So whats the difference between a CPU socket and Chipset?
A CPU socket is where the actual CPU is placed to connect to the mobo. Each socket, AMD or Intel, have different ways of allowing the cpu to actually physically connect.
Theres 3 types of sockets (atleast that i know of) called Land Grid Array, Pin Grid Array, and Ball Grid Array
LGA is used by Intel for their processors, and come in different amount of connecting pins, like LGA 775 meaning the socket supports LGA 775 processors, and has 775 pins to connect the processor to the mobo. LGA is typically a set of pins on the mobo, with metallic contacts on the bottom of the processor and when there is a connection between the contacts on the chip and on the socket, then the processor should work.
PGA is the opposite of LGA and is used by AMD. In PGA, the contacts-connecting pins order is reversed. The Pins are on the bottom of the chip, and the socket has holes which contain the contacts.
BGA is one I havent seen yet but might be out there in mobile devices. In BGA, there are balls of solder on the bottom of the chip, and youre supposed to heat them up so the solder melts and when it cools, establishes a connection between the board and the processor. It requires fine precision though, so this is normally done in a factory before being shipped out to the public. The thing that differs BGA from LGA and PGA is that you cant remove a BGA processor once it is soldered to the PCB.
A Chipset is a series of 2 (Or 1 in newer PCBs) types of chips called North Bridge and South Bridge (North Bridge is connected directly the processor, and deals with connections between CPU, RAM, PCI slots, etc that require high performance. South Bridge is for lower performance tasks). In newer boards though, the Northbridge and South Bridge chipsets are combined.
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