Lower-end Broadwell CPUs may be soldered onto the motherboard

Shawn Knight

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Rumors surfaced late last year that Intel was planning to ditch socketed processors once Broadwell, the 14-nanometer successor to Haswell, is released. The chip giant ultimately denied the rumor, claiming they would offer socket CPUs for the foreseeable future. That of course did little to quell rumors as we are now hearing that at least some Broadwell chips will indeed be soldered directly to motherboards.

According to the Tech Report, a trusted source in the motherboard industry told them that some Broadwell chips will be permanently mated to the motherboards they ship with. In fact, some low-end Broadwell pieces may not come in socketed versions at all. The source did note that Intel isn’t totally ditching socketed processors and that they are still on the roadmap until at least 2016.

The idea of a motherboard and processor coming in a single package may not thrill many enthusiasts but we are told that it will give larger motherboard makers an advantage over their smaller rivals. High volume customers will be able to cherry pick processors for higher-end CPUs which means they could ultimately offer pre-overclocked combos or at least guarantee a certain amount of headroom with regards to clock speed.

The RMA process could be a bit trickier, especially for board makers. Despite the fact that Intel would eventually reimburse them for faulty processors, manufacturers would be on the hook for making the repairs. This again would be easier for larger companies as they would likely already have the equipment necessary to remove and resolder a new processor in place.

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No. Don't do it Intel. Don't screw yourself over with this. I want to be able to choose the processor and motherboard independently.
 
Nobody today seems to be having a problem with their SSD flash modules soldered to their stinking tablet's PCBs. How is this any different?

It's almost accepted that you have to ship half of Apples product line back to the factory to have the batteries replaced. They built the Mini-Mac so that you have to pry it apart with putty knives.

So, likely less than half, (or more), of the people that walk into an electronics even question what happens should something break. Disposability in home electronics has reached the big screen TV stage, and there's no news here.

The human race a stage in its inbreeding where this is to be accepted, even celebrated, as the way things are supposed to be.
 
Nobody today seems to be having a problem with their SSD flash modules soldered to their stinking tablet's PCBs. How is this any different?

Tablets aren't upgrade friendly in the first place. People buy them with the idea in mind that they aren't really fixable should something seriously go wrong.
 
I couldn't care less about CPU's being soldered onto the motherboard. Motherboards don't hold the same significance they did ten years ago, when you bought one with the features you need and then held onto it through several CPU upgrades. These days you can pick basically any compatible motherboard at random and all of them will function exactly the same pretty much; and the sockets change so frequently now that you need a new board every time you upgrade your processor.
 
Its unnecessary IMO. You know ill never be buying one because of it. Probably wouldnt anyway, but you never know.

The only people this affects are those who thrive on building cheap machines and upgrading over time.
 
Nobody today seems to be having a problem with their SSD flash modules soldered to their stinking tablet's PCBs. How is this any different?
Tablets aren't upgrade friendly in the first place. People buy them with the idea in mind that they aren't really fixable should something seriously go wrong.
A more pertinent school of thought is; How many low-end CPU/Motherboard buyers (and Intel was always looking at BGA for entry level SKUs) are likely to upgrade either component?
Upgrading is generally the province of the mainstream/enthusiast crowd as top-tier components trickle down to the more budget conscious enthusiast.

I'd also note that it isn't all downside on the entry level models- you'll still likely get a plethora of combinations offered by motherboard vendors, and given the RMA rates for budget motherboards, having the CPU pre-installed should cut down on DOAs since the CPU and mobo would need to be tested prior to packaging. Personally, for the budget orientated, I think we're likely to see a full motherboard package offered -including embedded RAM and mSATA- in the not too distant future

At the present time, enthusiast/workstation and performance aren't going socketless- and these are the people a BGA package would mostly affect
 
A more pertinent school of thought is; How many low-end CPU/Motherboard buyers (and Intel was always looking at BGA for entry level SKUs) are likely to upgrade either component?
Upgrading is generally the province of the mainstream/enthusiast crowd as top-tier components trickle down to the more budget conscious enthusiast.
That's pretty much what I was alluding to, albeit with my imposition of the amount of gallantry and tact the subject deserves. In this case, the divisor and the dividend are both zero.

Did you know that you can use you iPad to control your TV? Heavy duty, is that not?

Solder everything down, the person above with the iPad, is not someone you want j***ing off into a computer, or any computer type "device".
 
