Future Socket 1156 cpus?

James_p · 14 Jan 2011 at 17:18

Hi,

I'm looking at building two fairly basic PCs - one of them is simply for office, photos and the internet, possibly the odd game.

The budgets roughly £300 so was originally thinking of a i3 540. but after reading a few bits on the internet I'm wondering what sort of upgrade future there is for Socket 1156 cpus?

Is it already at the end of the line?

Thanks

nlel1975 · 14 Jan 2011 at 17:21

James_p said:
Hi,

I'm looking at building two fairly basic PCs - one of them is simply for office, photos and the internet, possibly the odd game.

The budgets roughly £300 so was originally thinking of a i3 540. but after reading a few bits on the internet I'm wondering what sort of upgrade future there is for Socket 1156 cpus?

Is it already at the end of the line?

Thanks

No point worrying about sockets, they come and go and you cannot future proof anything.

stulid · 14 Jan 2011 at 17:21

Go AM3, when the new Bulldozer AM3+ stuff is released, you can take your current cpu and insert it into a AM3+ motherboard, keeping the ram too.

then when funds allow, sell the cpu and put a 8 core bulldozer AM3+ cpu in, so there is a sort of stepped future upgrade ability with it.

shadow_boxer · 14 Jan 2011 at 17:21

As you say socket is 1156 is now end of line but by no means dead. Is £300 the budget for each PC? Do you have any components which could be recycled or is it a complete build you are after? Also AMD would offer better bang-for-buck in your price range.

As for your question, you could get i3 540 then upgrade when is becomes slow to a second hand quad core i5 750/760.

shadow_boxer · 14 Jan 2011 at 17:22

stulid said:
Go AM3, when the new Bulldozer AM3+ stuff is released, you can take your current cpu and insert it into a AM3+ motherboard, keeping the ram too.

then when funds allow, sell the cpu and put a 8 core bulldozer AM3+ cpu in, so there is a sort of stepped future upgrade ability with it.

Didn't think current CPUs were going to be forward compatible with AM3+ ? :confused:

stulid · 14 Jan 2011 at 17:25

shadow_boxer said:
Didn't think current CPUs were going to be forward compatible with AM3+ ?

Clearly you have missed a lot then

http://www.xbitlabs.com/news/cpu/di...rocessors_Will_Require_New_Platforms_AMD.html

Orcvader · 14 Jan 2011 at 17:30

As far as I know, there will be no more new 1156 CPUs being released. The 1155 socket has replaced 1156, and they are not compatible with each other.

shadow_boxer · 14 Jan 2011 at 17:34

stulid said:
Clearly you have missed a lot then

http://www.xbitlabs.com/news/cpu/di...rocessors_Will_Require_New_Platforms_AMD.html

thanks for the link, yeah missed it, been of the game over recent months

DragonQ · 14 Jan 2011 at 17:35

Orcvader said:
As far as I know, there will be no more new 1156 CPUs being released. The 1155 socket has replaced 1156, and they are not compatible with each other.

They probably could've been though, what with that strange P67 LGA1156 motherboard.

stulid · 14 Jan 2011 at 17:36

DragonQ said:
They probably could've been though, what with that strange P67 LGA1156 motherboard.

I remember something like that!! ASrock? I think it was?

cmndr_andi · 14 Jan 2011 at 17:36

If you are buying a basic PC now- then I would look to the Athlon II X3 and X4 CPUs. They are well priced, fast enough and do well with multithreaded apps.

If you are buying in February I would strongly consider the new S1155 i3/i5 CPUs. These will be even cheaper than what we have seen already and with the sandy bridge architecture they will be fast and not use much power.

I'm pretty sure the s1156 socket is done now. That's not to say new CPUs won't roll out - Intel released the E6300 PDC when s775 was very dead, but I wouldn't bank on this. Best to either go AMD or one of the new, faster SB CPUs.

James_p · 14 Jan 2011 at 17:40

£300 & £400 ex vat - The second pc is for photoshop/solidworks (3D drawing)

I've got:
1 x Corsair HX 520W PSU and case
one SATA hard drive.
2x DVD-RWs
2x Montiors, keyboard, mouse

Orcvader · 14 Jan 2011 at 17:43

DragonQ said:
They probably could've been though, what with that strange P67 LGA1156 motherboard.

I googled and got this: http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/p67-transformer-lga-1155-intel-lynnfield,2815.html

How does this work... I thought P67 only supports 1155 CPUs? I'm confused

stulid · 14 Jan 2011 at 17:45

Your basketProduct Name Qty Price Line Total
Coolermaster Elite 430 Windowed Case - Black (with 500w Elite Power PSU) £64.33
(£53.61) £64.33
(£53.61)
AMD Athlon II X3 Tri Core 445 3.10GHz (Socket AM3) - Retail £59.99
(£49.99) £59.99
(£49.99)
Asus M4A78LT-M 760G (Socket AM3) DDR3 Motherboard £50.03
(£41.69) £50.03
(£41.69)
GeIL 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz VALUE PLUS Dual Channel (GVP34GB1600C9DC) £41.99
(£34.99) £41.99
(£34.99)
Sub Total : £180.28
Shipping cost assumes delivery to UK Mainland with:
DPD Next Day Parcel
(This can be changed during checkout) Shipping : £10.00
VAT is being charged at 20.00% VAT : £38.06
Total : £228.34

