Intel is axing the socket

from Elemental Forums

So, I was browsing around the internet instead of working again, and I came up with this:

http://semiaccurate.com/2012/11/26/intel-kills-off-the-desktop-pcs-go-with-it/

In short, the CPU that Intel is prepping after next year's Haswell, that Broadwell thing, won't be using a standard socket, it will be soldered to the motherboard. So that means no more upgrades and a lot less tweaking. Also a lot less motherboards.

Sure, upgrading my CPU was a bit of a hassle, but being able to do it really helped. And with AMD on the ropes, it doesn't sound like the enthusiast/people who fiddle with stuff market is going to have a very bright future ahead. In my opinion, that kinda stinks.

Anyone with more knowledge on the subject care to share some insight? 

54,279 views 9 replies
Reply #1 from Sins Forums Top

I read about this on xtremesystems forums and i do not think this is the case. Something along the line is going to happen, it has a lot to do with tablets and portable stuff, but Broadwell is meant to be mobile chip anyway, so i would hazard a guess, this is not what it looks like (killing off desktop/overclocking)...

But yeah, i would say, there wont be any performance/enthusiast computer parts in few years anymore...you either get mainstream stuff without possibility to upgrade/tinker with it... or workstation/server parts for some cold hard cash... 

that is most unfortunate, but what can we do... 

 

 

Reply #2 from GalCiv2 Forums Top

Well I still plan on building a new PC myself.  Just because I have to get the motherboard from the Borg Collective doesn't mean I have to let Dell box it up into the Voyager PC. :P

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Reply #3 from Elemental Forums Top

It's been so long since I've replaced a CPU. I prefer to just look at the motherboard and CPU as a single thing.

Reply #4 from Elemental Forums Top

Time to dig up that soldering gun, for we must unsolder what has been soldered.

Reply #5 from Elemental Forums Top

To be honest last 3 upgrades of my own was motherboard + processor + memory ... and I am upgrading too often as I think

 

p35 + core duo e8400 + 4Gb ddr2 feb 2009
p67 + core i7 2600 + 8Gb ddr3 mar 2011
z77 + core i7 3770 + 32Gb ddr3 jun 2012

 

 

 

 

 

Reply #6 from Sins Forums Top

Quoting rouher, reply 6


p35 + core duo e8400 + 4Gb ddr2 feb 2009

 

 

I had this combo as well :-) well, technically i still have and use it as backup

but replaced it with x58 + i7 980x + 24GB DDR3 in summer 2010 and have no plans to upgrade that in near future, as its still awesome

at one point though, i went batshit crazy with GPUs... i built the computer for some archviz rendering (and obviously gaming and other pointless stuff), therefore the extreme intel CPU....but just few months later decided to dump CPU based rendering apps for new GPU-based Octane renderer.... so i bought Gainward GTX460 1GB...turned out i needed more VRAM...so i sold it and bought basically the same card, just with 2GBs of VRAM, but felt it was not fast enough, so i bought another one LOL...and found out 2 cards are BS with my mobo layout/case combo, as they were loud as hell during  load... so again i sold one, kept other one for the older machine and finally did what i had to do in the first place, bought gtx590 :-D

the moral lesson of this story is just to get in the future, what i think i need/want and not f**k around, because something is too expensive/maybe not worth etc...cause i wont be satisfied with second-string solutions anyway, and fixing wrong choices can be in the end more costly as well... 

Reply #7 from Elemental Forums Top

This is rumor but makes sense with the market's emphasis on mobile.

Meanwhile there's other shifts in the market (including gpu based competition to the cpu and things like arduino) and note also that non-socketed cpus can go on a mobile sized device that has a standard bus (and with open hardware concepts the concept of "standard bus" might turn into something new). 

Keep in mind also that electronics are bandwidth limited - you can transfer information a lot faster optically than you can electronically though there's an engineering problem here connecting the two when the speeds are so mismatched.

Reply #8 from Sins Forums Top

There will probably be some niche market for hobby kit pc parts for a long time, but the trend seems to be moving towards completely integrated devices with few upgrade options.  Apple is kind of leading the way here, but it does make certain amount of sense for the big manufacturers if they can make better products for cheaper in this manner.  Not saying it is better for us, but I can see how it is better for their bottom line.

Reply #9 from Elemental Forums Top

Integration may be better for us in the long run.  We'll see.  Graphics always pushed the envelop and forced upgrades.  Graphics quality is finally beginning to plateau.  This should force developers to focus on gameplay since they can't rely on a new game simply looking better than last year's version.