Intel is reportedly going to kill the CPU socket

[+InsaneNutter MVC]

Seriously, how many people actually upgrade their CPUs? 1 x 10^-12 %?

I am still happy with my Core 2. If that was soldered on, what difference would it make? None at all in my case.

Processors have got to a point where even low end models are powerful enough for what I do (and even for some serious gaming, of course when combined with a good GPU).

I have just upgraded my parents PC i built them years ago, at the time it was upgraded on the cheap so had a Dual Core Pentium @1.8ghz with 2gigs of ram. I recently purchased them a Core2Duo E8400 @ 3ghz and another 2gigs of ram for about ?50.

The difference is night and day, yes i could have spent a lot more on a new PC for them, however whats the point when they can upgrade a perfectly working PC?

Choice is never bad.

[(Account no longer active)]

I have just upgraded my parents PC i built them years ago, at the time it was upgraded on the cheap so had a Dual Core Pentium @1.8ghz with 2gigs of ram. I recently purchased them a Core2Duo E8400 @ 3ghz and another 2gigs of ram for about ?50.

The difference is night and day, yes i could have spent a lot more on a new PC for them, however whats the point when they can upgrade a perfectly working PC?

Choice is never bad.

When you upgraded to the Core 2, didn't you have to also change the motherboard (different CPU socket)?

[BattleDaggit]

When you upgraded to the Core 2, didn't you have to also change the motherboard (different CPU socket)?

There were LGA 775 Pentium 4s and motherboards that used chipsets that would also handle Conroe and later CPUs.

[Phouchg]

Upgrade is not the point. The ability to do so is. See, motherboards arrive dead or fail, I'd say, three orders of magnitude more than processors do. How it will be more reliable and cheaper to change the whole thing? For example: if my big huge motherboard with all bells and whistles dies, I can buy some entry level crap for 30 $/? and still stuff 3770K in it and enjoy most if not all its capabilities. If my CPU dies, I can buy 30 $/? worth Celeron G to get my system going.

Now, as some have already said, it will not end with CPU sockets. Systems will become integrated to teeth, just like smartshytes and schmablets have - unopenable, with no swappable batteries, no removable storage etc. What one has to do when they fail in the slightest? Send them to the nearest RMA center, and in most cases after a month (30 days being in the consumer law here) of couldn't-be-arsed-to-look-at-it they'll exchange it for a new device because nothing can be repaired regardless of the damage. If you were lucky enough to get the data out or keep a copy, that's it. I could just have my disk attached to another machine and keep going all the time. With a proper machine, if big huge RAM dies, I can put 10 $/? ValueRAM 2 GB stick and keep going. If a discrete GPU dies, I can put the oldest PCI-E crap that barely moves bits around, but keep going.

Or welcome to the out-of-control generation...

[witalit]

Who cares.

As long as people can buy something that works better and faster.

Haha not really what I expect to hear on a tech site... who cares. Well I think most people on here would, its a very stupid idea and AMD are springing to mind.

[torrentthief]

Having intel swallow up the mobo industry just makes things cheaper and more reliable in the end anyway.

You are naevily assuming that intel will pass on cost reductions to the consumer!

[BattleDaggit]

If this is true, then I will never buy or sell a product with an Intel CPU again while I have a choice.

[Wakers]

I knew when I first heard about this two weeks ago that someone would manage to skew the details in this way.

They're not looking to close off the desktop CPU market. They're looking at moving into embedded solutions as well as the LGA system that we have now.

They're not going to do away with LGA.

[BattleDaggit]

There are several places reporting this news as though Intel will stop selling CPUs to the general public, motherboard manufacturers are doomed, and only large OEMs can build computers. If this is false, they should debunk this as soon as possible before it escalates. Lots of people appear to be ****ed.

[Chicane-UK Veteran]

This can't be serious... surely.... :|

[Wakers]

Don't worry, it's for small form factor only.

