Great place for (ES) CPU's on Ebay

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awedio

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Feb 24, 2012
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mobilenvidia said:
I got my Core i5-3450T from here.

He's got a ton of Engineering Samples and other CPUs for way less than retail.

dinsdale_rd

Cheap shipping too, if only my money tree would bare more fruit :)
Click to expand...

I guess one just has to take a chance, with such low pricing you can't be too worried about a warranty?

I assume one couldn't send these back to Intel in case of a failure?
 
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mobilenvidia

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Sep 25, 2011
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No there would be more questions than answers if you did that.

The i5-3450T is working well
My X3470 I've had for 2 years now still chugs along its also an ES chip.
 
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Mike

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May 29, 2012
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I would be cautious with the E5's as the desktop counterparts had that vt-d bug. If you don't use it that's fine but if you buy it to go on virtualisation duty...
 
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cactus

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There are some B0 stepping E5 quads on there that looked enticing. Anyone remember what stepping got the vt-d fix?
 
Patrick

Patrick

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First off, buying engineering samples is not good practice even though those are excellent deals as they are technically Intel property. Second, I would be a bit careful as the equivalent processors are about 100MHz off. The 100MHz off versions are earlier spins.

Also, did see the E5-4xxx chips for $850 each. Drool!
 
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mobilenvidia

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You takes your chances, huge savings......but........

I have done well over the years with ES versions, do you home work, let the buyer beware.
I can only spend my hard earned $$ once, I need to make the most of the little I have :)
 
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cactus

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And he has 4 of the E5-4xxx. *Only* $1600 for the SuperMicro X9QR7-TF+ on amazon or $2400 for the SYS-8027R-7RFT+.
 
A

awedio

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Feb 24, 2012
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Patrick said:
First off, buying engineering samples is not good practice even though those are excellent deals as they are technically Intel property. Second, I would be a bit careful as the equivalent processors are about 100MHz off. The 100MHz off versions are earlier spins.

Also, did see the E5-4xxx chips for $850 each. Drool!
Click to expand...
Can anyone tell me what's the difference between this

from Intel: http://intel.ly/Me7FHa

vs

from dinsdale_rd: http://bit.ly/Me7PhP

I want to make sure I'm reading correctly & not just getting excited
 
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sotech

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Jul 13, 2011
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One is legally the property of Intel and theoretically shouldn't be sold, and is a pre-release stepping so it may not work as expected - I would check up on whether VT-D is functional in C0 stepping, as there were errors in the implementation of that which prevented its use in C1 stepping that were fixed in C2... I think from memory they were also present in C0 stepping but I don't recall.

If a) VT-D works or b) you don't care about VT-D or the technicalities/potential legalities of ES (engineering sample) CPUs and are prepared to take the (probably small) risk that it won't be stable then it's a lot cheaper than the release CPU. No warranty on ES CPUs, either, since you shouldn't have one :)

awedio said:
Can anyone tell me what's the difference between this

from Intel: http://intel.ly/Me7FHa

vs

from dinsdale_rd: http://bit.ly/Me7PhP

I want to make sure I'm reading correctly & not just getting excited
Click to expand...
 
C

cactus

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Jan 25, 2011
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It is also worth mentioning that ES cpus may not work with some BIOS versions. I know there were some ES 1366 chips that would not work on anything but the first or a modded supermicro BIOS.
 
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sotech

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Jul 13, 2011
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Good point re: the BIOS - after a quick google it seems that the same is the case for the Sandy Bridge-E ES chips, in that some of the B0/B1 ES chips just won't work with the currently-available BIOS'.
 
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mobilenvidia

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Sep 25, 2011
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Chances are an older stepping will be recognised in a newer BIOS version.

My Mobo came with BIOS v1.10 and even the newer v1.20 still does not support the i5-3450T as per CPU support chart.
But I'm happliy watching TV on the highly improvised HTPC with the i5-3450T, the BIOS recognises it as the correct CPU, CPUz reports everything that's it's supposed to support is enabled.

A BIOS would have to exclude a certain stepping for it not to work.
All OEMs get ES samples to make their BIOS's from and Intel send the stepping/microcode listings to the OEMs.
It would be very unlikely that a CPU would not work, unlikely but still possible.

It could very well be that certain things may not work on the CPU.
It's all a risk, I've yet to be stung, but one day I might, but do you homework, let Google be your friend.
 
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cactus

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Jan 25, 2011
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The supermicro example I mentioned, ES stepping were taken out of the newer released BIOS'. For the socket 2011 Xeons, C1+ steppings were released for sale, so I dont think anyone would have a problem with them, but watch out for the B0 steppings.
 
Patrick

Patrick

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I am trying to find low cost E5-2400 CPUs but those are not so plentiful on ebay as nobody is selling anything but new chips.
 
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ehorn

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Jun 21, 2012
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I see that... Even the 2403's and 07's are marked up to full "Intel retail" pricing...

I assume demand is lower (for now) and, as such, pricing is not as flexible yet?
 
A

awedio

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Feb 24, 2012
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