Updated for 2023! Tiny, fast and affordable business workstation for eight monitors:
12th & 13th Gen Intel Core i5 CPUs, up to 57% faster than prior generations
Ultra-fast networking: 2.5 Gbps wired Internet + 2.4 Gbps Wi-Fi 6

Ultra-compact and packed with power

• Only 3.5″ high! Slides easily under monitor array when installed horizontally.

Fast and affordable 12th Gen and 13th Gen Intel Core i5 processors!

Stratosphere Mini Z8 is powered by Intel's fast and affordable 12th Gen and new 13th Gen Core i5 CPUs, with 6 or 10 CPU cores. The 12th Gen model was introduced in 2022 and delivers about the same performance as an 11th Gen Core i7 CPU from 2021. The 13th Gen model is new for 2023 and delivers faster performance than an 11th Gen Core i9 CPU, Intel's top CPU tier.

These new Core i5 CPUs deliver this great performance at a far more affordable price point than a Core i7 or Core i9 CPU, while running cool enough to deliver full-speed performance in the ultra-compact Stratosphere Mini chassis, which doesn't have the space for the very large CPU coolers we use in our tower systems..

Introducing Intel Thread Director

With the 13th Gen Core i5 CPU, Intel also introduces a great new feature called Intel Thread Director, which significantly boosts multitasking performance.

Intel Thread Director is a workload management controller on the CPU that works directly with the operating system to ensure that top-priority tasks are executed first and with the highest performance. Intel worked together with Microsoft to implement the new technology, and only Windows 11 is able to take advantage of Intel Thread Director. For this reason, we recommend Windows 11 if you choose the 13th Gen Core i5 CPU upgrade.

Intel's 13th Gen processors employ an innovative hybrid architecture combining high-performance and high-efficiency CPU cores on the same chip. Intel Thread Director segregates background operations on high-efficiency E-cores, while promoting foreground priority tasks to the high-performance cores (P-cores). The least important tasks are assigned to virtual cores, which use free cycles on P-cores through a method known as Hyper-threading or simultaneous multithreading.

The result is the first CPU generation optimized for multitasking and responsive computing, in which your high-priority work gets the CPU's top focus. Now your top-priority work is far less likely to suffer from intermittent slowdowns and stalls caused by background tasks grabbing the focus of the CPU cores being used your top-priority tasks. Priority is determined by Windows 11, which monitors which applications are visible to the user, with particular priority given to the application that has the user's current focus, as well as processes that are assigned high process priority in Windows.

Intel Thread Director requires Windows 11, which is uniquely optimized to work with this on-chip Intel microcontroller to manage competing workloads. While Windows 10 runs fine on Stratosphere Mini Z8, we encourage you to choose Windows 11 for the best multitasking performance if you upgrade to the 13th Gen Core i5 CPU.

• Watch 2-minute Intel popup video:
  12th Gen Intel Core Processors and Intel Thread Director

Two great CPU options

Stratosphere Mini Z8 features the 12th Gen Intel Core i5-12400 CPU standard, with 6 CPU cores. For best performance, you can configure your system with the 13th Gen Intel Core i5, which feature 10 CPU cores and Intel Thread Director. All CPUs are available for immediate build and shipment of your customized performance workstation.

• Standard CPU: Intel Core i5-12400
  • 6 cores · 12 threads
  • 6× Performance-cores (P-cores), 3.7 - 4.9 GHz, for priority tasks
  • 6× virtual cores, for background operations
• Upgrade CPU: Intel Core i5-13400
  • 10 cores · 16 threads · $75 upgrade
  • 6× Performance-cores (P-cores), 2.5 - 4.6 GHz, for priority tasks
  • 4× Efficient-cores (E-cores): 1.8 - 3.3 GHz, for background operations
  • 6× virtual cores, for low-priority operations
  • 28% faster than Core i5-12400 for multi-core operations (Cinebench R23 test)

Fast DDR4-3200 memory

• Base memory: 16GB DDR4-3200
• Memory capacity: 64GB (2 DIMM slots)
• Typical configuration: 32GB (best buy)

Ultra-fast SSD storage

Samsung 980 PRO: PCIe Gen4

• Capacities: 500GB - 2TB
• PCI Express Gen 4, M.2 NVMe
• Up to 7000 MB/s read
• Up to 5100 MB/s write
• Up to 1 million IOPS (I/O Operations Per Second)
• Dual SSD option

PCI Express SSDs connect directly to the CPU or chipset via an M.2 NVMe socket on the motherboard with four dedicated PCIe lanes. PCIe Gen 4 SSDs double the maximum bandwidth of these lanes, compared to PCIe Gen 3 SSDs. The result is up to 12.7X the performance of older SATA SSDs for sequential reads and writes, and up to 8X the I/O operations per second.

In 2009, Digital Tigers was first in the industry to ship SSD drives standard in desktop workstations. We've shipped thousands of systems since with Intel and Samsung SSDs, and only one has ever failed in customer hands.

Standard / optional operating systems

• Windows 11 Home 64-bit (standard)
• Windows 11 Pro 64-bit (standard)

• Supports 8 simultaneous monitors with sharp digital connections
• Digital display ports:
  • 2 × HDMI 2.0 ports (up to 3840 × 2160 @60Hz resolution)
  • 6 × DisplayPort 1.4 ports (up to 7680 × 4320 @60Hz resolution)
• Primary graphics: AMD Radeon RX 6600 8GB
  • 8GB dedicated fast GDDR5 video memory per card
  • Ultra-fast 224 GB/sec memory bandwidth (7X Intel HD 530 graphics)
  • PassMark G3D DirectX performance: 14493 (15X Intel HD 530 graphics)
• Secondary graphics: Intel UHD Graphics 730 + MST Hub
• Popular graphics card upgrade option(s) — see Customize tab:
  • NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1660 SUPER 6GB
  • NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3050 8GB

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