They need the LGA for the normal form factors, and they will keep it. How do you want to put a 680 in a small form factor case with adequate cooling? You can't.

[n_K]

This is FUD, intel has a commitment to make it's products with sockets because they have a responsibility to make devices upgradable for X amount of time so it's more environmentally friendly. They wouldn't suddenly do away with CPU sockets that'd go against that and have many governments up in arms sueing them and banning their products.

[The Evil Overlord]

Yup, Dell UK's model has gone global

YAY for AMD :D

(for now at least)

[Alwaysonacoffebreak]

I want to think not many people upgrade their CPUs as sockets keep changing and upgrades within a certain socket line is quite minimal in day to day performance.

Funny. That's Intel for you.

AM3 is still rocking and AM3+ is getting at least 1 more gen of CPU's (That's 3 for you). I'm not even going to count how many lines of CPU's work on AM3.

[Noir Angel]

Can't see them phasing out socketed CPU's completely. Maybe they'll package some SoC stuff for OEM manufacturers but the enthusiast market is a big part of Intel's business, can't see them wanting to p*** that segment of the market off.

[Ilys]

[...]My guess is they want mainstream (current socket 1155 people) to move to SoC hardware, which is where this comes in. They know people with top end hardware based on socket 1366 and socket 2011 would NEVER move to SoC. Granted 1155 machines are damn powerful, but 2011 is really in another category when it comes to applications that require more cores etc...

I, personally, wouldn't mind going to SoC, as long as it is not soldered and allows me to upgrade the CPU. I'm currently using an ASUS Rampage III Extreme with a i7 980 and have no desire to upgrade in the next few years. My next upgrade will be when Intel move the southbridge on-die.

[The King of GnG]

That's a load of BS, imo. Intel did made CPU that needed to be soldered to the motherboard, in the past. In the 286-386 era. The market is a completely different beast right now....

[Crimson Rain]

Haha not really what I expect to hear on a tech site... who cares. Well I think most people on here would, its a very stupid idea and AMD are springing to mind.

I am a enthusiast myself but I am not in a denial that we are the minority (<1%?). Also, pushing hardware just to get 1% extra juice is not worth it most of the times. If integrating things bring better performance, lower power requirements etc, I'd take those over 1-2% extra juice any day.

[Wakers]

Even if they did kill of the upgradable socket - there hasn't been a time in the last 5 years when I've been able to just replace the CPU without bothering about the motherboard. That started when I upgraded my old AMD to an Athlon X2 6000, then when I went from that to a core 2 duo, and then from that to my i7.

If they have to bundle the chip and motherboard together it'll probably be cheaper, but it might be a bit harder trying to find motherboard features that you want.

Still, I highly doubt they will just stop making LGA processors.

[SkyDX]

Well someone on another forum pointed out that this article appears to be a mistranslation and that only Broadway won't be receiving a socket-version, the generation afterwards will however^^ Apparently this was mentioned in the comments of the Semi-Accurate article and I would look for it but I have to go out soon^^

[Phouchg]

That's a load of BS, imo. Intel did made CPU that needed to be soldered to the motherboard, in the past. In the 286-386 era. The market is a completely different beast right now....

Sadly, this idea indeed appears to have resurfaced:

http://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/motherboards/desktop-motherboards/next-unit-computing-introduction.html

Next Unit of Computing my lower back. IT'S A NETTOP! And pretty lame one at that. I can see it being a reasonable HTPC, among others, what with the (dual) HDMI or the 'Bolt (no one really cares about), but no USB 3.0, no analog audio, no S/PDIF, either. While we're at it, BY model (at the very least) suffers from WiFi card overheating the SSD. Intel promises to fix it, but it's more or less a design defect - they're simply too close to each other. What one's going to do about it? Nothing! Because it isn't possible to do anything else than pray that Intel indeed fixes it, or go exchange it. Or cry for your money.

