Your opinion on Intel engineering sample (ES) cpus

[tareqjj]

hello, im thinking of getting an Xeon core ES cpu with B0 stepping and I wanted to know what do you guys think of ES cpus and how they preform vs retail, OEM versions? Thanks

 

[Vette73]

Usually they perfom worse in terms of overclocking.
That if I remember correct they are illegal as ownership is still with the maker, in this case Intel.

 

[tareqjj]

I thought and I heard that ES usually overclock better and sometimes cherrypicked by Intel when they send to suppliers and review sites?

 

[nanaki333]

i had a q9550 ES years ago and it was fine. granted, i'm not a huge overclocker, so i don't know what it's max was, but it worked great with a few hundred mhz oc.

 

[Avalon]

They usually perform the same as retail samples, but overclocking, your mileage may vary. I do know that you're not supposed to be able to get ES chips, as they are property of Intel and are loaned out to select people. Them selling to you is against Intel contract.

 

[randname]

As others have said

1) Illegal that you are getting your hands on it
2) Produced early on (likely earlier steppings than release samples) so made when the process tech/yields are likely not as good in comparison to the retail chips (less likely to be a good overclocker)
3) Possible bugs (likely an earlier stepping without various architectural bug fixes).

 

[IntelEnthusiast]

Here is some information on Intel Engineering Samples http://www.intel.com/support/processors/sb/CS-030747.htm.

As others have said they shouldnt be up for sell.
There is no warranty of any type on them.
There maybe problems with them as they are preproduction.

Christian Wood
Intel Enthusiast Team

 

[Zap]

2) Produced early on (likely earlier steppings than release samples) so made when the process tech/yields are likely not as good in comparison to the retail chips (less likely to be a good overclocker)
3) Possible bugs (likely an earlier stepping without various architectural bug fixes).

This is not necessarily true. It may be of early pre-production samples, but there can be samples that are retail steppings, meaning they are exactly the same, just not marked for sale.

 

[formulav8]

A company I worked for who is a decent sized computer distributor was handed a tray of Intel Conf. cpu's directly from Intel Reps (as a thankyou or a payoff). The company owner gave one of the cpu's to one of his employees. So where is the wrong in that? Just because it says ES Intel Conf. doesn't mean you can't have one.

The Intel reps literally gave a tray of cpu's to him that say Intel Conf, definitely not 'loaned' out. So you can't simply say if its Intel Conf. that you shouldn't have it.


Jason

 

[podspi]

I think it is AMD Opteron ES that are "great" for overclocking, because they are the only server CPUs that are unlocked.

From what I've heard (on HardOCP) they overclock very nicely, but generate an obscene amount of heat, and so are not for the faint of heart.

 

[Phynaz]

A company I worked for who is a decent sized computer distributor was handed a tray of Intel Conf. cpu's directly from Intel Reps (as a thankyou or a payoff). The company owner gave one of the cpu's to one of his employees. So where is the wrong in that? Just because it says ES Intel Conf. doesn't mean you can't have one.

The Intel reps literally gave a tray of cpu's to him that say Intel Conf, definitely not 'loaned' out. So you can't simply say if its Intel Conf. that you shouldn't have it.


Jason

Sure you can.

Property of Intel. Period.

If your maid gave me your tv would that mean that it's now mine?

 

[dmens]

hello, im thinking of getting an Xeon core ES cpu with B0 stepping and I wanted to know what do you guys think of ES cpus and how they preform vs retail, OEM versions? Thanks

It's a complete crapshoot.

 

[formulav8]

Sure you can.

Property of Intel. Period.

If your maid gave me your tv would that mean that it's now mine?

Why would Intel reps give him the cpus? He's not a review company, he's not a builder, he personally does nothing related to cpus. They weren't given to him for validating nor testing, nor as a test drive. They GAVE them to him as a thankyou for being an Intel supporter.

 

[Phynaz]

You didn't answer my question.

 

[Markfw]

I think the main point is that you can't SELL them. If somebody gave you one, Intel could ask for it back, but they don't care that much. To trace and recoup every ES they ever gave out ? They won't.

But sell one on ebay, and you might be in trouble.

My 2 cents.

 

[formulav8]

OK what was your question exactly?

If Intel, the owner of the chips literally give their chips to someone with no nda, no signing no nothing, I guess that means that they expect you to ship them back to them? The maid analogy means nothing is she isn't the owner. Intel IS THE owner of the chips and literally gave them to him in person. Intel never said 'ok, once you drooled over them enough heres our address I expect you to ship them back to this address.' They were Intel Conf. chips and they were GIVEN to him. The reps mentioned nothing about expectations of getting them back. I was right there with them. I know exactly what was and wasn't said. They were a thankyou/gift for him.

Believe it or not but Intel GIVES away cpu's as a thankyou/gift/demo/ect to people.

This is something stupid to be arguing over anyways...

 

[micaturbo]

Sure you can.

Property of Intel. Period.

If your maid gave me your tv would that mean that it's now mine?

If I gave my maid the tv and then she gave it to you, then it'd be yours.

 

[Phynaz]

OK what was your question exactly?

If Intel, the owner of the chips literally give their chips to someone with no nda, no signing no nothing, I guess that means that they expect you to ship them back to them? The maid analogy means nothing is she isn't the owner. Intel IS THE owner of the chips and literally gave them to him in person. Intel never said 'ok, once you drooled over them enough heres our address I expect you to ship them back to this address.' They were Intel Conf. chips and they were GIVEN to him. The reps mentioned nothing about expectations of getting them back. I was right there with them. I know exactly what was and wasn't said. They were a thankyou/gift for him.

