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Comment by _bxg1 | Hacker News Reader

I don't really follow how this is different from normal, motherboard-based desktops, which are already modular. Can anyone explain?

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Current desktops have two levels of modularity: a PCIe bus connected to the motherboard which various things are plugged into, and then a set of special components (like CPU and RAM) that get plugged into the motherboard directly. This is different in that it makes the PCIe bus the interface for all components, and the "element" housing the CPU and RAM becomes just one more thing that plugs into it.

In theory this makes tasks like upgrading the CPU easier, since you wouldn't need to deal with things like the old and new CPUs using different sockets; you'd just pull out the old Element and plug in a new one, the exact same way you upgrade (say) your GPU.

There are (in theory) downsides too, of course. If the CPU moves into a sealed package, for instance, your options for cooling it are going to be limited to whatever fans/etc. come on the package; you wouldn't be able to buy and use beefier third-party coolers, the way you can now since you have direct access to the processor. That's not a huge issue for most people, but if you're an overclocker it'd be a serious pain point.

Isn’t PCIe a little slow compared to (say) qpi? Won’t this just mean you’re waiting on memory more often?

Presumably it's a case where the speed has gotten fast enough that we can sacrifice some of it for other benefits

I think this has the memory on board the CPU card, so it shouldn't affect anything there. What i'd be worried about is the total number of pci-e lanes exposed by the slot for the cpu, that'll bottleneck most systems these days thanks to nvme storage and other peripherals.

POWER is getting there. Their OpenCAPI stuff allows one to attach all kinds of stuff, from coprocessors to memory. Large boxes will end up having separate connected CPU and memory drawers on the rack.

But that's no desktop computer.

QPI/UPI is not used in single processor systems. DMI is literally PCIe. You would however need quite a number of PCIe lanes to achieve the bandwidth of a 128 bit DDR4/5 interface.

I think the only thing to add to this is the GPU side of computing has accommodated for modifying/upgrading the stock coolers.

Well, it's less modular. Though with Intel CPUs needing a new mainboard for every single CPU generation, maybe not a big deal.

That's the point I came here to make. My initial reaction was that this was a step back in modularity, but upon reflection I realized that every time I've upgraded my CPU, I've also had to upgrade my motherboard. CPUs (these days) are a long-lived part, so by the time I get around to changing my CPU more often than not I also end up changing the motherboard, and even the RAM. I think someone like me, someone who values the customizability that one gets by assembling their own system but also doesn't upgrade more than once every three or four years, would be an ideal customer for Element. It's an open question, though, as to whether there are enough people like me to be a worthwhile market.

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