Boards for your computer's main parts.
Boards for your computer's main parts.
Imagine if makers built desktops with chips already inside, like a motherboard that comes with an Intel or AMD processor. Would people choose such a setup for something like a 690 chipset and an Alder Lake i5, i7, i9, or even the upcoming Raptor Lake?
Absolutely yes, but imagine if they had to make it available for desktop PCs. The only changes would be the GPU, RAM, NVMe, HDD, and SSD. Most likely, people who love their current setup wouldn’t feel the need to upgrade the CPU. Edited February 11, 2022 by XeliGamer for more details.
For the buyer and the producer, producing five million B660 boards is significantly cheaper than making one million with each of those specific configurations.
This is the reason. The only time you really see CPUs soldered on is for custom orders where there's an agreed buy. For example, production of boards for things like consoles. There's no risk of not selling through. As soon as you take it upon yourself to just stick a CPU in for the consumer market, you're rolling the dice that you'll sell through whatever you make. If consumers decide they don't like that particular CPU choice for whatever reason, you're left holding the bag as a manufacturer. It's just not worth it, when they can sell just the board and let you put whatever the heck you like in it.