At the budget end of things I don't really see the problem with this, especially if it drops the price of the mobo/cpu combo. I built some PC recently that all they do is run QuickBooks POS. An nice cheap option like this would be perfect.
 
Sigh@Cranky's silly comments.

Anywaaaaays, I don't think I'll care (if done to the mid to high end) if Intel does solder their CPU's to motherboards. I've never used two CPU's on a motherboard and don't plan to. The plus side is the general performance across motherboards are equal. The only way to differentiate is to include additional features related to hardware monitoring, external drives and overclocking. As long as I have the ability to do average to above average overclocks, I could care less if I have to buy CPU and mobo together.
 
Sigh@Cranky's silly comments.
Aw, poor baby! The things you struggle to endure. Or as I like to think of it, "the slings and arrows of outrageous commentary".

Anywaaaaays, I don't think I'll care (if done to the mid to high end) if Intel does solder their CPU's to motherboards. I've never used two CPU's on a motherboard and don't plan to. The plus side is the general performance across motherboards are equal. The only way to differentiate is to include additional features related to hardware monitoring, external drives and overclocking. As long as I have the ability to do average to above average overclocks, I could care less if I have to buy CPU and mobo together.
Is Intel allowing overclocking now on their proprietary motherboards? Because, in the past, you couldn't even give one of those turds to an enthusiast. Maybe on just a few select chipsets and high end boards?

Every board review I've ever seen, based on the same chipset, different boards have different results. Some better than others. So now, in the worst case scenario, aftermarket board makers would have to expand their lines to include several CPUs per board. Or severely limit the selection. Who knows, maybe gamers would have to get over on skill alone, instead of a few extra points provided by a superior rig.

Because , (at least up to now), that was the primary reason for buying an aftermarket board, was to get more performance for less money, than you could from "Chipzilla".

Was that too silly, fer ya?

Oh, and BTW, if Intel were to go to soldered in CPUs, are you thinking the aftermarket sector of the board market would simply voluntarily go out of business?

In any event, first Intel denied going to solder in CPUS, and in the next press release, it turns out they're going to embrace it. Which makes very good business sense, since as I intimated originally, there's a pant load full of money for the taking, in the "computer toy demographic".
 
I don't see what the fuss is about. There is already motherboards on the market with soldered CPU's. Nine times out of ten, the consumer will never switch CPU's after making the initial installment from purchase. With that thought in mind may I ask what is the purpose in the socket, if you never do need to switch CPU's? Chances are if you ever have issues, the whole platform will just be replaced.

I actually know people that will label a PC "Broke" and set it on the curb, if it doesn't come on when they press the power button. In this example they are not switching CPU's to correct a possible fault. They have no idea what the fault may be and probably figured they couldn't afford repairs so they trashed the whole unit.

Getting back to the topic, Intel didn't say they would solder all their CPU's. Could you picture all the motherboards on the market today, each having every CPU variance available for purchase? This would be a nightmare!! If our future does not include a CPU socket, it will take time for the market to adjust. For one Intel would need to minimize their CPU offerings. Such a massive selection only makes since with a socket design.
 
I don't see what the fuss is about.
That's because there isn't any.

The "enthusiast" community, is paranoid, territorial, and believe everybody needs to think like they do, (myself included). Intel will do as they see fit, to mine money out of every corner of the market. That means if CPUs go socket-less, it will be either in the toy market, and maybe the HTPC market completely, or they'll sell trayed "solder-me-ins" to the aftermarket board makers. Who in turn will put out reasonable, compatible board / CPU combos to the performance mongers. In this scenario, you likely won't be able to buy a Celeron with a full goose $300.00 mobo. But, who does that kind of s*** anyway? A small downside is you lose a little bit of "free will". Perhaps, Intel might only sell OEM "K" models to the aftermarket. And at that prospect, it's hard to tell if computer hobbyists should cry, or cheer wildly! :confused:


As a whole, this story isn't even a blip on the radar..;)
 
I think it's a good idea...if the packages are sold cheap...<100$.

previous intel atom + motherboard packages are already sold with no much fanfare.

so as far as enthusiasts are concern, low end broadwell does not affect them.
 
I think it's a good idea...if the packages are sold cheap...<100$.

previous intel atom + motherboard packages are already sold with no much fanfare.

so as far as enthusiasts are concern, low end broadwell does not affect them.



