Intel: We're Still Committed To Sockets
Intel has finally stepped forth to defend its position on socket-based CPUs.
Here's the story so far: a recent report indicated that Intel may ditch offering LGA-based processors to the mainstream, off-the-shelf PC market, and rely on BGA packaging due to a market trend towards low-powered CPUs and ultra-thin form factors. Thus retail desktops offered by HP, Acer and other OEMs would not be upgradeable on the CPU front.
The news caused quite a stir, but there was speculation that Intel wouldn't completely abandon the socketed CPU market, offering them to system builders who want only the fastest possible CPU on the earth. Intel didn't respond to the report, but AMD followed up by saying it has no plans to abandon socketed processors, at least not in the next few years.
"As the company that introduced new types of BGA packages in ultrathin platforms several years ago, and today offers BGA-packaged processors for everything from ultrathin notebooks to all-in-one desktops, to embedded applications and tablets, we certainly understand Intel's enthusiasm for the approach," Hook stated. "But for the desktop market, and the enthusiasts with whom AMD has built its brand, we understand what matters to them and how we can continue to bring better value and a better experience."
With AMD's offering now circulating the DIY market, Intel has finally come forward with its own reaction to the report, stating that it has no plans to leave the socketed CPU sector for the "foreseeable future".
"Intel remains committed to the growing desktop enthusiast and channel markets, and will continue to offer socketed parts in the LGA package for the foreseeable future for our customers and the Enthusiast DIY market," Intel spokesman Daniel Snyder told Maximum PC. "However, Intel cannot comment on specific long-term product roadmap plans at this time, but will disclose more details later per our normal communication process."
As MaximumPC points out, Intel usually doesn't respond to speculation and rumor not to mention talk about unreleased products three years and three generations out. The combination of AMD's reply and the general angst caused by the possibility of BGA-only support likely pushed the company to say something in order to calm its restless customers.
But as previously stated, there was no indication that Intel would completely abandon LGA-packaged CPUs, but rather a possibility that Intel would switch to BGA-packaged processors for mainstream desktops. The idea isn't far-fetched: these consumers generally wouldn't upgrade their PC anyway – they'd keep it until it's old enough to crawl like a turtle, and then buy a new one instead of replace the crusty old components.
Even more, there's still plenty of business in the enterprise sector for socket-based CPUs, as network administrators need a quick way to upgrade their processors while saving money and downtime – you can't really do that when the processor is soldered to the motherboard. On the other hand, there's a growing interest in using low-power SoCs in servers, so we'll have to see where that goes and how that affects the LGA-based market.
I don't know that I've ever upgraded my CPU without also grabbing a new mobo and usually RAM. On the flipside, troubleshooting components would be much much easier, you would have one RMA that covered mobo, cpu, and theoretically RAM. If you could buy an i5-3570k on a z77 board with 2xpcie slots and 8GB (and 2 expansion RAM slots) for 250-275$, that would be a great value and cover a huge majority of what users need. If you have problems, you need to troubleshoot the GPU, the PSU, and the mobo, and RMA one of the 3.
I would hate to see the options we have now eliminated, but there are certainly benefits to the other approach.
For a moment I read: "We're Still Committed To Suckers" xD!
Well, anyway, as long as AMD is around, they will.
Cheers!
Also in regard to repairability, if my motherboard is out of warranty and it dies, it's going to take out my CPU as well. That means I can't just take out the CPU (since its solderd on) and put it into a new board. One can say that the processor by then may be potetially outdated and no use, but I say even if it's not suitable for gaming, I can still re-purpose the CPU (if a socketable one) as a secondary rig or file server of HTPC or give it to some one else or sell the CPU. I don't have any of those choices if the CPU is soldered on. I see that Intel is saying no changes for the foreseeable future, but what does that mean?
Is Broadwell beyond the foreseeable future?
While normally I would disagree with you due to our past differences, I think you have an excellet idea. Just remember though cell phones come with preloaded software. I can't imagine them giving up that kind of power for a few enthusiasts. Besides this would make forcing people to by a new cell phone every two years harder.
And besides, why would you need more power out of cell phone? You already used them to find me once.... Geez...
The other day my brother rebuilt his system (he was away from home for 3 months and didn't need his PC so he took it apart and boxed it). He put it together and wasn't getting any picture. He tried a couple different GPUs (mine and a GeForce 210, and still nothing. He was able to swap another CPU in (a Sempron) to confirm if it was a problem with the board d or the CPU. It worked. Then tested the original CPU (FX-8150) in my board, and it worked. Put everything back together again and realized there was a slight issue with the CPU socket on the board where it isn't latching the CPU securely, so the board wasn't powering properly. Now if this was a board with the BGA design, there would have been no headache of trying to figure out what was wrong, but he'd have had to toss the board, with its CPU and then throw down several hundred dollars for an equivalent CPU and motherboard.
I'm glad that, for now, Intel is staying off that track. I would have liked a bit more convincing statement, but I suppose this is better than nothing.
And if it had been a BGA design, there wouldn't have been a socket to have problems in the first place, so it would have never occurred. And note, I don't want BGA-only on mainstream CPUs any more than anyone else.
I could actually foresee a future where your motherboard would come with a low TDP, relatively inexpensive BGA processor embedded on it, but also have a socket for the main CPU. The system can stay awake via the low power consumption embedded CPU, and maybe even do some basic tasks, and wake the main CPU and other components on an as-needed basis.
That would actually be a great feature for someone like me. I leave my computer on all the time so I can access it remotely, but most of the time it's not doing anything.
And the original semiaccurate article went on to suggest that Intel is planning to sell these chips on boards, instead of just bare. That would mean Intel gets to play market segmentation games and force you to pay through the nose for a high-spec system.