Intel "ES" version CPU vs. pretty box unit

[Assortedfamily]

I currently run a e6700 ES CPU that was given/won by me at my old job. It's the third C2D proc but the first e6700 I have had. Even though I live 10 miles from Intel in Oregon, have a roommate who works for them in validation, and had a regular Intel rep at my old job who stopped in all the time I guess I still don't "truly" know the difference between an ES and something purchased. There are the obvious differences of course l,ike it was free so I sold my e6600 and I have no warranty on it. Does Intel use better silicon for the ES chips? Do they churn out batches of them testing for certain limitations or hidden defects that can change from batch to batch? I just can't think of any definitive way to test the differences other than to completely duplicate my setup with a "designed and enginereed for mass consumption" version of the CPU VS what I have.

Anyone have any thoughts or experience with the ES's?

BTW..the ES has been easily running at 10 X 350 with stock cooling for weeks. Temps never breaking over 55c. One of these days I will get a real cooler and play with it. The no warranty deal scares me off a little bit!

 

[imported_mikejf]

ES = Engineering Sample
Not sure what that truly means though.

 

[RichUK]

Originally posted by: mikejf
ES = Engineering Sample
Not sure what that truly means though.

It means it?s a pre-production sample that has not yet been qualified for retail production. Intel/AMD will release several new steppings until they have ironed out all the ?main? most important bugs, errata.

Once this has happened, they will qualify the core and start production of their retail chips. The latest stepping for Intel?s Core 2, is Stepping 6, Rev B2. So they will have gone through 6 revisions, or 6 different processor masks for Core 2, until Intel deemed it ready for mass production for the public domain.

Intel will most likely update the Core 2 range, or should I say release a new stepping later on down the line, only once a lot of known errata requires correcting. If it?s a minor set of changes it?ll most likely be revision B3. However, if there is a lot of errata which Intel wish to correct, and depending on how sever the changes to the processor logic, Intel might release the new revision as C0 (or would it be C1?)

pm, is the guy to talk to on this. Since he is an Intel Engineer, and he'll know this stuff like the back of his hand (of course).

 

[Conky]

If you got it for free then why are you worried about a warranty?

BTW, ES chips are often different from production chips too in that certain features may differ from the production models... for example, many ES cpu's have unlocked multipliers where the production models have a fixed one.

 

[stevty2889]

Sometimes you get lucky with the ES chips, sometimes you don't. I had a couple of prescott ES's that had partialy unlocked multipliers but they didn't overclock for crap compared to my retail chips. I had one that had fully unlocked multipliers, but it would only boot on 1 out of 6 motherboards. When it did boot, it wasn't very stable. It was supposedly a prescott, but was seen as a 6ghz xeon(it would barely run at 3ghz let alone 6). At default it tried to boot at 100x60. Others have gotten stable chips with unlocked multipliers as well, but in any case, they are either pre-production, or have features that are turned on that aren't turned on on retail chips so they can test them.