What happened to the higher feature set of 1156 Socket Motherboards?

[Silent_Buddha]

Yes, and overclocking is still superior on 1366. You usually don't have to raise the voltage so your power consumption rises gradually. With 1156 if you overclock you usually have to up the voltage to reach the same levels as 1366 which means your power consumption then skyrockets past an equivalent 1366.

It really is all about picking the best platform for your needs. For me, power consumption, cost and stock performance were what I needed so 1156 was the best choice. 5 years ago when I was still overclocking heavily 1366 would have been the better option.

Regards,
SB

 

[Squilliam]

If you are already looking at enthusiast level boards and plan on overclocking, then 1156 doesn't make a whole lot of sense, IMO.

1366 also gives you an upgrade path to future 6+ core CPUs (1156 will always be limited to 4 core max).

Wait? I thought the 1366 would have limited application and the 1156 would stick around. So its the opposite? Well I guess AMD loves me enough to have a simplified socket system.

 

[ShaidarHaran]

Wait? I thought the 1366 would have limited application and the 1156 would stick around. So its the opposite? Well I guess AMD loves me enough to have a simplified socket system.

I don't think it's as simple as that on the AMD side of things. Remember with a socket AM3 mobo you can't use older CPUs, but with older sockets you can use newer CPUs but only if the board supports the TDP of your chip (some cheap boards can't power CPUs with high TDPs).

 

[Silent_Buddha]

Wait? I thought the 1366 would have limited application and the 1156 would stick around. So its the opposite? Well I guess AMD loves me enough to have a simplified socket system.

1156 and 1366 are going to continue to co-exist. They serve different market segments. Similar to 939 and 754 for Athlons in the past.

1366 = enthusiast, workstation, server.
1156 = mainstream, budget.

But as said, 1156 is the "new" thing and MB manufacturers are trying to shoehorn it into the enthusiast space when it was never designed for that segment.

Regards,
SB

 

[almighty]

P55 is what the P45 and P35 chipset were to the X48 and X38 chipsets.

 

[Silent_Buddha]

P55 is what the P45 and P35 chipset were to the X48 and X38 chipsets.

Yes, but in that case, the socket itself didn't change, only the chipset determined the intended market segment.

Since more functionality is moving onto the CPU (memory controller being important with regards to number of available pins as is PCIE for 1156), the socket is now a reflection of the market segment.

As such 1156 will support up to 4 cores while 1366 will support 4+ cores.

Regards,
SB

 

[ECH]

One more thing, is there really that much of a difference between a Q9650 at 3.60Ghz (or 4.0GHz) vs a i7 860/i7 920 at those over clocks? Here is a Q9550 vs i7 860 as one example.

Is there personal testimony that either confirms or contradicts those results when gaming? I'm pretty sure when it comes to synthetic benchmarks and programs that use hyper-threading the i7s wins hands down.

 

[Blazkowicz]

future, more heavily threaded games will use that hyperthreading probably (such as ports of next-gen console games)

 

[ShaidarHaran]

I'm pretty happy with my Q9550 @ 4GHz as there's no single-threaded task it doesn't eat alive, but multi-threaded performance, particularly in video encoding, could be better. That's where i7 really shines.
Games are really no challenge though.

 

[ECH]

Is the rumors true that a new chipset for the 1156 and 1366 are on the way this year? If so, what are they called and what are they offering in place of the X58/P55?

 

[-tkf-]

I went with the i7 920, when it was released, this was november/december 2008?
It´s the singlehanded most powerfull experience i have ever had in my PC years, i got the "amiga" feeling back again (i know how time clouds your memory) but being able to run Games in window mode and encode video at the same time is pretty insane.

For example, when i play WoW my PS3 media server is running without any problems, as is all the other small stuff i got used to have open. I considered getting a 3rd screen just because i need more space for windows

Next upgrade is a SSD disk and W7

 

[Silent_Buddha]

Is the rumors true that a new chipset for the 1156 and 1366 are on the way this year? If so, what are they called and what are they offering in place of the X58/P55?

About the only significant changes they can make for 1156 would be possibly more PCIE lanes (supporting 2.0) and maybe an updated drive controller.

For 1366 there's a lot more that could possibly be done. A higher chip interconnect for example, in addition to the above for 1156. Perhaps provisions for moving PCIE on die similar to Lynnsfield and Clarksdale. Perhaps provisions for on package integrated GPU similar to H55/H57.

Oh and almost forgot the obvious, USB 3.0 and SATA 6 GB/s.

Regards,
SB

 

[Laa-Yosh]

Er... I have to admit it all starts to sound like Chinese to me

What I plan to buy soon is a quad core system with a single graphics card for home use; sometimes Zbrush and such for messing around with 3D graphics, sometimes games (time to get HL2 episodes, then there's StarCraft2), and of course browsing and photo and other common stuff. I need a silent machine for once, and I don't plan to replace my 20" Dell monitor - I'll save the rest of my money for a new TV instead.

I thought an i5-750 with 4 GB RAM and a GTX-260 seems to be a good config, and maybe add some more RAM later. For this a P55 motherboard looked fine. Windows 7 64-bit on top and that's it.
I don't really plan to upgrade the CPU in the foreseeable future - actually I don't really plan to touch this machine for at least 3 years. My current system is a dual core AMD machine with an ATI R800 (!) and it's still fine for most things except the Zbrush and gaming part.

So should I turn away from that P55 motherboard? I plan to make the purchase sometime in mid to late March, so there aren't many new pieces of hardware coming...

 

[Florin]

So should I turn away from that P55 motherboard? I plan to make the purchase sometime in mid to late March, so there aren't many new pieces of hardware coming...

Nah, it's still the most sensible choice out there for most people. X58 is the high end board which will be obsolete by the time you'll actually worry about upgrading your CPU again, plus it relies on the inconvenient triple channel memory config which will be a footnote in history around that time as well. And AMD isn't really competing this time around. So unless you're a hobbyist and have time to waste overclocking stuff (in which case you probably wouldn't be asking above question), the smoking fast i5 will make you giddy with happiness, and 2 x8 PCIE lanes won't even hold back an SLI/CF setup (not that anyone seriously ends up doing that, anyway..).

 

[Silent_Buddha]

So should I turn away from that P55 motherboard? I plan to make the purchase sometime in mid to late March, so there aren't many new pieces of hardware coming...

P55 or H55/H57 would be fine. Pick whichever is cheapest with the features you need. The only major difference between the P55 and H55/H57 is that Hxx is locked to one GPU (no crossfire/SLI) and has a display path if the CPU features on package/on die GPU.

With an i5-750 and a single video card, none of that effects you. So pick the cheapest with the features you want.

Regards,
SB

 

[Laa-Yosh]

Thanks guys, I've been looking at the MSI board, I'll get back here if the thing works out.

 

[Davros]

Hxx ?

 

[Laa-Yosh]

No, the P55 one, I think it's the GD65? Pretty standard feature set and all; although I wonder why there's no bluetooth as default, almost every mobile phone has it and could connect to the proper app on the PC to update address book and stuff...