normally when we have GPU launches, our own branded cards are available initially but then fade away for our partners to pick up. This time around we’re not phasing out our RX 6000 series, enabling us to sell direct to customers as low as possible. We’re encouraging partners to do the same. Not only tariffs, but the COVID environment has increased shipping and freight costs, which are hard to avoid. As we get into a more normal environment, this should improve. This also matters for our planned graphics updates through the first half of the year, as we have a lot of product coming to market.”

2. Crypto Miners

On the other side of the GPU shortage coin exist the cryptocurrency miners. 2020 saw a huge boom in crypto prices; notably Bitcoin and Ethereum, which prompted miners to dust off their mining rigs and start making money. The situation was similar back in 2017 when Bitcoin prices surged and miners caused a mass graphics card shortage. Towards the end of last year, Bitcoin prices exploded upwards of $35,000, a record high for Bitcoin that was never seen before. Similarly, Ethereum also jumped to $400 during 2020, and even managed to spike over $1000.

The previous crypto rush ended in 2018 when the market inevitably crashed. This resulted in the GPU market normalizing with demand dying down and the majority of miners flooding the second-hand market with graphics cards used for mining in order to recoup any operational costs. Consumers are hoping for a similar sense of normalcy during the current mining boom, but we would be hard pressed to have faith in such sentiments due to the state of things as they are now.

While many gamers and other consumers were ticked off that crypto miners seemed to have dibs on the new GPUs, Nvidia thinks otherwise. At the Raymond James Institutional Investors Broker Conference call held on March 1^st, Nvidia CFO Colette Kress said that she does not believe that the current graphics card shortage is caused by miners. She went on to say that the supply constraints on Ampere along with record numbers of demand for the cards are there main driving factors. 2020 brought along the “work from home” lifestyle and new gamers and other users suddenly needed new PCs. Kress also said that gaming popularity has skyrocketed by Q1 2021, and thus the supply issues would have still persisted even without the impact of cryptocurrency miners.

In an attempt to reduce the crypto miners’ demand on consumer GPUs, Nvidia unveiled a new line-up of CMP HX mining graphics cards. These have no display outputs and serve solely to mine cryptocurrency. Moreover, Nvidia took steps to ensure that their midrange RTX 3060 was not enticing to miners. According to Nvidia, the RTX 3060 contains a BIOS and hardware level lock that halves the hashrate of the graphics card so that it won’t be efficient in mining crypto. An Nvidia spokesperson called the BIOS “unhackable” and stated that they were confident that miners will look elsewhere for a mining focused card. However, this was short-lived as an allegedly leaked driver update re-enabled the RTX 3060’s mining capabilities, and that solution fell dead almost as soon as it was implemented. However, reports still suggest that Nvidia’s upcoming RTX 3080Ti will also have the mining limiter installed.

There were concerns raised by enthusiasts on the effect the CMP cards would have on the resale market of GPUs. One of the main contributing factors that allowed the market to return to normalcy after the 2017 crypto boom was that miners ended up selling hundreds of GPUs that ended up in the hands of gamers. With the CMP HX line-up of cards only being able to mine, without being able to game on them, the second-hand market would dry up, leaving consumers with no choice but to wait until Nvidia themselves release enough graphics cards to sustain demand.

AMD on the other hand, went on record to say that there will be no such limits on any of their RX 6000 GPUs.

3. The Great Global Semiconductor Shortage

Even if the scalpers and crypto miners disappear back where they came from, the final hindrance to the world’s GPU supplies still persists— which is the global silicon shortage. The availability of semiconductors has been steadily worsening during the latter half of 2020. During the initial days of the pandemic, supply constraints were only seen as a temporary setback as factories and supply chains had to close due to COVID regulations.

But when the cogs of the silicon industry began turning again, the world was in a completely different state from when they left. The sudden changes in lifestyle brought on by the global pandemic meant that people were reliant on electronics and computers to a far greater degree than before. The sudden surge in demand for semiconductors took the industry by surprise. Even tech behemoths like Apple were not prepared for the oncoming shortages, and had to postpone the launch of the iPhone 12 by two whole months.

The global silicon shortage also dealt a giant blow to the automotive industry. Ford reported that their loss in profits will be an estimated $2.5 billion. The inability to obtain enough semiconductors meant Nissan had to hold off on the opening of new plants. General Motors also reported a hit to profits upwards of $2 billion US Dollars.

This sudden shortage in silicon occurred during a transition phase and launch of a new generation of game consoles. Sony and Microsoft came forward and revealed that their profit targets will not be met due to the lack of availability of the PS5 and the Xbox Series X and Series S.

Even Samsung, one of the largest semiconductor manufacturing powerhouses of the world, is considering having to delay the launches of their next flagship smartphone. This is quite possibly the biggest piece of evidence of how dire the situation currently is. Not to mention the fact that Samsung is in charge of producing semiconductors for Nvidia’s new Ampere line-up of graphics cards.

