All new! Affordable business mini-tower workstation for up to eight 4K UHD monitors:
New 10th Generation Intel Core i5 / i7 / i9 CPUs with 6-10 cores, up to 33% faster than prior generation
Dual NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1650 SUPER or NVIDIA Quadro graphics

New 10th Generation Intel Core processors!

Stratosphere Express X8 features new 10th generation Intel Core processors. See the primer that follows to learn more about key terms such as CPU cores, threads, clock speed and Turbo Boost.

You may configure your Stratosphere Express X8 system with any of the CPUs below.

• Standard CPU: Intel Core i5-10400
  • 6 cores · 12 threads
  • 2.9 - 4.3 GHz (Turbo Boost)
• Upgrade CPUs:
  • Intel Core i5-10600KF:
    4.1 - 4.8 GHz, 6 cores / 12 threads
  • Intel Core i7-10700F:
    2.9 - 4.8 GHz, 8 cores / 16 threads
  • Intel Core i7-10700K:
    3.8 - 5.1 GHz, 8 cores / 16 threads
  • Intel Core i9-10900F:
    2.8 - 5.2 GHz, 10 cores / 20 threads
  • Intel Core i9-10900KF:
    3.7 - 5.3 GHz, 10 cores / 20 threads

Modern multi-core CPUs split up your computer's tasks across a team of processors that work in parallel, like a team of horses. Two horses are better than one; four are better than two; the more horsepower, the better. For CPUs, your workhorses are etched in silicon all within a single chip, and we call those workers CPU cores.

Of course, CPUs don't always run in one direction like a team of horses. Think of CPU cores as a team of cooks in a central kitchen, with CPU threads being the waiters bringing in orders (instructions) and returning with cooked (processed) food.

A kitchen's productivity is thus roughly equal to the number of cooks and the speed of each cook. For CPUs we call that speed the clock speed of each core, which can vary independently during operation. CPU clocks are measured in GHz (gigahertz), so a 3GHz CPU is operating at three billion cycles per second. Cores act as a multiplier to clock speed, since the cores work independently, and each core also executes multiple instructions in parallel.

You'll notice that CPU clock speed is often expressed as a range. The low number, or base clock speed, is the guaranteed minimum speed of all cores. The high number is Intel Turbo Boost: the peak clock speed that one or several cores can achieve for a limited period without overheating the CPU. Intel CPUs with Turbo Boost will automatically increase the speed of individual cores to process demanding threads to the fastest extent possible without crossing thermal limits or exceeding the preset Turbo Boost limit.

Each CPU core independently executes operating system requests and is addressed as a separate CPU. This is a bit like having a a dedicated waiter for each cook in the kitchen. However, when a cook handles two waiters' orders simultaneously, he's more productive. Now the restaurant can serve more customers at the same time, simply by hiring more waiters.

A team of cooks: which ones are virtual?

In the same way, Intel CPUs with Hyper-Threading Technology can process two software threads simultaneously by presenting two logical CPUs to the operating system for each physical core. Faking extra CPU cores is a workload management technique, so a CPU core can keep working even if a thread is waiting for external data or is stalled. Hyper-Threading is like having two waiters available for the same cook. Other waiters may be too busy to take your order, but this waiter is available, and then so is the actual cook. Just as a team of cooks is more productive with twice the wait staff serving the demands of patrons, Hyper-Threading enables CPU cores to process more threads by working around bottlenecks and resource hogs. Waiters serve as workload managers for the cooks, and so does Hyper-Threading for CPUs.

Intel's 10th Generation Core processors unleash faster performance than ever, with faster clock speeds, more cores, more virtual cores (measured by thread count), and more performance per dollar. At the top of line, Intel Core i9 processors deliver 10 CPU cores processing 20 simultaneous threads, at record stock clock speeds up to 5.3 GHz.

One rung down, new 10th Gen Intel Core i7 processors offer 8 CPU cores plus Hyper-Threading, with superb price/performance. We expect the latest Core i7 CPUs to be best sellers for their combination of great performance and value.

Meanwhile, affordable 10th Gen Intel Core i5 CPUs reach new highs in peak clock speed for this affordable price point (up to 4.8 GHz) while now offering Hyper-Threading, increasing performance up to 33% over the prior generation.

With more cores and more simultaneous threads, more work can be done in parallel, enabling smoother multitasking, more responsive financial trading indicators, and even faster web browsing when many tabs are open. There's a 10th Gen Intel Core processor to meet every requirement and budget. Choose yours by customizing Stratosphere Express X8 and pricing your complete configuration today!

Q: Why do some Intel CPU names end with K, F or KF?

A: Intel uses the K suffix to designate "unlocked" CPUs, of particular interest to gamers and overclockers. Overclocking enthusiasts run these CPUs at higher clock speeds than Intel guarantees, typically aided by liquid cooling, and typically with the goal of running games faster. However, K-series CPUs also ship with a faster base clock and Turbo Boost than non-K sibling models. These faster clock speeds are guaranteed by Intel without resorting to overclocking, so K-series CPUs naturally appeal to any power user looking for better performance.

Intel recently started shipping F-series CPUs, which have their internal graphics subsystem (Intel UHD Graphics 630) permanently disabled. F-series CPUs are used on systems with discrete graphics cards, which are the vast majority of the systems we sell. F-series CPUs are helping relieve supply constraints (inadequate manufacturing yields) on many standard Intel CPUs in the past year, which have caused order fulfillment delays across the industry. PassMark CPU Mark benchmarks suggest that the F-series models on average perform slightly faster than non-F models.

Finally, KF-series CPUs are unlocked processors with their graphics subsystem disabled.

Standard / optional operating systems

• Windows 10 Home 64-bit (standard)
• Windows 10 Pro

Industry-leading multi-monitor software

• UltraView Desktop Manager 2.0 software:
  14 industry-leading features for power users
• Updated for Windows 10 and 8.1
• See feature list on right column of this page

16GB - 32GB DDR4-2666 memory

• Base memory: 16GB 2666 MHz DDR4
• Memory capacity: 32GB

Fast M.2 NVMe SSDs (solid state drives)

• 256GB fast M.2 NVMe SSD standard
• 512GB / 1TB / 2TB capacity options
• Dual SSD option: up to 4TB secondary storage!

Optional internal bootable backup SSD

• Configured for automated daily backup of system drive
• Serves as system drive in case of primary drive failure. Simply reboot
  the computer and select the alternate boot drive.
• Option to configure for daily + monthly archival backup

Options and accessories

• Recommended: Bootable backup SSD/ hard drive

  • Backs up solid-state system drive
  • Serves as system drive in case of primary drive failure. Simply reboot the computer and selecting the alternate boot drive.
  • Also backs up secondary drive

• Recommended: 1000VA UPS battery backup power

  • Keeps you running through power flickering and brief outages, while giving you time to save your work during longer outages
  • CyberPower UPS series is proven by Digital Tigers long-term reliability study to extend the life of systems
  • In 15 years, less than 0.2% of Digital Tigers customers have encountered power supply problems / dead system while connected to certified UPS
  • Automatic voltage regulation (AVR) corrects for under / over voltage conditions, improving long-term system reliability
  • LCD and software status monitoring for load, voltage, alerts