ES Xeon Discussion

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foureight84

Active Member
Jun 26, 2018
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were you able to figure out if these chips were the xeons or i9s? Did you try different ram with each board? I guess we could always delid them at this point! I am assuming that the xeons would be soldered and the i9 would just have thermal paste between the die and the IHS. It may very well be futile but would be great if we could get them working.
best,
jp
I couldn't figure out what chip it is since I couldn't get them to boot. I was using stock recommended ram for each platform to make sure that there isn't ram incompatibility. In both cases CPU was indicated by the motherboard as the issue.

I also thought about deliding it also to find out. I think it's the only way. Or try reading the pirom chip with an rfid reader.
 

Evan

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Jan 6, 2016
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That must be one hell of a parts bin.
Haha think I have a couple of e5-2620,30,40 v3/v4 cpu’s in my parts bin... not nearly as impressive sure... suppose I should sell them but I didn’t really think they would be much in demand.
 
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_haru

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Mar 24, 2018
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Haha think I have a couple of e5-2620,30,40 v3/v4 cpu’s in my parts bin... not nearly as impressive sure... suppose I should sell them but I didn’t really think they would be much in demand.
They're in a fair bit of demand... and if no one wants them i know someone who will be glad to take them off your hands ;)
 

_haru

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Mar 24, 2018
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I noticed that with the x299 FTW K, there was a light near the CPU labeled FIVR and that was on. I looked up the manual and that light means "Indicates CPU integrated voltage regulation failure." They're probably dead chips.
That most likely means it's some sort of unmarked, nonfunctional mech sample. similar to that northwood p4-m marketing kit that was given out, except that one actually worked o_O
 

Klee

Well-Known Member
Jun 2, 2016
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I looked at the SMT capacitors on the bottom of a E5-2603................so tiny. Looking around the web missing ones can be replaced but its just kind of tough because of the size. I may just give it a go tho. May have to take a shot of whisky to settle me down first. LOL
 

Klee

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Jun 2, 2016
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I just received my i9/Xeon W mystery cpu and it has all the capacitors/resistors/smt devices on the back. Also looking at the contacts none show any use at all.
 
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vabch22

New Member
Aug 8, 2016
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That must be one hell of a parts bin.
Haha not really. I collect parts when I find a good deal. Half the time I have part of a build, but always missing something. I just like to tinker. Not sure how I am going to be able to afford some DDR4 ECC Ram though for this build. Prices went crazy the last couple of years. Looks like they are finally coming back down though. I have some DDR3, but doesn't do me any good.

Haha think I have a couple of e5-2620,30,40 v3/v4 cpu’s in my parts bin... not nearly as impressive sure... suppose I should sell them but I didn’t really think they would be much in demand.
I'd also be interested if you offload anything. :) Save me from waiting on shipping from China.
 

RageBone

Active Member
Jul 11, 2017
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the two blank CPUs i have, don't post on a X299 Board.
They aren't shorted so voltage is getting supplied by the VRMs.
Over a longer amount of time, the CPU gets hot, i assume that's because of the RAM Controllers getting voltage and such.
 

foureight84

Active Member
Jun 26, 2018
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the two blank CPUs i have, don't post on a X299 Board.
They aren't shorted so voltage is getting supplied by the VRMs.
Over a longer amount of time, the CPU gets hot, i assume that's because of the RAM Controllers getting voltage and such.
Does it trigger any CPU error light on the MB?
 

RageBone

Active Member
Jul 11, 2017
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negative.
postcode 00.
Since i'm not sure that my MSI is good, it does a 00 postcode without cpu too, i checked it in a different, confirmed working msi board without postcode display, and it didn't even detect that the cpu is quad-channel.

So it seems to be not compatible with X299.

A different question would be how Xeon Ws actually behave when you put them on X299! ?
Anyone willing and able to try?
 

_haru

Member
Mar 24, 2018
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Perth, Australia
negative.
postcode 00.
Since i'm not sure that my MSI is good, it does a 00 postcode without cpu too, i checked it in a different, confirmed working msi board without postcode display, and it didn't even detect that the cpu is quad-channel.

So it seems to be not compatible with X299.

