Leaked Intel roadmap shows Broadwell-K chips to arrive in late 2014

Shawn Knight

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During Intel’s recent quarterly earnings conference call, the company revealed that production of Broadwell processors has been pushed back a full quarter due to yield problems with the 14-nanometer production process. As such, the company will now start production in the first quarter of 2014 and according to a leaked Intel roadmap, unlocked Broadwell chips aren’t scheduled to arrive until the fourth quarter of 2014.

The chip in question is expected to be based on the LGA 1150 socket although it may still require a new motherboard due to a change in Intel’s power specifications for the socket. Specifically, we are told the new requirements involve a different power supply for VCCST and a V_PROC_IO for 1.05V and a new chip topology that requires a modified THRMTRIP output buffer.

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Interestingly enough, the late 2014 Broadwell-K chip is the only Broadwell processor on the roadmap for all of 2014 and early 2015. Predictably, Haswell will receive a refresh and should arrive before the Broadwell-K chips ship.

Part of the reason for the lack of Broadwell chips on the roadmap could be due to a rumor that surfaced early this year. A trusted source in the motherboard industry revealed that some Broadwell CPUs would arrive pre-soldered onto desktop boards. They even claim that all low-end variants of Broadwell would arrive in this fashion but whether or not that pans out remains to be seen.

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I understand the reasons for having a pre-soldered chipset but from a system builders perspective and PC gaming/PC Enthusiast perspective, its going to ruffle some feathers.
For example, upgrading my prehistoric i7 930/X58 build is still possible, I might just slap in a 970 and crank it up to 4Ghz 24/7. After seeing games take advantage of 6 cores/12 threads and more cache, that with another 670 would make my old junker quite formidable going on half a decade old.
 
I understand the reasons for having a pre-soldered chipset but from a system builders perspective and PC gaming/PC Enthusiast perspective, its going to ruffle some feathers.

Luckily, it looks like they were only planning this move for low-end variations of Broadwell. Sources have confirmed that socketed CPU solutions are on the horizon for Intel at least through 2016. It's annoying either way, to say the least.
 
I understand the reasons for having a pre-soldered chipset but from a system builders perspective and PC gaming/PC Enthusiast perspective, its going to ruffle some feathers.
For example, upgrading my prehistoric i7 930/X58 build is still possible, I might just slap in a 970 and crank it up to 4Ghz 24/7. After seeing games take advantage of 6 cores/12 threads and more cache, that with another 670 would make my old junker quite formidable going on half a decade old.
Sure your build is archaic by today's standards but it's still relevant and capable. No reason to trash it.
 
I understand the reasons for having a pre-soldered chipset but from a system builders perspective and PC gaming/PC Enthusiast perspective, its going to ruffle some feathers.
For example, upgrading my prehistoric i7 930/X58 build is still possible, I might just slap in a 970 and crank it up to 4Ghz 24/7. After seeing games take advantage of 6 cores/12 threads and more cache, that with another 670 would make my old junker quite formidable going on half a decade old.
Sure your build is archaic by today's standards but it's still relevant and capable. No reason to trash it.

I agree. You don't need to have the latest components or spend a ton of money just to have a good experience gaming on pc. Case in point:

I built a rig for my bro with a Xeon x3230 (q6700) [$45-eBay auction] in a GA-P43T-ES3G Gigabyte board that supports DDR3 [$35 eBay used]. I put some copper heatsinks on the mosfets, mounted a GeminII S524 (cools vrm & northbridge) [$30 - amazon] and cranked that ***** up to 10multi x 360fsb or, 3.6GHz @1.5v (w/ vdroop mod) I paired it with 8GB of cl8 1333 ram [40 - ebay] and an msi 650 ti boost [$110 (after coupon and rebate)- newegg], powered by an 520w Antec neo-eco 520c [$40 - newegg] used some older parts I had laying around 500GB SATA HDD, $20 case, and IDE DVD drive, and for around $375 total cost, he has a very solid budget gaming system. I have yet to see the processor be a significant bottleneck for that gpu in any game he plays at 1920x1080.
 
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