Intel's Haswell could be the end of the road for upgrading your CPU

[DeViiL]

[h=1]Intel's Haswell could be the end of the road for upgrading your CPU[/h]By: Anthony Garreffa

For as long as I remember, I've loved having the ability of upgrading the CPU in my computer - back in the days of the original Pentium (and even before that), and the glory days of the Celeron 300A - the option was always there, but it could have its days numbered.

According to a report, starting with Intel's Broadwell generation of processors, Intel will only offer mainstream desktop CPUs in BGA packaging - killing upgrade options, and hurting PC makers. Starting with Broadwell, Intel's CPUs will depart the current land grid array (LGA) and micro pin grid array (µPGA) packages, and only offering chips in ball grid array (BGA) form factors, just like their Atom processors.

Japanese site, PC Watch, has said that the Haswell processors might be the last desktop chips arriving in LGA packaging. This would mean you won't be upgrading your CPU anymore, with no way of changing the CPU on the motherboard when this happens. It all begins with Broadwell in 2013, where all mainstream desktop processors being made available in BGA.

This might not sound like a threatening move by Intel, but by doing this - you're going to receive a CPU physically soldered onto your motherboard. This is no easy feat, and will be done in very sophisticated manufacturing facilities. Maybe we're going to see a throwback to the old school days of physically modding your motherboard or CPU to achieve something better - or an upgrade in this case.

The market is pushing toward low-power chips, so Intel will offer Broadwell-based chips in various Broadwell multi-chip modules. These will sport Broadwell CPUs featuring an integrated memory controller, graphics core and more. Also included will be Wildcat Point input/output controllers, with various thermal design power envelopes - which we should see in 10W, 15W and 47W/57W.

Source: TweakTown
Intel's Haswell could be the end of the road for upgrading your CPU :: TweakTown USA Edition

 

[mave3]

So the end of upgrading....!!!
this is going to be sad...but still there might be a way to overclock the cpuz..
they just cant end like that...!!!

 

[DeViiL]

That might even be the edge AMD has be looking for and Intel will hand that over to AMD on silver plater

 

[Hassan]

This section is for the articles which are written by PG members since you didn't wrote it, so its just a news to me. It should be posted here i guess: Hardware Newsroom

 

[shoaibmallick]

means the intel will only make the motherboard with attached intel processor no more gigabyte asus or msi

 

[Baghi]

Quoted from the source:

While mainstream chips will reportedly be only supplied in BGA form-factors soldered to mainboards, which eliminates upgrade possibility, it is likely that high-end desktop (HEDT) platforms will still be supplied in LGA packaging. What remains to be seen is how expensive will such chips be. For example, at present the most affordable LGA2011 HEDT chip costs $294, whereas the most expensive performance-mainstream LGA1155 processor costs $332. In case upgradeable platforms remain on the HEDT’s price levels of today, that will essentially mean the end of upgrades of the mainstream PCs.

So basically, instead of buying an i5, you'll have to buy an i7. Not a big deal I guess. This is another cheap move from Intel, seeing how good value an i5 is they're forcing people to buy an i7.

 

[Tech Reaper]

So what I am guessing is that the cpu will be solded on motherboard for ever and if we have to upgrade it, we have to change the whole motherboard?

 

[ahmedleo]

yup the freedom of changing/upgrading your cpu will be gone.

 

[imlegend]

Mehh its not going to happen ... but if its true what they are try to do is that 1st they are using mainstream lower end consumers to test out things if they can grab enough consumers then they will go big else this project will stop immediately and they are not going to use their money they will be getting big investors because if this fail they will still be safe because companies like this don't fire with eyes closed ... also it will take alteast 5 year to see embedded processors .... for example

Apple iPhone --- > Huge Consumers ---> Still Going

HP Palm ----> Less Consumers maybe very less ---> Discontinue

so i think you get the general idea where this is going ...

 

[desprado]

This Just rumors.I bet if this happens Intel will go on huge loss people will shit to amd and intel dont want that

 

[fakeprince]

intel will still rule thats my prediction :wink2:

 

[HMS1193]

yup the freedom of changing/upgrading your cpu will be gone.

Freedom of upgrading and overclocking would cease to exist on a different platform though you will have to pay more for it. LGA 2011 would become compatible with Ivy Bridge-E (2013) and Haswell-E (2014/2015).

 

[Lord Ammar]

The future is mobile. And mobile computers have SoC

 

[AsadAbrar]

That is bad for me. I'm preparing for a gaming PC to buy in 2014.

 

[furball]

That is bad for me. I'm preparing for a gaming PC to buy in 2014.

dont worry amd is available as second option. i dont think Intel will do that

 

[zaeem088]

This news could be true. a lot of reasons behind this. intel want to become all nd all. thats why he is more focusing to out big players that will make him one huge giant in ic industry then wtever intel force we have to buy it because then there will no other option. Lets hope for best but what can we do. we like it or not intel will do that because he knows his product will sell. Tell me is there any other option rather than intel in pakistan?????

 

[Dark Sith]

if they do this then only the enthuasiast section is left --and which means premium prices ftw ..........

 

[AlienX]

The life cycle of hardware revisions is way too fast to predict anything. Intel will test out the packaging on one generation in limited, low end, Market and may move back to LGA on next revision. After all we have seen 3 socket generations in less than 5 years.

People who are worried about upgrades are over analyzing the situation. If ASUS, Gigabyte or other manufacturer is going to give Motherboards with Processors integrated, than it might as well open up more possibilities with enhanced and compatible BIOS and overclocking capabilities.

On Practical ground. You still can't upgrade if you are on 1156 socket, you can't use an ivy CPU unless you upgrade your MB. Similarly even if you are on ivy bridge, intel will change the socket anyway and you will still end up buying a new motherboard.

Its the problem of overly rich and over spending PC enthusiasts who want to change processor and/or motherboard every month. Mainstream users will still build a PC and use it till next generation or two.

And I recommend everyone to watch this little cute video, and you'll understand why are you worried . who moved my cheese - YouTube

 

[mave3]

[MENTION=4990]AlienX[/MENTION] u got a point there..
its to early to jump to conclusions..
and after all...as we speak....how many out there are on the latest technology???
ppl do upgrade but not only for overclocking..
there are going to be loads of optimizations in the latest package...
just wait and see what happens...!!!

 

[AlienX]

@AlienX u got a point there..
its to early to jump to conclusions..
and after all...as we speak....how many out there are on the latest technology???
ppl do upgrade but not only for overclocking..
there are going to be loads of optimizations in the latest package...
just wait and see what happens...!!!

Exactly. Technically you can predict only on previous statistics isn't it. Even if we take it into account.

A current low end Core i3 Buyer/User will most like use PC/Laptop for basic purposes. So why would he care if processor is upgradable or not if overclocking is provided on board. Specific to that processor.

A current Mainstream Core i5 user will use PC for mainstream gaming and computing. The Performance benefit of only changing the CPU is so minimal that its only shown in synthetic benchmarks and not in practical situations.

Then there is high end market with Core i7, why would they want to upgrade in first place any way ?, Just buy a high end board with latest CPU and voila for next two generations.

In all above cases, whenever you skip a generation you have to change motherboard when upgrading. The upgrading cost of staying in same generation is way too high considering a new chipset is released almost every year.

Integrated SOC have a great use in low end market (Atom). But moving on to same move on high end will not only optimize overall TDP and energy consumption, but will give hardware manufactures a great opportunity to optimize the platforms instead of inexperienced PC users fiddling with incompatible components.

For example Apple has been doing it for years, best desktop PCs in the world and "not upgradable", but does it matter. NO.