1150 vs 1155 vs 1156

netsider

Limp Gawd
Joined
Oct 12, 2004
Messages
466
I've googled socket's 1150, 1155, and 1156.. but I still have a few questions.

1. Why does the 1150 socket use less pins? Are less pins better? (Is there a reason?)

2. Is there any compatibility between these sockets? (I couldn't find any information, so I assume "no", but wanted to still ask).

3. For future benefit, is 1150 the best choice?

The reason I'm asking is because I was going to buy a cheap socket 1156 Celeron and motherboard, and then upgrade to an i7 later.. but don't want to do that if 1156 processors have a disadvantage over the others.

Thanks...
 
1. Because that's how it was designed, less pins isn't necessarily better or worse.
2. No compatibility at all between sockets.
3. 1150 is the newest so that would be your best choice. Don't got 1156 thats just super old now.
 
1156 = 1st gen
1155 = 2nd gen/3rd gen
1150 = 4th gen

I'm not gonna list every one:
1156 = Lynnfield (P55) i7-8xx/i5-7xx
1155 = Sandy Bridge/Ivy Bridge (P67/Z68/Z77) i7/i5 2xxx/ 3xxx
1150 = Haswell (Z87) i7/i5 4xxx

Only the 2nd and 3rd gen are socket compatible, the rest you need to strictly have the proper socket size. Of course the with newer technology things get smaller, things get moved around, things get obsolete, companies get lazy, companies want people to platform change etc.. so many factors can tie into it. But if you look at it in the technological aspect they are not all the same architecture and chipset, things get added on etc... things like native USB3.0, native SATA, SSD features etc.. theres more but you have to look them up yourself.

1150/Haswell/Z87 chipset is the latest one and you cant jump around for compatibility issues. They will do a refresh mid-end of this year so you will see revision boards as well as revision CPUs and again things will be moved around again.

Later on with broadwell they probably might move on to DDR4 so thats another jump in platform. 1156 is really old, get at least 1155 or 1150 to be on top of things. :D
 
The 1156 and 1155 are EOL {End Of Life}. The 1150 is the newest as others have said. But it suffers from crazy high temps. Because of the IHS being glued and not soldered. That being said the 1150 is a little faster clock for clock than the 1155.

If you go with a 4770k perhaps you will get a decent overclocking one. Most are about 4.5GHz maxed overclocking as the high heat stop mostly everyone at that point. Most of the 1155 2600k, 2700k and 3770k cpu will hit pretty close to 5Ghz in overclocking range.

Again you may not even overclock and none of this even matters to you. But if you do it is good information to have. I'm not even sure if 1150 will get a new cpu, it could possibly be at its EOL also. No one knows at this point though. What are you going to be doing with the pc? Budget you like to spend and what type of cooling you plan on using.
 
Mainly, I just do office/student stuff... and some audio/video (no more than the average user). I really don't need a blazing fast PC as I have an i5 desktop right now (and an i3 laptop). I was looking for another newer, smaller computer to use for school so that I didn't have to mess around with my main PC and screw it up by experimenting with active directory, running VM's, changing hardware, etc etc. You guys know how it is (You don't want to crap where you eat). Mainly, I wanted ITX, with the same features I have now, while keeping the ability to upgrade to an i7. I currently have a P8Z68 with an i5 2500, which is awesome. I just wanted something that I could put faster ram, or a faster chip in later. My board now barely handles DDR1600.. but that could be my RAM.

I was thinking I'd just get a smaller board and keep my i5, but then I'd be stuck with socket 1155 (since that's what my current i5 is).. and socket 1150 just seemed like a better choice because it was newer and has a newer chipset, 4K, onboard AC wireless/bluetooth, etc.

I just noticed they had cheap celerons and pentiums for both sockets (1155, and 1150).. so that eliminates the factor of me not using my i5 in my new build like I wasn't going to. Originally, I didn't think I could find a cheap celeron to put in my old P8Z68.. but now I know I can. So really, it's just a choice of "which one is better" to get.

