ubercake said:
I like how the X-series boards have mounts for the CPU coolers built in. Every motherboard should have these. Backplates are fine since they provide similar functionality, but wouldn't even be necessary if every motherboard had these mounts. The push-through types of coolers (ie stock) remind me of the 1990s; yeah... work it from opposite corners and keep pushing until you hear/see it catch (or your motherboard cracks).
Does it cost that much money to simply put the mounts on the motherboard? Anyhow, I like that feature of any X79 or X99 boards.
Well, as far as costs go, many motherboard manufacturers go with RealTek NICs to embed on their board instead of the Intel NICs, yet the Intel NICs cost only $1.72, and don't use a PCIe lane because they use a dedicated interface from the chipset, so they're easier to design into the board. They do this to save less than a buck per board. This shows how much they care about quality and functionality over cost. So, the extra ~$2-3 for a socket with an integrated mount for coolers is probably something Intel takes into account for the board makers when designing their sockets for mainstream systems.
In this case, socket 2011 for x79, and the new socket 2011-3 for the X99 boards, are originally designed around server use, so they go for the stability and functionality over the cost. Server platforms have other considerations over cost, so they do things better. It just so happens some of that leaks through to the high end desktop market because of this.