The Intel Core i9-9990XE, which was only previously available via a secret auction, is now available in the retail channel. Major German retailer Caseking is currently selling the auction-exclusive Intel Core i9-9990XE individually for €2,999 (~$3,380), and also as part of the high-end King Mod CKPC-843 gaming and streaming PC that's currently going for €12,999.90 (~$14,650).
The Intel Core i9-9990XE is a HEDT (high-end desktop) LGA2066 processor that belongs to the Skylake X (SKL-X) family of processors. The multi-core beast sports 14 cores, 28 threads, 19.25MB of L3 cache, 44 PCIe 3.0 lanes and a 255W TDP (thermal design power). The 14nm chip also rocks a 4GHz base clock, 5.1GHz single-core boost clock, and 5GHz all-core boost clock. Seen from another perspective, the Core i9-9990XE is pretty much a cherry-picked Core i9-9940X with higher operating clocks, and for this reason, commands an eye-watery price tag.
| Row 0 - Cell 0 | Cores /Threads | Base / Boost (GHz) | L3 Cache (MB) | PCIe 3.0 | DRAM | TDP | MSRP/RCP | Price Per Core |
| Core i9-9990XE | 14 / 28 | 4.0 / 5.1 | 19.25 | 44 | Quad DDR4-2666 | 255W | $2735 | $195.36 |
| Core i9-9980XE | 18 / 36 | 3.0 / 4.5 | 24.75 | 44 | Quad DDR4-2666 | 165W | $1979 | $110 |
| Core i9-9940X | 14 / 28 | 3.3 / 4.5 | 19.25 | 44 | Quad DDR4-2666 | 165W | $1387 | $99 |
While the Core i9-9940X carries a $1,387 price tag, the Core i9-9990XE doesn't have a fixed price. According to Puget Systems, the system builder paid around $2,300 for its Core i9-9990XE sample. However, it looks like Puget Systems wasn't the only one to get its hands on the elusive chips.
Caseking is selling the Core i9-9990XE for €2999 (~$3380) with VAT (value-added tax) included. Germany has a 19 percent VAT rate and deducting that from the price tag brings the Core i9-9990XE down to €2429.19, which translates to $2,735.44 USD (give or take). Basically, you're paying $195.36 per core.
In other news, the King Mod CKPC-843 is a two-in-one system that's built for uncompromising high-performance gaming and streaming. The system resides inside a Phanteks Enthoo Elite case and features full custom liquid cooling. The heavy-duty cooling solution consists of two 360mm and one 240mm radiators interconnected with hard tubing. Blue is obviously the predominant color of choice, as evidenced by the blue lighting, coolant, and custom-sleeved power supply cables.
On the gaming end, the primary system is powered by the Intel Core i9-9990XE 14-core processor paired with the Asus ROG Rampage VI Extreme Omega motherboard, 64GB of Crucial Ballistix Tactical Tracer RGB DDR4-3000 memory, and the EVGA GeForce RTX 2080 Ti XC Ultra graphics card. A Crucial P1 NVMe M.2 SSD provides the primary system with 500GB of high-speed storage while the Phanteks Revolt X 1200W 80 Plus Platinum power supply feeds both systems with more than enough juice. In terms of cooling, the processor is outfitted with the EK-Velocity D-RGB waterblock from EK Waterblocks (EKWB) while the graphics card employs EVGA's own Hydro Copper graphics card waterblock.
The secondary system, which is responsible for streaming duties, employs a more modest Intel Core i5-9600K hexa-core Coffee Lake Refresh (CFL-R) processor, Asus ROG Strix Z390-I mini-ITX motherboard, 16GB of Crucial Ballistix Elite DDR4-2666 memory, and a Crucial P1 NVMe 500GB M.2 SSD. Like the Core i9-9990XE, the Core i5-9600K is also equipped with an EKWB EK-Velocity D-RGB waterblock. The system relies on an Elgato Game Capture 4K60 Pro capture card for capturing and streaming gameplay. It's capable of capturing resolutions up to 4K (3840x2160) at 60 frames per second.
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The asking price for the King Mod CKPC-843 is set for €12,999.90 (~$14,650) with VAT. Without VAT, the system costs €10,529.92, or roughly $11,860.38.
Zhiye Liu is a news editor, memory reviewer, and SSD tester at Tom’s Hardware. Although he loves everything that’s hardware, he has a soft spot for CPUs, GPUs, and RAM.