Core i5 to have a different socket to i7!

[moogle]

Core i7 sales are quite dissapointing BTW:

http://pchardwareblips.dailyradar.co..._pickup_until/

http://www.fudzilla.com/index.php?op...11816&Itemid=1

No suprise there really

[DanceswithUnix]

If someone hypothetically produces an AM3 board that supports both DDR2 and DDR3, allowing the use of AM2 / AM2+ and AM3 CPUs, it will suddenly become a very attractive upgrade path for a lot of people. An existing AM2 owner user could potentially just buy a new motherboard that would give them a platform to upgrade to some future AM3 CPU / DDR3 variant when they want to.

If there's one think I look for in a motherboard, it's headroom and potential upgradeability. Intel are just bringing in un-needed uncertainty for the serial-upgrader types like me.

Sounds like the sort of thing Asrock would come out with.

Mind you, my current motherboard cost more than the CPU (50 quid vs 40 quid) so I'm not sure preserving the CPU across upgrades is that useful. Preserving the motherboard across upgrades is good because Windows won't have to be re-installed, but sadly my current motherboard can't be updated to AM2+ with a BIOS update.

[shaithis]

We've known since last year!

[scaryjim]

I'm not sure preserving the CPU across upgrades is that useful. Preserving the motherboard across upgrades is good...

That's very much my position at the minute. I like that I could pair a well-featured 780G motherboard with a cheap Athlon *now*, and six months down the line have a range of multicore AM3 Phenom IIs and Athlons to choose from as an upgrade. Six months after that, I can reassess the memory and motherboard market to decide if it's worth going AM3 proper, or if I'm better off adding some more DDR2 to my existing set up.

If AMD carry on following this pattern for future socket changes, I can see myself remaining AMD for some time...