plus your SATA hardrdive and a DVD-RW

======================================================

Your basketProduct Name Qty Price Line Total
AMD Phenom II X6 Six Core 1055T 2.80GHz (Socket AM3) - Retail £141.98
(£118.32) £141.98
(£118.32)
Crucial RealSSD C300 64GB 2.5" SATA 6Gb/s Solid State Hard Drive (CTFDDAC064MAG-1G1) £95.99
(£79.99) £95.99
(£79.99)
Asus M4A78LT-M 760G (Socket AM3) DDR3 Motherboard £50.03
(£41.69) £50.03
(£41.69)
GeIL 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz VALUE PLUS Dual Channel (GVP34GB1600C9DC) £41.99
(£34.99) £41.99
(£34.99)
Samsung SpinPoint F3 1TB SATA-II 32MB Cache - OEM (HD103SJ) £40.99
(£34.16) £40.99
(£34.16)
Sub Total : £309.15
Shipping cost assumes delivery to UK Mainland with:
DPD Next Day Parcel
(This can be changed during checkout) Shipping : £9.50
VAT is being charged at 20.00% VAT : £63.73
Total : £382.38

Plus your case and HX520psu and the other DVD-RW

CAT-THE-FIFTH · 14 Jan 2011 at 17:47

cmndr_andi said:
If you are buying a basic PC now- then I would look to the Athlon II X3 and X4 CPUs. They are well priced, fast enough and do well with multithreaded apps.

If you are buying in February I would strongly consider the new S1155 i3/i5 CPUs. These will be even cheaper than what we have seen already and with the sandy bridge architecture they will be fast and not use much power.

I'm pretty sure the s1156 socket is done now. That's not to say new CPUs won't roll out - Intel released the E6300 PDC when s775 was very dead, but I wouldn't bank on this. Best to either go AMD or one of the new, faster SB CPUs.

The Core i3 2100 is available for around £100 on pre-order at some well known retailers. The new Core i3 range seems to be no cheaper than the old one.

Also,AM3 motherboards start at around £30 to £40 too.

cmndr_andi · 14 Jan 2011 at 17:51

CAT-THE-FIFTH said:
The Core i3 2100 is available for around £100 on pre-order at some well known retailers. The new Core i3 range seems to be no cheaper than the old one.

Sorry, what I meant by "what we have seen already" was the i5 and i7 sandy bridge CPUs that have just been released.

As you say, these new SB i3/i5 will be no cheaper than existing s1156 i3/i5s as they are direct replacements. They will just be faster and more power efficient.

James_p · 14 Jan 2011 at 19:38

Hmmm Interesting, I hadn't considered AMD. I thought they couldn't compete with intel at the moment.

How much can the onboard gfx do?

stulid · 14 Jan 2011 at 19:40

James_p said:
How much can the onboard gfx do?

http://www.bit-tech.net/hardware/graphics/2010/05/24/amd-880g-graphics-performance-review/1

James_p · 16 Jan 2011 at 11:34

stulid said:
http://www.bit-tech.net/hardware/graphics/2010/05/24/amd-880g-graphics-performance-review/1

Thanks, that really helps.

stulid said:
Your basketProduct Name Qty Price Line Total
Coolermaster Elite 430 Windowed Case - Black (with 500w Elite Power PSU) £64.33
(£53.61) £64.33
(£53.61)
AMD Athlon II X3 Tri Core 445 3.10GHz (Socket AM3) - Retail £59.99
(£49.99) £59.99
(£49.99)
Asus M4A78LT-M 760G (Socket AM3) DDR3 Motherboard £50.03
(£41.69) £50.03
(£41.69)
GeIL 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz VALUE PLUS Dual Channel (GVP34GB1600C9DC) £41.99
(£34.99) £41.99
(£34.99)
Sub Total : £180.28
Shipping cost assumes delivery to UK Mainland with:
DPD Next Day Parcel
(This can be changed during checkout) Shipping : £10.00
VAT is being charged at 20.00% VAT : £38.06
Total : £228.34

plus your SATA hardrdive and a DVD-RW

======================================================

Your basketProduct Name Qty Price Line Total
AMD Phenom II X6 Six Core 1055T 2.80GHz (Socket AM3) - Retail £141.98
(£118.32) £141.98
(£118.32)
Crucial RealSSD C300 64GB 2.5" SATA 6Gb/s Solid State Hard Drive (CTFDDAC064MAG-1G1) £95.99
(£79.99) £95.99
(£79.99)
Asus M4A78LT-M 760G (Socket AM3) DDR3 Motherboard £50.03
(£41.69) £50.03
(£41.69)
GeIL 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz VALUE PLUS Dual Channel (GVP34GB1600C9DC) £41.99
(£34.99) £41.99
(£34.99)
Samsung SpinPoint F3 1TB SATA-II 32MB Cache - OEM (HD103SJ) £40.99
(£34.16) £40.99
(£34.16)
Sub Total : £309.15
Shipping cost assumes delivery to UK Mainland with:
DPD Next Day Parcel
(This can be changed during checkout) Shipping : £9.50
VAT is being charged at 20.00% VAT : £63.73
Total : £382.38

Plus your case and HX520psu and the other DVD-RW

Can't see any issues with the first build. The 2nd is going to need a dedicated gfx so may have to drop the SSD. From what I've read it's possible to softmod ATI cards to be a FireGL/FirePro but then a nvidia may be fine straight out of the box for CAD/Solidworks.

James_p · 16 Jan 2011 at 23:00

I really can't decide on this, having thought about it unless you needed a specific connection, why would you upgrade just the mobo?

On the first build, if I was to stretch the budget a bit further I could probably get an i3. If it's overclocked is it going to clock better than the X3 Tri Core 445?

On the 2nd build, is a 520W sufficient? I've read the cpu is fairly power hungry when overclocked and under full load