Note that SODIMMs, mSATA SSD and half-size WiFi card must be bought separately - I guess that's good, except that the price of the little crap alone is $300.

I wrote two articles for the local site about this, compiling a lot of sources. Unfortunately, a lot of people seem to be genuinely impressed with it, for some reason. :|

[Glassed Silver]

...no there is another...

Nobody but Intel and AMD produce CPUs based on the x86 architecture, so no.

And if you think ARM is a viable alternative right now, I'm sorry to have to disagree very very strongly here.

Upgrade is not the point. The ability to do so is. See, motherboards arrive dead or fail, I'd say, three orders of magnitude more than processors do. How it will be more reliable and cheaper to change the whole thing? For example: if my big huge motherboard with all bells and whistles dies, I can buy some entry level crap for 30 $/? and still stuff 3770K in it and enjoy most if not all its capabilities. If my CPU dies, I can buy 30 $/? worth Celeron G to get my system going.

Now, as some have already said, it will not end with CPU sockets. Systems will become integrated to teeth, just like smartshytes and schmablets have - unopenable, with no swappable batteries, no removable storage etc. What one has to do when they fail in the slightest? Send them to the nearest RMA center, and in most cases after a month (30 days being in the consumer law here) of couldn't-be-arsed-to-look-at-it they'll exchange it for a new device because nothing can be repaired regardless of the damage. If you were lucky enough to get the data out or keep a copy, that's it. I could just have my disk attached to another machine and keep going all the time. With a proper machine, if big huge RAM dies, I can put 10 $/? ValueRAM 2 GB stick and keep going. If a discrete GPU dies, I can put the oldest PCI-E crap that barely moves bits around, but keep going.

Or welcome to the out-of-control generation...

Post of the day.

Fu** it, post of the month! (Y)

I think I'll create a couple of dupe accounts to give this the amount of likes it deserves... :shifty:

edit: / addition:

Sorry guys, read page 3 now and apparently it's not what it seemed to be.

Apart from that, I still think Phouchg's post is excellent, as it is a nice take on how some people would be totally careless about it happening and the message is true with other things going on in the tech industry where many people downplay the importance of repairability, maintaining your gear yourself and so forth.

I often feel alienated with my sentiments around some people, so yeah, nice read!

Glassed Silver:ios

[n_K]

Nobody but Intel and AMD produce CPUs based on the x86 architecture, so no.

And if you think ARM is a viable alternative right now, I'm sorry to have to disagree very very strongly here.

Wrong. VIA and cyrix both produce/produced x86 architecture.

Transmeta does too.

[ViperAFK]

Upgrade is not the point. The ability to do so is. See, motherboards arrive dead or fail, I'd say, three orders of magnitude more than processors do. How it will be more reliable and cheaper to change the whole thing? For example: if my big huge motherboard with all bells and whistles dies, I can buy some entry level crap for 30 $/? and still stuff 3770K in it and enjoy most if not all its capabilities. If my CPU dies, I can buy 30 $/? worth Celeron G to get my system going.

Now, as some have already said, it will not end with CPU sockets. Systems will become integrated to teeth, just like smartshytes and schmablets have - unopenable, with no swappable batteries, no removable storage etc. What one has to do when they fail in the slightest? Send them to the nearest RMA center, and in most cases after a month (30 days being in the consumer law here) of couldn't-be-arsed-to-look-at-it they'll exchange it for a new device because nothing can be repaired regardless of the damage. If you were lucky enough to get the data out or keep a copy, that's it. I could just have my disk attached to another machine and keep going all the time. With a proper machine, if big huge RAM dies, I can put 10 $/? ValueRAM 2 GB stick and keep going. If a discrete GPU dies, I can put the oldest PCI-E crap that barely moves bits around, but keep going.

Or welcome to the out-of-control generation...

Agreed, I can't believe anyone in their right mind thinks this is a good thing for desktop pc's.

[f0rk_b0mb]

Why is the new trend fixing what isn't broken?