After market CPU coolers - P-55 vs P-58

[jimmyj68]

I'm not totally up to speed on the new stuff coming next month but I've seen a few mentions of having to buy a new after market cooler for P-55 boards. My understanding of the sockets for 58/55 cpu's is mechanically a difference in the number of pins on the cpu - does that require re-engineering the entire socket? Changing its physical size so as to require new cooler mounting brackets? Seems to me a cooler that mounts on a i7 1366 should also mount on an i7/i5 1156- what ever.

Just ran across a preview/review article comparing i7 920 to i5 750 (I believe). The reviewer plainly states that they were testing oc performance on air (i5) and found the performance quite good even though they had an "improperly" mounted air cooler designed for 1366/i7. I guess that clears it up for me though I still don't totally understand what parameters of i5 required physically a new 1156 socket; especially since there will be i7 products for the Lynnfield - 1156 boards. Is the cpu physically smaller/larger? for i5? A number of heatsink makers were able to make retrofit mounting brackets to enable use of their 775 products on the 1366 - will that be possible for the 1156? The reviewer mentioned insuffucient mounting "pressure".

 

[Beanie46]

The mounting pins are farther apart on a socket 1366 vs. the new socket 1156.

But, to illustrate the difference:

First link is to the AsRock P55 motherboard, has both mounting holes for native 1156 heatsinks and 775 heatsinks. (Third picture down is the best look. The 1156 holes are the ones with silver edges.)

http://www.anandtech.com/weblog/showpost.aspx?i=633



Second link is to an EVGA P55 motherboard, same deal....S1156 holes, obviously, and S775 just offset. (First picture shows them pretty well.)

http://www.anandtech.com/weblog/showpost.aspx?i=634



Now, the third link is to an X58 board, the MSI X58M. (Third picture down is best look.)

http://www.anandtech.com/mb/showdoc.aspx?i=3568&p=3


The nice thing is this board, with a rare few other X58 boards, has both S1366 mount holes and S775 holes. Notice the Socket 775 mount holes are much inside the Socket 1366 holes, unlike the Socket 1156 holes vs. the S775 holes on the P55 boards, which are almost in the same place. So, no, if the cooler is Socket 1366 specific, it won't line up to a Socket 1156 mounting without an adapter. But why would you want to move from an X58 board to a P55 board anyway?

 

[lopri]

I suspect most major HSF vendors will supply adapters for both sockets (and more). Though the mounting holes are differently located, the sockets are all square. Also there is no northbridge in a traditional sense on P55, which will make fitting a HSF easier.

Which review are you talking about, btw?

 

[jimmyj68]

Lopri, Look at Core i5 performance preview on the cpu/overclocking page here in AT.

Without sounding picayunish, I hope, it seems like somebody really went out of their way to make the i5 cooler mounting difference a reality. If the difference is that miniscule as shown on those P-55 boards ----does it really have to exist?????

Beanie - I was going to break a promise to myself and upgrade a p-35 board to 58, but the info regarding the P55 may make me disappoint myself in a different arena. I told me that the upgrade to p-35 was my last because being over 70 years young I needed to find other things to occupy my time than a building computers hobby. But I don't really feel that old - so one more time can't hurt

 

[ronach]

jimmyj,
Why stop now if you can afford the hobby you love ? As long as you can see well enough to do the deed and put your new sys to good use..heck go for it. I'm 72 and still doin it..my present sys is not spankin new..but is not tasked in the least by any of my new games. Yah..I still do shooters and other genres and enjoy the heck out of doin it..those younguns in the multiplayer games give me trouble..but I still end up in the middle of the pack..that's good enough for me. Ok, I don't want to hi-jack this thread..just couldn't resist jumping in and adding a comment.