A different question would be how Xeon Ws actually behave when you put them on X299! ?
Anyone willing and able to try?
00 postcode = no cpu = probably no functional die in the blank chip.
 

RageBone

Active Member
Jul 11, 2017
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00 does not mean = no cpu.

00 is the very first step in the POST process.
It staying there means that there are no other progressing steps being made afterwards.

Since i don't know how a Xeon W would behave on X299, it's hard to say if the platform detects the cpu but refuses to move on because it is a Xeon W, or if it is fully refusing to talk with the system, hence being dead or Disabled.


A short side note, Intel disables CPUs during shipping. Or at least there is a patent for that since like 2010, in combination with some crazy RFID stuff.
 
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_haru

Member
Mar 24, 2018
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Perth, Australia
00 does not mean = no cpu.

00 is the very first step in the POST process.
It staying there means that there are no other progressing steps being made afterwards.

Since i don't know how a Xeon W would behave on X299, it's hard to say if the platform detects the cpu but refuses to move on because it is a Xeon W, or if it is fully refusing to talk with the system, hence being dead or Disabled.


A short side note, Intel disables CPU during shipping. Or at least there is a patent for that since like 2010, in combination with some crazy RFID stuff.
interesting - had no idea they can disable the cpu o_O
 

foureight84

Active Member
Jun 26, 2018
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interesting - had no idea they can disable the cpu o_O
The RFID on this chip is also known as PiRom and please correct me if I am wrong. It's used for inventory for data centers and available on Enterprise hardware like the Xeon. I was not able to scan it with any RFID reader. But I might not have compatible readers. Other than deliding, that's the only way to tell as the pirom is not enabled for desktop CPUs even though the chip is present.
 

_haru

Member
Mar 24, 2018
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Perth, Australia
The RFID on this chip is also known as PiRom and please correct me if I am wrong. It's used for inventory for data centers and available on Enterprise hardware like the Xeon. I was not able to scan it with any RFID reader. But I might not have compatible readers. Other than deliding, that's the only way to tell as the pirom is not enabled for desktop CPUs even though the chip is present.
hmm, makes sense.

on another note, i did a thing :
upload_2018-11-7_12-47-36.png
bit out of the scope of this thread, but it's a xeon (b1 stepping 5070, probably QJYK) and it's an ES ;)
 

RageBone

Active Member
Jul 11, 2017
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The RFID on this chip is also known as PiRom .....
Is there any other source other then der8auer?
And what does PiRom actually stand for?
How should deliding help?

since i already pointed at patents, here a few relevant links.
US10009339B2 - System, apparatus and method for securely protecting a processor in transit - Google Patents
US7825776B2 - Device configuration with RFID - Google Patents

US20180096177A1 - Systems, methods, and apparatuses for implementing late fusing of processor features using a non-volatile memory - Google Patents
US20130002398A1 - Apparatus, System, and Method for Providing Attribute Identity Control Associated with a Processor - Google Patents

Of cause that doesn't mean that it is implemented that way, though since those are blanks, that screams either Dummy, or OEM.
To the second one, i'm sure that THAT's actually implemented, and well, could also be that those simply weren't flashed to make them dummys.
The third and forth contain a bit more info on how to program them and how they are also used.
But i guess that's all off topic so that will be it from my side.
 

jpmomo

Active Member
Aug 12, 2018
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I haven't received my mystery chips yet but should this friday. There is still the remote possibility that if these chips are xeon w and some form of es, it might be worth a try to test on a supermicro mb. We have seen similar behavior (not posting or not completely posting) with other es chips on non-supermicro mb but then the same chips were able to post on specific supermicro mb. Unfortunately I am having a hard time trying to find a c422 supermicro mb to test with. something like the Supermicro X11SRM-F might be worth a try.
In regards to delidding, there are simple tools to do this task. It removes the IHS from the PCB. You would then replace the TIM (thermal paste) with something like liquid metal for better heat transfer. The complicating issue here is that most xeon cpus use solder instead of thermal paste. If we did delid this cpu and found that it had thermal paste, it might suggest that this was an i9 chip and not a xeon w series. We could also see the details of the actual chip itself. I am not sure what the i9 vs the xeon w series chip (die) looks like but I am sure we could track that down somewhere. and the mystery continues...........