I'm torn between the P8Z77-I Deluxe, and the Z87I-Deluxe. I want something small, but didn't want to sacrifice the VRM, and that's why I picked these two insanely priced ITX boards (even though Haswells have some type of on-chip VRM). Is the on-chip VRM the same? (#1)

I kinda want the LGA1150 board, but I really want to use my existing i5 (that's my MAIN problem), but I don't know if it's worth it just to get a better motherboard/chipset. If it is, I would.. but it seems like people are debating it just like I am (especially because the new haswells aren't that great.. and I'm not a big overclocker). I'd rather be able to upgrade than overclock.. if that helps. I just want something quality, like I have now, that I can upgrade.. but still have a nice little new ITX PC.

I'm mainly worried about future proofing myself (I said that above also, but don't feel like editing this all night). If I buy the 1150 board.. I can always buy a cheap Celeron now and buy an i7 later (especially if I sell my i5). If there wasn't ANY drawbacks to 1155... I'd stick with that, but I really don't know what the big drawbacks are (it seems like there isn't any) except it not supporting the ram speeds, or having the newer chipset that 1150 does, and access to any newly released chips (but like someone said.. 1150 may not even get a new CPU).

Do I need to worry about getting something "4K ready"? Or can I just buy a new video card down the road? (#2)

Can my old P8Z68 handle the new 4th generation CPU's? (#3)

My i5 is also about 3 years old, and wasn't sure how the 4th generation CPU's compared to the older ones. Are 4th generation CPU's any better than a older generation with the same frequency/speed? (#4)

The chip hasn't been overclocked much.. but has been powered on pretty much that whole time. Has anybody on here actually had a CPU die of old age? (I know I haven't.. just wondering) (#5)

Both boards use the Z77 and Z87 chipset... but my old board uses the old Z68 (still good) chipset. Is there a difference in features or performance that I would *notice*, between the Z77 and Z87? And are there anything I might be forgetting to think about? (#6).

Am I making too big of a deal about the added VRM board? Some people say it only helps with overclocking and power efficiency.. but doesn't it help with overall stability too? I've always had motherboards "die" on me, and stop POSTing.. and this 1155 P8Z68 motherboard I have now is the only one that I've NEVER had that problem with.. and figured that might be why. This board is rock solid. Has the VRM made a big difference, to anyone else? (#7)

Also.. the main reason I wanted something with the higher ram speeds is because of price. High speed ram is expensive right now and I was waiting for it to come down in price. The built in wireless AC (and being "4K ready) were the only two features that really seemed like it would be worthwhile going with Socket 1150, since it had those on the Z87I-Deluxe.

Sorry for all the questions... it's just not an easy decision. If you don't feel like answering all the questions.. maybe you can just briefly summarize them for me. Like I said, I just wanted to know which was the better choice between the two boards since they're pretty much the same price (it's really all about the socket.. and whether going with socket 1150 and buying a new CPU is worth it). I mean.. of those two boards.. is there any big difference that would scare any of you away from either one?

Edit: Also.. since the haswell's suffer from those high-temps.. does that shorten the lifespan at all? That's another thing I'm really concerned about. I'm trying to get at least 5 years out of this PC. I don't want to use any aggressive cooling, but would like to overclock it a little bit to provide some extra speed. I don't want to push it, though. Whatever overclocking I could do with the stock heatsink/fan would be my limit.
 
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I've googled socket's 1150, 1155, and 1156.. but I still have a few questions.

1. Why does the 1150 socket use less pins? Are less pins better? (Is there a reason?)

As computers have gotten more features there have had to be more communication channels between the CPU and motherboard, so in general pin counts have gone up over the years.

Recently however with the CPU's having more and more built-in features (memory controller, video card, PCI Express), the pin counts can start moving backwards.
 
As computers have gotten more features there have had to be more communication channels between the CPU and motherboard, so in general pin counts have gone up over the years.

Recently however with the CPU's having more and more built-in features (memory controller, video card, PCI Express), the pin counts can start moving backwards.

Good explanation.. that suffices for me ;)
 
1156 is dead, not being produced
1155 will be phased out soon, no new products (dead)
1150 is where all the action is, and where you should be looking at current builds.
 
1150 is the way to go for now, but if you can get very cheap 1155 parts that will be great, because performance of haswell vs ivybridge is not that much to justify the high price for haswell processors.
 
