Which socket offers the best long-term value?

[the_director]

AMD have in recent times offered a gradual upgrade path and good backward compatability with their motherboards, whilst Intel have changed sockets for every new processor.

Is this merely because Intel made much bigger improvements to their CPUs than AMD in recent times and had to change sockets, or are Intel just cynically changing sockets to keep people dipping into their pockets?

In terms of what AMD and Intel have on the market now which offers the longest future - the 990FX which is compatible with existing AMD CPUs and the new Bulldozer range - or the 1155 socket which offers the best value / performance CPUs right now and the prospect of being compatible with Ivybridge?

I suppose socket 2011 is only for real enthusiasts and will be very pricey - but will also support Ivybridge as well.

Any thoughts? It must seem madness to consider the AMD 990FX chipset without knowing what BD will be like, but is it worth a punt simply because you could hope the motherboard would last a few generations of AMD CPUs whereas Intel might be switching sockets again after Ivybridge?

 

[Redmint]

Personally I wouldn't give 990FX "a punt" without knowing anything about bulldozer. If you're desperate to build a new system now Sandy Bridge is more than capable, otherwise wait and see how Bulldozer actually performs.

 

[danewesley]

it also depends on what the system will be used for, i mean if its a general browsing rig, gaming etc then i guess anything up to 3/4 years, with the odd upgrade of gpu etc, most people on steam are still using socket 775 systems.

i had amd, then went to intel sandybridge, that lasted two months and now im back on an athlon x2 250, cheap am3 matx board and a 5850, upgrading to a cross-hair iii i got cheap and im looking at a hex core chip too. if i hadnt messed around with all that i could have kept my first rig for a few years at least.

 

[LiE]

I don't think there is as much need to upgrade CPUs these days. Current CPUs have more than enough power to run apps/games and tend not to bottleneck things. If you do a lot of CPU intensive tasks and need to reduce the time it takes then upgrading CPU is always worthwhile.

 

[panyan]

long-term? i;d say am3+ becuase amd usually keep their sockets for a while and this is their latest so i assume it will be here for a while

 

[Hagar]

I would add go for the chipset you are most comfortable with that supports the hardware you need. Not just the CPU but PCIe, memory bus, ancillaries and storage support. Reliability is important also.

AMD have gone in fairly small steps since AM2 through to AM3+ with lots of backward compatibility. A couple of weeks may see the release of the AM3+ CPU benchmarks

Intel tend to be more radical in socket design changes.

 

[Marine-RX179]

I think it really depending if you want performance or save money on upgrade in the future.

The reason why AMD's have the advantage of sockets being backward compatable together with the disadvantage of couldn't compete with Intel on performance's end is because they been basically using the same architecture for the past 7 years. The newer CPU such as the Phenom II series K10 architecture is tweaked from the original K6 date back to 2003~2004.

In fact, Bulldozer being backward compatable with some AM3 platform is in a bit of a concern in my opinion, cause what it could means it is simply CPU with 8 cores that's STILL partically based on the old architecture, and each individual core might not offer comparable speed/power that on each individual core on the SandyBridge CPU- which would mean lower frame rate for gaming (since majority of the game are not even designed to use up the 4 cores fully).

What I'm trying to say is...while AM3+ might last for quite a while and can upgrade to a few more generations of AMD CPU coming in the future, but without socket change, the chances are the "new" AMD CPU in 3-4 generation's later wouldn't be able to compete with Intel's 3-4 generations later's CPU- much like how the Phenom II is way much inferior in gaming peroformance comparing to the first gen Intel i5/i7. Well that said...IF the "1st gen" AM3+ CPU Bulldozer fail to compete with SandyBridge head to head, the future certainly wouldn't look too bright for the later gens CPUs, especially without socket change...