bluecode :
seems like an unnecessary change to milk more cash from its users.. I miss the days of Socket 7 .... one board to run them all.
Only it wasn't. Just because a CPU fit in a socket 7 didn't mean the motherboard supported it which created significant headaches for people who assumed it would. Memory compatibility was a nightmare due to all the different chipset makers choosing different configurations Some supported FPM, some EDO, other SDRAM, and just to make it more confusing, some boards supported multiple memory types, and even more fun, some supported multiple memory types that could be used at the same time, while others didn't, and then you also had to make sure you didn't exceed the cachable RAM limit which varied depending on chipset.
Speaking of chipsets, how many companies were producing them? 5 or 6? VIA, SiS, ALi, Pcchips, I'm sure I'm forgetting some. And they all sucked unless they were from Intel. It was a miracle if all the PCI slots worked on non-Intel boards and AGP performance usually was awful on them too.
You missed those days? Not a chance. No one who actually built their own computers in the 90's would say that.
CPU sockets have always changed frequently from both Intel and AMD. I don't get why there is so much moaning about it now. Back in the day when new generations of CPU's brought tangible performance gains, supporting multiple generations made more sense. Now, the performance gains from one generation to next are so small, that there is no reason to upgrade every generation, so what difference does it make if Intel keeps changing sockets? After skipping 3 or 4 generations, you're going to want a new motherboard anyway that supports all the newest features (m.2,USB 3.1, DDR4, Wifi, or whatever else). We've gotten to the point where system upgrades are being driven more by a need to replace the motherboard than the CPU.