1150 is the way to go for now, but if you can get very cheap 1155 parts that will be great, because performance of haswell vs ivybridge is not that much to justify the high price for haswell processors.

also haswell its crap.. it produce lot of more heat than ivy bridge and tend to even require more voltage, ivy bridge are way better overclocker than haswell..
 
I'm torn between the P8Z77-I Deluxe, and the Z87I-Deluxe. I want something small, but didn't want to sacrifice the VRM, and that's why I picked these two insanely priced ITX boards (even though Haswells have some type of on-chip VRM). Is the on-chip VRM the same? (#1)
Kinda. But honestly, not a big deal.
I kinda want the LGA1150 board, but I really want to use my existing i5 (that's my MAIN problem), but I don't know if it's worth it just to get a better motherboard/chipset. If it is, I would.. but it seems like people are debating it just like I am (especially because the new haswells aren't that great.. and I'm not a big overclocker). I'd rather be able to upgrade than overclock.. if that helps. I just want something quality, like I have now, that I can upgrade.. but still have a nice little new ITX PC. .
This days, unless you made the unfortunate financially poor act of buying a cheap Celeron or Pentium CPU with the hopes of upgrading to an i5 or i7 later on, generally, whatever CPU you get is pretty much the CPU you're stuck with. Some of that is due to technical reasons but it's a lot of business reasons from what I've seen.

Do I need to worry about getting something "4K ready"? Or can I just buy a new video card down the road? (#2).
No. Yes.

Can my old P8Z68 handle the new 4th generation CPU's? (#3).
No. The highest you can go with the P8Z68 are the Ivy Bridge CPUs, not the Haswell CPUs. The IB CPUs are roughly 3% faster than the Sandy Bridge CPUs.

My i5 is also about 3 years old, and wasn't sure how the 4th generation CPU's compared to the older ones. Are 4th generation CPU's any better than a older generation with the same frequency/speed? (#4)
Clock for clock, the Haswell CPUs are about 8% to 12% faster than the Sandy Bridge CPUs.
The chip hasn't been overclocked much.. but has been powered on pretty much that whole time. Has anybody on here actually had a CPU die of old age? (I know I haven't.. just wondering) (#5)
No, not really. I've had overclocks degrade but never a CPU dying of age.
Both boards use the Z77 and Z87 chipset... but my old board uses the old Z68 (still good) chipset. Is there a difference in features or performance that I would *notice*, between the Z77 and Z87? And are there anything I might be forgetting to think about? (#6).
Performance difference between the motherboard chipsets? No. Performance difference between the different CPUs they're using? Maybe depending on how sensitive you are to a 8% to 12% difference. The Z87 has three main advantages over the Z77:
1) Four more SATA 6.0Gb/s ports
2) Two more USB 3.0 ports
3) Ability to use triple monitors with the integrated GPU.

With that said, one thing that doesn't necessarily apply to all Z87 motherboards is that more than likely you're going to get a more refined UEFI setup. Note that the Z77 was the first chipset for a lot of motherboard manufacturers to use the UEFI. After years working with UEFI, many motherboard manufacturers should have more refined UEFI for their newer Z87 motherboards than the Z77 motherboards.
Am I making too big of a deal about the added VRM board? Some people say it only helps with overclocking and power efficiency.. but doesn't it help with overall stability too? I've always had motherboards "die" on me, and stop POSTing.. and this 1155 P8Z68 motherboard I have now is the only one that I've NEVER had that problem with.. and figured that might be why. This board is rock solid. Has the VRM made a big difference, to anyone else? (#7)
No, not really. I've had mobos with less than ideal VRMs last for quite a long time.

Also.. the main reason I wanted something with the higher ram speeds is because of price. High speed ram is expensive right now and I was waiting for it to come down in price. The built in wireless AC (and being "4K ready) were the only two features that really seemed like it would be worthwhile going with Socket 1150, since it had those on the Z87I-Deluxe.
LOL! Dude, RAM pricing isn't going to go down. They're just going to go up. The best time to get cheap high-speed DDR3 RAM was about two years ago. In addition, don't get too hung up on the higher RAM speeds. They don't make that much of a real world difference to justify the higher costs or worry in your case. As long as you have DDR3 1600 or even DDR3 1333, you're basically set for RAM speeds.

