Select the Desktop That’s Right

With a wide variety of desktop PCs on the market — ranging from traditional towers, to all-in-ones, to custom media and gaming rigs, to Mini PCs and Workstations — selecting a system that addresses user needs can feel like a daunting challenge. “Will the amount of memory or storage in the device suit my needs?” or “Does the system support the hardware peripherals I’ve grown accustomed to using?” or “Will the hardware I select set me up for success down the road?” are some of the many questions that will arise as prospective PC users weigh the market options when selecting a device.

At the heart of the computer is the central processing unit (CPU), and processor core count in the market has increased in recent years. As an example, Intel has seen the top end of its High End Desktop (HEDT) processor market leap from 10 cores in 2016 to a whopping 28 last year with the introduction of the. The amount of CPU cores may only continue to increase.

More CPU cores and the hyper threading capability that comes with them can offer an opportunity to boost performance for demanding workloads like 3D rendering, simulations, and video post-production. But conversely, increasing the core count may interfere with the performance of less-demanding applications that don’t need a lot of cores and threads. So two questions should come to mind when selecting your next PC: “How am I going to use my computer?” and “Do more cores always mean better overall processor performance?"

Core to the CPU – Your Use Case

For mainstream desktop users or those who don’t need special software to do their jobs, more cores may not be the most sensible option. However, for power users or performance-first gamers, there are a number of use cases where having a machine with a high-core processor can make resource-intensive tasks much more pleasant and productive.

Gamers: Most games don’t utilize a lot of cores and are much more dependent on CPU frequency for the best experience. If you’re a gamer looking for buttery smooth gameplay, your best option will be a processor with high frequency like the 9th Gen Intel® Core™ i9 desktop processor that can reach 5 GHz out of the box. It will perform better than higher-core-count machines that have lower frequency speeds to deliver the gameplay you need to turn your fast-twitch muscle movements into instant game satisfaction – whether you’re playing on your desktop or in VR. As a bonus, it also offers eight cores and 16 threads so budding streaming stars can get the optimal gameplay with up to 5 GHz frequency and the power for recording, encoding, and streaming all at once.

Content Creators & Workstation Professionals: Are you an architect, filmmaker, engineer, scientist, video blogger, or other type of content creator? As professional software is generally optimized to leverage more cores that can churn through many tasks simultaneously to get things done quickly – yet still needs relatively high frequencies – the power of a double-digit core machine with high frequency is likely the best option. These types of prosumer desktop and professional workstations, such as those that run on an Intel® Core™ X-series or Intel® Xeon® processors, are designed to scale performance needs and tackle heavily threaded, I/O workloads so you can quickly complete content-rendering tasks and high-performance challenges – while remaining focused on content strategy or next month’s business project.

While there are plenty of good reasons to seek out a high core count, it’s important to understand the balance between high-core-count platforms and the technology required to optimize those systems.


Abigail Smith is an inventive person who has been doing intensive research in particular topics and writing blogs and articles on  Printer Customer Support and many other related topics. He is a very knowledgeable person with lots of experience. If you’re not running A/V protection right now and you want more than what Windows Defender offers, this is a great buy.