Intel LGA18xx socket cover gets spotted

Twitter leaker momomo_us posted a photo of a mysterious socket cover for a future Intel processor. The lid is marked LGA-17xx / LGA-18xx -- which suggests both sockets have the same size. At the moment, it's still unclear which product will use LGA1800.

We know the upcoming Alder Lake desktop processor series will use LGA1700. LGA1800 could be for the 7nm Meteor Lake, or perhaps for a Xeon workstation CPU. If Meteor Lake is indeed LGA1800, it would mean LGA1700 will be used exclusively for Alder Lake and Raptor Lake.

German tech blogger Igor Wallossek claims Intel cooked up a new cooler mounting system that will be used for both the LGA1700 and LGA1800 sockets.

First, a few basics about the new cooling system. With the new LGA1700 and LGA1800 sockets, Intel also introduces a new mounting system and deliberately changes the hole patterns for the screw and backplate. With the increased distances of the holes by a few millimeters, one wants to understandably avoid that someone puts an old cooler on the new system. Because not only the structure width of the new CPUs becomes smaller, but also the height of the complete package. -- Igor Wallosek, Igor's LAB

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— 188? (@momomo_us) June 26, 2021

Compatibility with existing coolers?

Based on other leaks from Igor's Lab, we now know LGA1700 will use a 78mm x 78mm hole pattern, which is slightly different from the current 75mm x 75mm. Combined with the new, rectangular shape of the LGA1700 socket, and the lower height of the heatspreader (6.5mm vs 7.3mm) this means various existing coolers will no longer be compatible with Alder Lake.