Yes, it's resonable and I can't see the reason for Intel not to do this for the low end (only) systems.
 
captaincranky said:
The "enthusiast" community, is paranoid, territorial, and believe everybody needs to think like they do,

This. That sums up the situation with so many storms-in-teacups like the Windows 8 "backlash".
 
This will standardise the industry a lot in my opinion.

Game and software developers will have an easier time without having to incorporate the lowest common denominator, ( Celeron on a quad sli motherboard anyone?)

Compatibility will become a non issue, I spent a good 6 months trying to get 8GB of 1066 ram to actually run at 1066, Both the memory and mobo manufacturers insisted it would, but it never did.

Its just another step to intergrating everything on chip, which is where the market seems to be heading anyway.
 
Hello I might be completely off on this but I have to wonder why all of you are accepting this decision which could lower flexibilty of the pc platform as a whole. I relly dont get it.

a) sure you generally nowadays dont get a cpu and motherboard seperatly but at least you have the option that should one of them fail, you can continue by getting a replacement. I tihnk it might be easier to get a replacement seperatly than both together.

b) right now with cpu and motherboard different you have more choice in the market. with this, you would most probably see a smaller choice as not all manufactures might have all the cpus in their catalogue.

c) yes im paranoid about this. the pc's bigggest advantage was its ability to be flexible with each component seperate and can be mixed according to what the customer wants. But it saddens me to think that so many people are completly fine with giving that up. it semms no one wants to choose. everyone wants to be told "right this is what you can use". I maybe paranoid ut it starts on the lower end and this will creep up. Right now because you all are willing to give up at one end, intel will slowly but surly take everything away till all you get at the end will be a table like pc where you have no flexibilty what so ever. and im pretty sure that all of you will be more than happy.
Yes im paranoid but I think it is better than to willingly accept this.
you might say that general people dont care about it, but I say the general people wont assemble either. they will buy what a company offers. as far as I think, I think companies too would like to keep things seperate as that would mean they dont need a gazillion combinations
 
@Guest, I'm not sure anybody here is, "completely fine" with this news. But, Intel is already on this path with their "Atom" CPUs, which you can't buy without a board. You can still buy these CPUs with aftermarket motherboards.

The great unwashed, (and some washed), masses, are gravitating toward, "computer like, toy hybrid, "devices", to unconsciously express how little progress they've made since childhood, when they could only point at, and touch things, with the tips of their fingers.

Perhaps the touch tablet phenomenon, simply harkens back to those simpler days when you were bottle fed, "glurg" and "wah" were the extent of your vocabulary, and you had your a** wiped for you.:(

In any event, your paranoia and my maxed out level of disdain, even cumulatively, will do nothing to change the course of "computer evolution".

For an increasing number of applications, solder in CPUs with decent processing power, are the only sensible options. Not just for tablets and phones, but HTPC applications as well.

I once joked with my son, (when his Crapple MIni Mac went down with a bad HDD), "I'm going to give you this desktop PC son, and should you ever buy another Mini, it will make a great stand for it".
 
Nobody today seems to be having a problem with their SSD flash modules soldered to their stinking tablet's PCBs. How is this any different?

This isn't always the case though, my sl8 has a normal SSD which can be taken out and upgraded if you really want (probs voiding any warranty).

And tbh this method suggested Intel might take would probably suit many businesses. I have never known an business buy a new CPU for an old machine they generally aim for a whole new pc.
 
This isn't always the case though, my sl8 has a normal SSD which can be taken out and upgraded if you really want (probs voiding any warranty).
Doing something perhaps necessary to a consumer device which, "voids the warranty", does take it into realm of the, "no user serviceable components inside", throw away electronics

And tbh this method suggested Intel might take would probably suit many businesses. I have never known an business buy a new CPU for an old machine they generally aim for a whole new pc.
And I have personally never seen a CPU go bad in normal usage either. (I'm not a tech though). And given the bloat and hardware requirements of "updated" programs, they generally need one.

Although, I expect a few P-4s, with XP, are still browsing the web with IE6, perish the thought.

The enthusiast sector is paranoid they won't be coddled and pandered to as they are now, and in the past.

Intel will mine money wherever and however it can, so they'll likely offer choices in that arena.

The only question you have to ask regarding the impact of this potential inevitability is, where will Intel place the "upper limit" of the "low end Broadwell".

I doubt that it will be at the i7-3770K level, but that's just a guess, mind you.
 
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