The Lynnfield Preview: Rumblings of Revenge
by Anand Lal Shimpi on May 29, 2009 1:00 PM EST- Posted in
- CPUs
The LGA-1156 Socket and New Heatsinks
The LGA-1156 socket, as its abbreviated name implies, is designed to interface with Land Grid Array packaged CPUs. The pins are located in the socket itself. To install you set the CPU in the socket, lower a clamp and then fasten the clamp in place with a lever.
The LGA-1156 Socket
I wish I could provide a more detailed motherboard pic but a quick Google search should yield good results. The entire plate that holds the CPU in place actually lifts up and to the right in the picture above. The notch at the left of the plate slides under the screw you see on the left side and the lever at the bottom secures it in place. It works pretty well in person.
The new socket requires a new cooler. The four mounting holes are closer together on the LGA-1156 socket than they are on LGA-1366 boards, but further apart than LGA-775. It’s just different enough to require a brand new cooler, or at least a new mounting bracket.
Thermaltake's SpinQ: Our first LGA-1156 cooler
Thermaltake sent over its SpinQ which will ship with an adjustable LGA-1366 bracket that can be used on both LGA-1156 and LGA-1366 motherboards. Each peg can slide back and forth to get the right positioning before locking it down, allowing the cooler to work on both platforms.
Oooh, adjustable mounting pegs
The cooler performed just fine in our tests and looks painful so try not to sit on it.
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ssj4Gogeta - Friday, May 29, 2009 - link
There's always the dual-core Nehalem Clarkdale for the mainstream market. And I think they'll launch lower clock Lynnfields too, like Anand said.I think Intel did a good job by separating its high-end processors from the mainstream ones and launching them as a different series. So now instead of having one $1200 extreme part, we have 3 high-end parts, with the lowest priced one a very affordable option for geeks who are on a budget.
ssj4Gogeta - Friday, May 29, 2009 - link
Congratulations Intel, you've created a beast.What is AMD going to do now? I don't think they have any new cores ready for launch this year. If Lynnfield offers the same performance as i7 920 for Phenom II prices, AMD will either have to bump up their clock speeds ridiculously, or lower their prices yet again. Things aren't looking good for AMD. Lynnfield turns out to be better than I expected.
And I HATE Intel and their tick-tock. Actually I can't decided whether to hate or like it. It's good that they're advancing our planet's technology at a really fast pace so we'll be prepared when aliens attack. But which damn processor do I buy??? They launch a new series every year, and a new stepping every few months. Which one to buy? WHEN to buy??? My parents won't buy me processors every 6 months!
MadMan007 - Friday, May 29, 2009 - link
You could always do what people did back in the day - upgrade when your current hardware no longer does what you need it to do. I know, crazy right!?Griswold - Friday, May 29, 2009 - link
Its only a crazy concept if daddy is paying for those upgrades all the time - you and the rest of us know its the right thing to do. :]Jaramin - Friday, May 29, 2009 - link
Looking at AMD's roadmap, I fear this is going to hurt a lot :( If the pricing is good, it could confine AMD into the lower mainstream segment.Hyperion1400 - Friday, May 29, 2009 - link
That remains to be seen. Don't Istanbul heading for market at around the same time as Core-i5. There has been little information leaked about Istanbul and no performance numbers have come to light. So, as of now, it is impossible to predict how competitive AMD's offerings will be. Not to mention we have Magny Cours to look forward too in 1H 2010.ssj4Gogeta - Friday, May 29, 2009 - link
But Istanbul is just a 6-core Opteron. In other words, a server chip.Hyperion1400 - Saturday, May 30, 2009 - link
As was Barcelona and Shanghai. But, that didn't seem to stop them from releasing them on the main stream market.Spoelie - Saturday, May 30, 2009 - link
but costs would be too prohibitivePhII is already similar in die size as bloomfield, and is forced to be priced lower for competitive reasons.
You think AMD won't be hurting if it sells an even larger die to compete with a smaller-than-bloomfield die, in a market where having more than 6 cores is questionable value at best?
No, only thing amd can do is crank up clock speeds, try to get 3.4 and 3.6ghz models out the door
Spoelie - Saturday, May 30, 2009 - link
Oh and up the uncore clock on them as well, preferably 2.4ghz, but might make them look worse in power consumption comparisons