Desktop mainboards with notebook CPU: cheap 10 cores in China

China is the country of strange hardware. This also includes mainboards for desktop PCs that use soldered notebook processors. The company Erying offers such, including models with current CPUs from Intel’s Raptor Lake series (Core i-13000H).

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The Core i7-13620H with four performance and six efficiency cores sits on the top model. The Core i5-13400 desktop processor also uses this configuration. However, the mobile variant integrates a significantly more powerful graphics unit with 64 instead of 24 execution units.

There are performance differences due to the thermal design power (TDP): The Core i7-13620H can nominally consume 45 watts of electrical power permanently, while the Core i5-13400 can consume 65 watts. However, Erying can potentially remedy this via the BIOS: Intel also provides a turbo window with up to 115 watts for the notebook model ex works. The maximum turbo clock frequency is even higher ex works for the Core i7-13620H – 4.9 instead of 4.6 GHz.

Purchase with risk possible

On the Chinese trading platform Taobao, Erying demands 1699 yuan for the board with a Core i7-13620H, the equivalent of almost 215 euros. The version with the eight-core Core i5-13420H is even cheaper for 1299 yuan or 165 euros. The processor uses four performance and four efficiency cores – there is no such configuration in the desktop series.

For comparison: In Germany, a single Core i5-13400 (from €229.49) is more expensive. The cheapest LGA1700 motherboards start at 70 euros. The Core i5-13400 (boxed, including Intel cooler and warranty) is available in China for the equivalent of 185 euros.

Taobao is a purely Chinese platform with no international shipping. Experimenters can buy the Erying boards through so-called agents such as Superbuy or Wegobuy. They take care of purchasing in China and shipping to Europe for an additional charge. Import sales tax has the greatest impact (19 percent in Germany). In warranty cases, however, buyers have bad cards.

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Spartan equipment

No separate chipset is visible on the mainboards. It’s not necessary here either, because Intel integrates one into the notebook processors. However, users have to live with slimmed-down equipment here: The graphics card slot is connected via eight instead of 16 PCI Express 4.0 lanes, which can slow down graphics cards a bit.

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(Bild: Erying / Taobao)

In addition, there are only USB 3.2 Gen 1 (5 Gbit/s, formerly called USB 3.0) and USB 2.0 as Type A ports. 4K monitors can at least be operated at 60 Hertz via HDMI 2.0 and DisplayPort (probably 1.2). Two M.2 slots accept NVMe SSDs with a PCIe 4.0 x4 connection. Wi-Fi 5 (IEEE 802.11ac) is also on board. The RJ45 port handles Gigabit Ethernet.

Two slots accept DDR4-3200 UDIMMs with a maximum total capacity of 64 GB. According to the manufacturer, CPU coolers for slightly older LGA115x mainboards fit thanks to a self-designed heat spreader. Appropriate mounting material is included with practically all current third-party coolers.

(mma)

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