Sorry for all the questions... it's just not an easy decision. If you don't feel like answering all the questions.. maybe you can just briefly summarize them for me. Like I said, I just wanted to know which was the better choice between the two boards since they're pretty much the same price (it's really all about the socket.. and whether going with socket 1150 and buying a new CPU is worth it). I mean.. of those two boards.. is there any big difference that would scare any of you away from either one?
We're not in the same position as you. Your question is more oriented to people who don't have a Core i5 2500K CPU already. In your case, you already have a 2500K CPU. Unless your second PC needs to be just as fast as your current 2500K, just buy a cheap Pentium for your old P8Z68 motherboard, turn that PC as backup PC, and reuse your 2500K with a Z77 motherboard. If both PCs have to be of similar performance, then yes go with Haswell and the Z87 chipset. Not a real hard decision.
Edit: Also.. since the haswell's suffer from those high-temps.. does that shorten the lifespan at all? That's another thing I'm really concerned about. I'm trying to get at least 5 years out of this PC. I don't want to use any aggressive cooling, but would like to overclock it a little bit to provide some extra speed. I don't want to push it, though. Whatever overclocking I could do with the stock heatsink/fan would be my limit.
Well, the Haswells haven't been out long for any real long-term longevity studies to be carried.
 
LGA 1151 will be the new socket after Haswell and its shrink Broadwell. It will be used with the Skylake architecture. This will happen in "2015 - 2016" ... most likely late '16.
 
1. I'm guessing -- and only guessing -- that LGA1150 actually uses more pins, not fewer, but the package got rid of some of the 50 unused pins of the LGA1155 package:

Skip to page 95 for pinout:
http://www.intel.com/content/dam/ww...eets/3rd-gen-core-desktop-vol-1-datasheet.pdf

Skip to page 110:
http://www.intel.com/content/dam/ww...h-gen-core-family-desktop-vol-1-datasheet.pdf

I don't think there's been any compatibility between any sockets, except for Socket 5 and 7 and Socket 775 and 771 (partial). That and motherboard-CPU combinations often being offered for barely more than the price of the CPU alone don't seem to make future proofing worthwhile.

Don't worry about the CPU being damaged by heat because it will shut down way before the temperature gets hot enough to damage it. I'm assuming you're using something modern, not a Socket A Athlon.
 
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LGA 1151 will be the new socket after Haswell and its shrink Broadwell. It will be used with the Skylake architecture. This will happen in "2015 - 2016" ... most likely late '16.

And it will use DDR4.
 
also haswell its crap.. it produce lot of more heat than ivy bridge and tend to even require more voltage, ivy bridge are way better overclocker than haswell..

lol, ok then....not really true at all. Overclocking is pretty much chip dependent, every one is different. Haswell usually requires less voltage, but the same voltage Ivy vs haswell would run hotter on haswell. Ivy is just about as hot as haswell anyway, might as well have the performance increase. Sandy bridge is the coolest running chips, and honestly are still pretty relevant in performance. IMO, ivy was the flop. Either go sandy bridge or haswell, there's no need for Ivy at all.
Also, the Z87 chipset for socket 1150 offers several improvements over Z77 socket 1155so it's not all about just the CPU.
 
I went 1155 last Feb 1st since I was desperate for an upgrade from Q9550 on 775. I have i7 3770k very nicely overclocked @ 4.2 and I'm happy. I will be building my dad a 1150 i5 4670k here soon just cause it's a year later and 1150 seems like a no brainer at this stage.
 
Would I notice much of a performance increase from an i5 2500? I'm guessing that my money would be best spent on a gpu at this point.
 
Would I notice much of a performance increase from an i5 2500? I'm guessing that my money would be best spent on a gpu at this point.

Do you have it overclocked?

What GPU do you have now?

Really no remarkable speed increase but Haswell is a step in the right direction. The 2500 is a fine chip but I guess it depends on what card you have now and what your budget is.
 
I have the I5 2500 (non K, so it is only overclocked by about 300mhz. I have a GTX580 right now, and I would like to get better graphics performance out of battlefield 4. Budget isn't too much of an issue, I just don't want to spend 1000 on a new motherboard, gpu and processor and be let down by a 10% increase.
 
