Only 3 CPU sockets stand up as we are talking right now. The socket 775 from Intel and the socket AM2 and AM2+ from AMD. Those 3 sockets are the most popular and the only ones bought by anyone who is serious about computers. It is my pleasure to give you their specifications and improvements in comparison to their older brothers.
Intel Socket 775
Intel switched back with the LGA form to avoid the bending problem that was happening with the PGA form. Also the LGA form offers better contacts with the socket's pins, resulting of an improvement from the FSB to 1600 MT/s.
Intel LGA775
Bus Protocol: Quad Pumped.
FSB: 533 to 1600 MT/s.
Processor Family: P4, Extreme, Celeron, Core 2 Duo, Core 2 Quad and Xeon with GHz ranging from 1.86 to 3.80.
Improvement: Better Heats Dissipation in comparison to the older socket 478.
Nothing more to say here, the Intel socket 478 is running slowly into the dust and the socket 775 is the #1 socket sold from Intel. No wonder why it supports so many CPUs.
AMD Socket AM2
Socket AM2 has been introduced to replace the socket 939 and socket 754.
AMD PGA AM2
FSB: 200 Mhz to 1 GHz with HyperTransport Technology.
Processor Family: Athlon, Opteron, Sempron and Phenom.
Improvement: This new attempt from AMD to improve performances failed due to higher latency problems giving only a slight improvement. On the other hand, the socket AM2 supports the Phenom family. It is maybe the best improvement offer by this socket.
AMD Socket AM2+
Socket AM2+ has been introduced to be the direct successor of the socket AM2 and is backward compatible. I think the socket AM2 should have never seen the market.
AMD PGA AM2+
FSB: 200 Mhz to 2.6 GHz with HyperTransport Technology.
Processor Family: Athlon, Opteron and Phenom.
Improvement: HyperTransport 3.0 give a huge improvement operating at 2.6 GHz and the split power plane surely help too.
AMD is already working on a new model that will be called AM3 to replace the AM2 and AM2+. We should see it late in 2008.
[I hope you appreciated the CPU socket guide
and I invite you to take a look at the other guides.]
and I invite you to take a look at the other guides.]