Believe it or not but Intel GIVES away cpu's as a thankyou/gift/demo/ect to people.

This is something stupid to be arguing over anyways...

An Intel employee supposedly gave him a / some CPU(s).

Your maid is your employee.

If your maid gives me your TV, does it now belong to me?

And I still can't figure out, if Intel reps did give him a CPU, why they would be ES. The sales guys normally wouldn't have access to ES chips, let alone a tray of them. Especially the junior guys that man the trade shows.

I call shens on the whole story.

 

[formulav8]

An Intel employee supposedly gave him a / some CPU(s).

Your maid is your employee.

If your maid gives me your TV, does it now belong to me?

And I still can't figure out, if Intel reps did give him a CPU, why they would be ES. The sales guys normally wouldn't have access to ES chips, let alone a tray of them. Especially the junior guys that man the trade shows.

I call shens on the whole story.

Oh yeah, I have nothing better to do then argue with the likes of you so I am going to just make stuff up? ^_^

Just because you can't understand something doesn't make it 'shens' as you call it. I still have the shirt and everything that Intel gave me there at the exact same 'Intel-Microsoft Ready 2 Rock Roadshow' event. I guess they want the shirts back as well right? I was there, and they gave him Free Intel Conf. CPU's to Keep. You don't like it, so what? Believe what you want.

 

[Gebus23]

Hi.... Long time reader.... Never posted on anand tho... Sitting at tge doctors office reading this argument and just had to post.....

Phynaz... I dont know who/were u have worked... Im in wireless sales for one of the big 4 companies in the us... Im number 1 in my region out of over 1k reps... U dont even wanna know what ive been handed by manufacturers.. Ive got unreleased phones. Phones that never came out etc,etc..... Some under nda some under here take this... Dont talk about it, dont show it off and once its out do whatever u want with it... (we just hope u like it and sell tge crap out of it to all those corporate accounts u handle)


So I dont think u have a valid argument... Ive never been asked.for one back... Unless it was one that I had to sign on the dotted line for...

 

[Chiropteran]

An Intel employee supposedly gave him a / some CPU(s).

Your maid is your employee.

If your maid gives me your TV, does it now belong to me?

And I still can't figure out, if Intel reps did give him a CPU, why they would be ES. The sales guys normally wouldn't have access to ES chips, let alone a tray of them. Especially the junior guys that man the trade shows.

I call shens on the whole story.

An intel imployee also gives newegg their (non ES) CPUS. Does that mean when you buy a CPU from newegg, it's not really yours because it was only an employee of intel that gave it away, not "Intel itself"?

How exactly could you ever get an Intel CPU (ES or not) without it coming from an Intel employee at some point? Using your argument, all Intel CPUs would be illegal to own.

 

[JeffreyLebowski]

An intel imployee also gives newegg their (non ES) CPUS. Does that mean when you buy a CPU from newegg, it's not really yours because it was only an employee of intel that gave it away, not "Intel itself"?

How exactly could you ever get an Intel CPU (ES or not) without it coming from an Intel employee at some point? Using your argument, all Intel CPUs would be illegal to own.

The chips Intel gives out for promotions and such are not ES chips. ES chips, as stated by the Intel Rep here in this very thread, are the property of Intel and possing one means you do not techincally own it. However it got to your hands, is immaterial. It left Intel as an ES chip and it's ownership is with Intel.

I've seen the Intel hammer come down on someone trying to sell an ES chip and it's not pretty.

Sometimes they'll be nice and swap an ES chip that made it to someones hands, with a retail chip so they can get the ES back. Sometimes they'll sick the lawyers on someone that is abusing the system.

 

[formulav8]

Sometimes they'll sick the lawyers on someone that is abusing the system.

I'd like to see some info on Intel every really doing that? Especially to a normal guy with a Intel Conf. (With or Without ES) cpu and selling to someone?

(Edit - To clarify: It looks like I said ES chips in a post. It should be Intel Conf and not ES (At least I don't recall them saying ES, I'm to lazy to edit the posts). They were Intel Conf. e6300/e6400/ect.. Unfortunately they did Not have unlocked multipliers. I tried My sister-in-laws brother has the e6300 cpu now.)

Anyways, as i've been saying the whole time, just because Intel gave you chips behind closed doors or the chips has Intel Conf doesn't mean it wasn't 'given' to the person who now 'owns' it. I doubt Intel Reps with links to Intel Conf chips would do anything illegal. Anytime they give you something that is to continue their property they MAKE you fill out an nda of some sort.

 

[Chiropteran]

The chips Intel gives out for promotions and such are not ES chips. ES chips, as stated by the Intel Rep here in this very thread, are the property of Intel and possing one means you do not techincally own it. However it got to your hands, is immaterial. It left Intel as an ES chip and it's ownership is with Intel.

Yes, but an Intel rep could say "i5 2500k are canceled and are all property of intel, you must return yours immediatly". Simply stating something does not make it true. Much like the storage facilities with signs saying "not responsible for stolen property", the sign is not legally enforcable. IANAL, but my understanding is that the what actually matters is any legality or contratual restrictions at the point of sale. If intel gives you an ES under some constract saying you can't resell it, then you can't. But if intel gives you a tray of ES with no such restrictions, you can do whatever you want with them that wouldn't be illegal otherwise.

 

[Kalessian]

I'd like to see the law where writing a couple letters on something means no one can own it but you.

I'm gonna start writing ES on all my possessions just in case this is true. That way no one can ever repossess any of my belongings. Or would that mean that Intel owns all my stuff, now? Nvm.

I wish I had an answer for you OP but I don't. Maybe ask over at xtremesystems