Speculate: which socket will have a longer product life?

[mudboy]

Currently, all of the desktop systems in my house (4 in total) are AMD Socket 939. I have been playing around with the idea of upgrading my personal workstation. I don't feel that I'm an AMD fanboi, but I have been pleased with the performance of their CPU's ever since my first T-bird (IIRC, it was a 700). I've also been paying attention to the Core2 Duo's performance, and it's very impressive and it's what made me start thinking about this. I'm also confident that at some point in the next 18 months, AMD will have to match or exceed Intel's performance.

So, the theoretical question is this: Between Socket 775 and Socket AM2, which shows the longest potential product lifespan? i.e. will I still be able to buy CPU's for a given socket 2 years or more from now?

I realize that none of us have a crystal ball, so let's not turn this into a flamewar.

Thanks

Pete

 

[CTho9305]

From what I understand, AM2 will allow you to use AM2 and AM2+ CPUs. I forget where I read that though.
edit: http://www.theinquirer.net/default.aspx?article=35902

 

[Maximilian]

You will always be able to buy cpu's for a platform. Just depends on the source

I actually have no idea which will live longer. I dont think either of them will be around for too much longer as 775's been around for ages. AM2 i suppose may outlive it since its newer, but AM3 is in the works. So... Personally i would go with 775, as you can already go quad core with it, so if you want quad core later on, its an option. Not sure about AM2.

 

[Lonyo]

Sockets mean nothing.
Socket A lasted a very long time, but a the last Socket A CPU wouldn't work on the earliest Socket A mobo.
Chipsets mean more than sockets.

 

[Maximilian]

Originally posted by: Lonyo
Sockets mean nothing.
Socket A lasted a very long time, but a the last Socket A CPU wouldn't work on the earliest Socket A mobo.
Chipsets mean more than sockets.

Yeah thats very true. Misleading too, because it makes everyone think socket A was great. Socket 775 is like this also, older boards dont run core2duo, i think some of them wont even run dual core.

I suppose at least with AM2 you know it (probably) will run AM2+ cpu's for sure. Less functionality but they will run.

I always go by getting the best you can now. Which is Core 2 duo.

 

[sandorski]

Tough call. K8L is still unknown from a performance perspective and AMD will soon be going with HT3.0 and PCI-e will be upgraded and DDR3 will be adopted. All that will still use AM2, but no current AM2 mobo has those other features and may not be fully compatible with DDR3. Same types of things for 775. Though CPU changes have slowed a lot from 10ish years ago, there are still a lot of changes ongoing on the Platform side of things. I don't think the question can really be answered, I think it's best just to get a system that will be sufficient in it's current state for a period of time and only worry about Video or Memory upgrades with it. CPU and Mobo are likely going to require upgrades together.