LGA1155 mobos & Ivy Bridge (new CPU's and PCIe 3.0)
Posted: Thu Nov 03, 2011 3:17 pm
It looks like motherboard manufacturers have started (in August, if not earlier) their marketing initiatives for claiming that their boards will be compatible with next-generation hardware, in the form of Ivy Bridge CPU's and PCI-Express 3.0:
Here's the Asus anouncement...
And here's Gigabyte's.
Tom's Hardware had an article about Ivy Bridge's compatibility with current motherboards, as well.
But do these compatibility claims come with any caveats?
Assuming that I'd just be running one discrete video card (and may want to upgrade the CPU and video card in the relatively future, when PCIe 3.0 x16 might actually be useful), what would be the benefit of waiting for next-generation motherboard chipsets, as opposed to getting an H67 or Z68 board today? Based on the product roadmap (e.g., as described by Anandtech), the only practical improvement that I see is the native USB3 support. I can't imagine needing more than 2 of such ports in the foreseeable future, though, and most current LGA 1155 boards come with a couple, already. Perhaps there are other features that are improved, as well - support for faster RAM, more efficient power management, etc... But haven't those mostly moved to the CPU, itself?
Here's the Asus anouncement...
And here's Gigabyte's.
Tom's Hardware had an article about Ivy Bridge's compatibility with current motherboards, as well.
But do these compatibility claims come with any caveats?
Assuming that I'd just be running one discrete video card (and may want to upgrade the CPU and video card in the relatively future, when PCIe 3.0 x16 might actually be useful), what would be the benefit of waiting for next-generation motherboard chipsets, as opposed to getting an H67 or Z68 board today? Based on the product roadmap (e.g., as described by Anandtech), the only practical improvement that I see is the native USB3 support. I can't imagine needing more than 2 of such ports in the foreseeable future, though, and most current LGA 1155 boards come with a couple, already. Perhaps there are other features that are improved, as well - support for faster RAM, more efficient power management, etc... But haven't those mostly moved to the CPU, itself?