Originally posted by: munky
All of you seem to be missing the point that just because the socket stays the same, doesnt mean you can upgrade the cpu alone and get full benefit. Suppose AMD will increase the htt speed or something for future revisions of s939, then you'd need a new mobo anyway to use the newer cpu to it's full capacity. The same thing happened when they kept increasing the fsb on socket a, even though the actual socket remained the same.
Yes, I agree with that. My first socket A system was an Abit KT7A with the VIA KT133A chipset: SDR memory, and a maximum FSB of 133MHz. The maximum CPU it supported officially was the Athlon 1.4GHz Thunderbird C. But, I managed to get an Athlon XP 1600+ to work fine in it, and I bet it would have worked with up to a 2000+, maybe even a 2100+ (Palominos).
However, you're not considering one thing. When I upgraded from the Abit KT7A to my first DDR board, an Abit KR7A-RAID with the VIA KT266A chipset, I kept my Athlon XP 1600+. That made the transition much cheaper, since I only had to buy a new motherboard and RAM. After about 6 months, I upgraded to an Athlon XP 2000+.
After the KR7A-RAID, I upgraded to an nForce 2 mobo to catch up on all of the new technologies and CPU support: AGP 8x, USB 2.0, SATA, 333MHz/400MHZ FSB, etc. Again, I kept the CPU for a while, and later upgraded to an Athlon XP 2500+.
Each newer chipset has support for all previous CPUs. I could stick a 650MHz Duron in my Abit NF7-S 2.0 or Asus A7N8X Deluxe 2.0, not that I'd want to.
So, keeping the same CPU socket for several generations of CPUs really makes upgrades easy. Yes, you'll still have to replace the motherboard to get the new technologies, but you won't have to buy a new CPU at the same time. That's what I loved about the socket A era.