I have the I5 2500 (non K, so it is only overclocked by about 300mhz. I have a GTX580 right now, and I would like to get better graphics performance out of battlefield 4. Budget isn't too much of an issue, I just don't want to spend 1000 on a new motherboard, gpu and processor and be let down by a 10% increase.

Yeah a 780 TI would be a huge step up in performance from the 580. That is, if you feel like spending that type of money.
 
What about just adding another 580 for SLI? Is that more powerful than a 780? Im sure I can find a used 580 for under 200 bucks.
 
What about just adding another 580 for SLI? Is that more powerful than a 780? Im sure I can find a used 580 for under 200 bucks.

I don't even consider SLI after reading about all the stuff about microstuttering, setting up profiles, frame tearing etc. Sure the FPS will be better then what you have now, but it wouldn't look pretty. I don't know off the top of my head how that would compare to a 780 ti, but the single GPU solution would definitely have less BS going on.
 
I have the I5 2500 (non K, so it is only overclocked by about 300mhz. I have a GTX580 right now, and I would like to get better graphics performance out of battlefield 4. Budget isn't too much of an issue, I just don't want to spend 1000 on a new motherboard, gpu and processor and be let down by a 10% increase.

Keep the board and CPU, they are fine for gaming still. Just upgrade the GPU to atleast a 780 and you'll be set for awhile yet.
 
I agree, I went from a single 560tim to SLI 560ti, to single 580. There was definitely some stuttering and fine tuning all the time with the SLI. Forgot about all that.
 
I'm beating out 780's & Titan's with this 760 SLI setup. I was really uncertain if I wanted to go SLI but I have no reservations now at all. Unigine Vally Extreme HD setting scored 3,303 average frame rate 78.9 min 32.0 max 145.7. Can now run all my games Ultra/Max settings & get 60fps vsync on it's incredible to see games the way they were intended to be run. I think a 780 or 780ti should be able to give a similar level of performance.
 
No indications as such so far. But if Haswell-E isn't going to include it, I highly doubt Skylake will either.
 
Is there any indication there will be motherboards that support both DDR3 and DDR4, the way certain G41 mobos support DDR2 and DDR3?
Things are different now: Back in the days of the G41 motherboards, the memory controller was on the motherboard. Nowadays, the memory controller is on the CPU. So it's up to Intel to build in such DDR3/DDR4 support.

Though I highly doubt that Intel will do that.
 
Things are different now: Back in the days of the G41 motherboards, the memory controller was on the motherboard. Nowadays, the memory controller is on the CPU. So it's up to Intel to build in such DDR3/DDR4 support.

Though I highly doubt that Intel will do that.

Well, it was up to Intel to build in the support on the chipset as well.
 
I highly doubt Intel will put DDR3 and DDR4 support on a CPU's memory controller. Intel has never been about backwards compatibility like AMD has. Why do you think they come out with a different socket pretty much every new architecture release? They want you to buy all new hardware everytime so they can make more money on the chipsets too. Like they need more.....greedy bastards. If AMD didn't suck compared to intel I would definitely support AMD a lot more.
 
I highly doubt Intel will put DDR3 and DDR4 support on a CPU's memory controller. Intel has never been about backwards compatibility like AMD has. Why do you think they come out with a different socket pretty much every new architecture release? They want you to buy all new hardware everytime so they can make more money on the chipsets too. Like they need more.....greedy bastards. If AMD didn't suck compared to intel I would definitely support AMD a lot more.

I think a lot of people complaining this didn't really live through the Socket 775 days.

Guess what? There are tons of Socket 775 combinations that don't work. The memory controller on the mobo let them hold onto the socket through many generations of CPU and chipsets, so it turned into a compatibility mess. It'd physically fit, but the FSB would be wrong, or the chipset wouldn't be compatible, or something like that. You've never been able to reliably use a CPU and motherboard more than ~3 years different in age, now it's just "There's a new socket" instead of "There's a new chipset and it doesn't support your CPU" or "there's a faster FSB and now it won't work in old motherboards". Good luck trying to get a P4 working in an X48 mobo, or a Q9650 working in a 965 mobo.
 
Is there any indication there will be motherboards that support both DDR3 and DDR4, the way certain G41 mobos support DDR2 and DDR3?

