Solid foundation for new range of 8th Gen CPUs. The 8th Generation Core desktop processors rolled into town today. Armed with more cores and threads than their direct predecessors, Intel offers greater bang for your buck than it has done so in a while.

Six new 8th Gen chips use the familiar LGA 1151 form factor, but, and it is a big one, they are only compatible, for now, with the Z370 chipset. This means they cannot be used on the Z270 and, conversely, 6th and 7th Gen Core chips, though using the same socket, do not work in Z370.

Providing a clean break and matching a CPU generation to a particular chipset means that the combination provides an obvious platform with which to update your PC. It's no surprise that motherboard manufacturers are keen to extol the virtues of their Z370 chipset-based boards given the extra performance on offer from the new slew of CPUs.