The numbers are there to back up these claims too. According to the Semiconductor Industry Association (SIA), the sales figures for semiconductors in January 2021 was $40 billion, which was 13.2 percent higher than that of the previous year.

Industry analysts who have been observing the developing situation has noted that the demand for silicon will continue to exceed supply at least until end of the Summer. If things take a turn for the worse however, they estimate that the shortage could last well into 2022.

In attempts to mitigate the lack of silicon and boost the rates of production, the SIA has urged the Biden administration to pave way for the opening of semiconductor plants within the US. Following this, President Biden announced that an allocation of $37 billion US Dollars will be put towards achieving that goal. Once these plans have come into fruition, the current semiconductor shortage is projected to improve and even normalize. But these are all long-term goals that will at best take between two to three years to be fully implemented. Can the electronics industry hold on till then? Or will the situation truly get worse before it can even hope to get better?

4. The State of the World As it is Now

So, what’s the bottom line in regards to the availability of graphics cards (or lack thereof)?

In January, Nvidia CFO Colette Kress announced that the current shortage would last until the end of the first quarter of 2021; which ends in April. Evidently, there seems to be no end in sight to the lack of GPU supplies just yet. AMD also reported in January that their RX 6000 series of cards will be readily available to purchase through their own website. This statement was almost instantly invalidated as each card went out of stock seconds after they were made accessible for purchase. AMD in particular has been called out for making empty promises on the availability of their new products, with fans even calling them out for having “paper launches” without any actual stock available.

In an updated statement by Kress, she revealed that the shortage of RTX 3000 cards will persist throughout the rest of the year. She went on to say that the unprecedented demand for the Ampere line-up of GPUs meant that they sold out twice as fast as Turing did during the same timeframe. However, Kress did say that Nvidia expects availability of RTX 3000 cards to gradually rise throughout the year; but it still would not exceed or meet demand. If Nvidia’s projections hold true, you might be able to see Ampere cards in stock more often than before. But we won’t be expecting the situation to return to normal any time soon.

As it stands now, you would be extremely fortunate to be able to snag a graphics card at MSRP. If you’re in the middle of building your PC, and every component minus the GPU is already in your hands; you’re in for some tough luck. And for those of you who want to upgrade from your old GTX 1080 to a RTX 3080, consider yourselves very lucky to even have a functional GPU in your hands.

However, if you’re in dire need of a gaming or workstation PC at the moment, you will be better off going the prebuilt route (yes, we said it). Check out some of our prebuilt PC guides below to find yourself a computer during these stormy times.

• Best Pre-Built Gaming PCs under $1500
• Best Prebuilt Gaming PCs under $800
• Best Prebuilt Gaming PCs for Call of Duty: Warzone
• 7 Best Gaming PCs for Fortnite in 2021

The post Can’t Find a Graphics Card In Stock? Here’s Why appeared first on PremiumBuilds.

When Intel launched the Core i5 10400F alongside their Comet Lake line-up of processors, it failed to impress us. In a market where Intel had to compete with a similarly priced Ryzen 5 3600, Team Blue’s midrange competitor quite frankly had no legs to stand on. It was outperformed by Team Red in productive tasks, and only offered a minimal gain in gaming as well. Intel has not been the budget option for any consumer demographic due to the existence of a Ryzen processor in every price tier that mattered. However, the current CPU landscape seems to be changing in a very interesting manner.

Flash-forward to 2021, Intel has now released their brand-new Rocket Lake family of CPUs. Among them is the successor to last year’s consolation prize winner of the midrange battle: The Core i5 11400F. Intel has been having a tough go of it for the past few years. While simultaneously trying to take back the crown of best consumer-grade processors from AMD and figuring out how to move on from the 14nm process they’ve been stuck in.

So, is the all-new Intel Core i5 11400F an improvement over its 10^th Gen counterpart? Read on to find out.

Specifications

Model	Core i5 11400F	Core i5 10400F
Design
Cores/Threads	6/12	6/12
Base Clock	2.6GHz	2.9GHz
Boost Clock	4.4GHz	4.3GHz
TDP	65W	65W
Inclued Cooler	Intel Stock Cooler	Intel Stock Cooler
MSRP	$157	$155
Availability	Amazon.com	Amazon.com

On paper, the specs of both processors are very similar. But that does not always translate into equal performance. The newer Core i5 11400F is actually priced slightly lower than the outgoing 10400F. This is mostly due to the fact that the 10400F was likely subject to post-launch price hikes that every other PC component had.

With a lower price than its predecessor, if the performance of the Core i5 11400F is meaningfully better than the 10400F, we may have a winner on hands.

