11th Gen Intel Rocket Lake-S chips up for preorder in MAINGEAR gaming PCs and workstations

Maingear Vybe
Maingear Vybe (Image credit: Dan Thorp-Lancaster/Windows Central)

What you need to know

  • You can now order MAINGEAR gaming PCs and workstations with 11th Gen Intel CPUs.
  • The new processors bring improved performance and enhanced overclocking support.
  • The VYBE, RUSH, and MAINGEAR Pro workstations are among the PCs you can preorder with the new chips.

You can now preorder MAINGEAR PCs with the latest chips from Intel. Intel announced its 11th Gen desktop family of processors, also known as Rocket Lake-S, yesterday. Based on the specs Intel revealed, the new CPUs could be among the best processors for your custom PC.

The new processors from Intel will be available in both gaming desktops and workstations, including the VYBE, RUSH, and MAINGEAR Pro workstations. MAINGEAR PCs will be available with processors ranging from the Intel Core i5-11400F to the Intel Core i9-11900K.

Our MAINGEAR VYBE review takes a look at the PC with an Intel Core i9-9900K inside. That processors is now two generations old, but the review should still give you a great look at the PC overall.

On the technical side of things, the new 11th Gen desktop CPUs are quite interesting. They still use a 14nm manufacturing process but use backporting to bring in technology used in Intel's Willow Cove and Tiger Lake processors, which are 10nm processors. Despite being 14nm chips, Intel has done a good job improving them over the previous generation. While it's interesting how the processors are made, most people will care much more about their raw performance and capabilities.

Intel promises considerable gains over its 10th Gen processors, including a 19% instructions-per-cycle improvement. The most powerful of the new processors, the Core i9-11900K, beats out AMD's Ryzen 5900X when used to power several titles. That's a notable feat given the fact that it's still a 14nm processor.

The 11th Gen lineup of desktop processors also improves enhanced overclocking support, adds PCIe 4.0 lanes (totaling 20), supports up to DDR4-32000 RAM, and supports Thunderbolt 4.

Sean Endicott
News Writer and apps editor

Sean Endicott brings nearly a decade of experience covering Microsoft and Windows news to Windows Central. He joined our team in 2017 as an app reviewer and now heads up our day-to-day news coverage. If you have a news tip or an app to review, hit him up at sean.endicott@futurenet.com.