I doubt that Intel or AMD will support this. I think the differences between DDR3 and DDR4 will make this hard to accomplish.
 
I've been building PC's since socket 370 dude ;)

Then you know better than to think that if it weren't for changing sockets, you'd be able to upgrade CPUs much easier. We've just gone from having the same physical socket with a bunch of incompatible chipsets and FSBs to having different physical sockets.

Especially considering how much progress has slowed, do you honestly think there would be a market to have a current generation chip that works with a motherboard from 4-5 years ago?

Let's be honest - how many times have you upgraded a CPU to another more than a generation newer and kept the same mobo? I don't think I ever had and I've been building since the P4 Williamette days (12 years, almost as long as you). I've had Socket 478, 939, AM2+, AM3, 775, and 1155. Usually, by the time a CPU is out with a worthwhile performance increase, there's enough new features to justify a new mobo. Maybe some of the people who need to stay on the bleeding edge might, but my 3-year-old mobo is already long in the tooth in a lot of ways (only 2 x SATA 6 Gbps ports, only 2 x USB 3.0, only PCIe 2.0) and I'm pretty sure by the time that there is a CPU around with >30% improvement from my 2500K, I'll want a new mobo anyway.

I'm not saying there is zero value in retaining a socket for three or four generations, especially if there were only minor improvements during those generations (i.e. I don't see why 1150 was necessary if they're going to go somewhere else after Broadwell), but I think that keeping the same socket for more than ~4 years is kinda pointless because by then there are advances in memory technology, PCIe technology, SATA and USB technology that make people want to upgrade anyway.
 
I agree with what your saying, but you still have to admit intel is definitely chipset and socket change crazy.
But what I'm saying is, atleast for the most part with AM3 most everything was forward and backwards compatible. So while yes most of the time we upgrade the board along with the new CPU, it's still pretty nice for those with low pocket money to upgrade just the CPU first (with a bios update) and then a new board later.
 
I agree with what your saying, but you still have to admit intel is definitely chipset and socket change crazy.
But what I'm saying is, atleast for the most part with AM3 most everything was forward and backwards compatible. So while yes most of the time we upgrade the board along with the new CPU, it's still pretty nice for those with low pocket money to upgrade just the CPU first (with a bios update) and then a new board later.

Yeah. I understand ditching 1366 for 2011 and having a separate 115x series sockets because in a modern CPU the memory controller is on the die and you can't go from dual channel to triple channel or quad channel without adding roughly 200 pins, but frankly I don't see too much of a point to having 1150 when Haswell is not that big of a deal, unless they're going to keep 1150 for awhile. I'll agree with you that changing them every tick-tock cycle even if they didn't change the number of memory channels or PCIe lanes is a bit much, but sometimes I feel like the rhetoric is that prior to 2008 or so we lived in a compatibility utopia where people were running brand new processors in 4-5 year old mobos. That's never really been the case, ever. Even if the physical socket has stayed the same, different FSB speeds, moving from AGP to PCIe, and compatibility issues haven't made it possible.
 
Yeah. I understand ditching 1366 for 2011 and having a separate 115x series sockets because in a modern CPU the memory controller is on the die and you can't go from dual channel to triple channel or quad channel without adding roughly 200 pins, but frankly I don't see too much of a point to having 1150 when Haswell is not that big of a deal, unless they're going to keep 1150 for awhile. I'll agree with you that changing them every tick-tock cycle even if they didn't change the number of memory channels or PCIe lanes is a bit much, but sometimes I feel like the rhetoric is that prior to 2008 or so we lived in a compatibility utopia where people were running brand new processors in 4-5 year old mobos. That's never really been the case, ever. Even if the physical socket has stayed the same, different FSB speeds, moving from AGP to PCIe, and compatibility issues haven't made it possible.

Integrated VRMs alone would make Haswell socket incompatible with IB.
 
IMO it was Ivy that was the pointless tock. Haswell has brought a lot of nice new features to the table. The memory controllers are amazing, and yes the integrated VRM is awesome. It soo nice to set a Vcore, and it stays there rock solid under load or idle. Very few boards were able to do that.
 
Ivy Bridge was a tick+, and it was socket compatible with Sandy Bridge.
 
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