Productivity Performance- Core i5 11400F

First up, we will look at the results of the Cinebench R20 Multi Core workload. With a score of 3954, the 11400F blasts past the previous gen 10400F’s 3188. The Cinebench R20 Single Core test was another win for Rocket Lake. The 11400F was 25% faster than the 10400F with scores of 541 and 433 respectively. The 7-Zip File Manager Compression test showed the Core i5 11400F achieve a score of 59002. It’s a vast improvement over the 10400F’s score of 51434. Similarly, the Decompression test showed the 11400F gain a score of 64461 while the Core i5 10400F achieved 55256.

The SiSoft Sandra Cryptography test’s Multi-Threaded performance results showed the i5 11400F achieve 18.2 GB/s while the 10400F was at a modest 12.5 GB/s. turning over to the Chromium Code Compilation performance test, it’s no surprise that Rocket Lake wins again. The core i5 11400F finished the compile in 7995 seconds while the 10400F took longer with 9182 seconds. With a score of 969, the DaVinci Resolve 4K benchmark bore more good news for the 11400F as it performed nearly equally as the pricier Core i5 11600K. Of course, the 10400F scored lower at 887.

The Adobe Premiere Pro 2020 benchmark results follows the same narrative as earlier. The Core i5 11400F scored 677, and the 10400F was lagging behind at 585. The Photoshop 2020 benchmark gave the 11400F a score of 1017, and the 10400F was far behind with 883. Finally, the Blender Open Data Render is another solid win for the Core i5 11400F. It managed to finish the Render in 1233 seconds while the last gen Core i5 10400F needed 1443 seconds. It’s impressive as to how much Intel has improved on midrange performance with the 11400F. Essentially wiping the floor with its predecessor and often outperforming last year’s 10600K and the Ryzen 5 3600. As a midrange processor that is able to dote out strong performance numbers, this bodes very well for intel.

1080p Gaming Performance- 11400F

The Core i5 11400F carries its winning streak onto 1080p gaming as well. The all-new Rocket Lake processor consistently beats the Intel Core i5 10400F in every gaming title tested at 1080p. the more graphically demanding games do show near-equal performance due to them being mostly GPU bound. Cyberpunk 2077 only showed a 2% difference in performance between the two SKUs. Assassin’s Creed Valhalla and Red Dead Redemption 2 performed equally on both CPUs. Clearly, the Core i5 11400F is a strong gaming processor. As to the degree of improvement over last Gen; your mileage may vary depending on what game you play.

Power Consumption- 10400F

In order to measure just how much power the two Intel midrangers use up, power draw during the Blender Open Data Render was measured. As we’ve previously observed, the Core i5 10400F sips power while undergoing CPU intensive tasks. The case was no different here, as the Comet Lake processor drew a maximum system load of 153W during its run.

Judging by the superior performance of the Core i5 11400F, it’s to be expected that the newer Rocket Lake processor would be more power-hungry. During the render, the 11400F recorded a load of 181W. The power draw of the 11400F is in no way outrageous, so rest assured that it will not become a blazing inferno inside your Small Form Factor PC (unlike the higher end 11^th Gen variants).

Compatibility

Both the Core i5 11400F and the 10400F uses the LGA 1200 socket. The 11^th Gen line-up of processors will be the last SKUs that support this socket type, as Intel only allows two generations of CPU per socket.  

With that said, the launch of the 11^th Gen Intel CPUs brought on an assortment of new features that were previously locked to higher end motherboards. With the launch of the newer B560 chipset motherboards, users with the new 11^th Gen CPUs can freely overclock their memory speeds. This allows more headroom for your processor to run faster than its out-of-the-box speeds. Meaning that with a midrange B560 motherboard and the Core i5 11400F, you will be able to get more out of your CPU than what was possible with last Gen.  

Verdict

In a surprising turn of events, Intel has now officially become the budget option for gamers and productivity users alike. It’s refreshing to see fierce competition among brands leave consumers with more choices that cost less. Six core- twelve thread gaming has finally become the budget sweet-spot for many gamers. All thanks to competition in the industry.

 The Core i5-11400F now occupies a price tier that AMD has abandoned with the launch of their Ryzen 5000 series. So, unless a new challenger from AMD appears. The Intel Core i5 11400F is without a doubt the new budget champ.

If you wish to build out a system using either of these processors, check out some of our guides below:

Intel Core i5 10400F Build Guides

• 5 Best Motherboards for Intel Core i5-10400/F Builds
• Best CPU Coolers for the Intel Core i5-10400 & i5-10400F
• Best Intel Core i5-11400(F) Build for 2021 (Gaming / All-Round Use)
• 6 Best Z590 Motherboards for Intel ‘Rocket Lake’ Builds

The post Intel Core i5 11400F vs 10400F: What Are The Differences? appeared first on PremiumBuilds.