Core i9 on Ebay

It's not legal to re-sell an Engineering Sample processor but that doesn't seem to stop some people.

Not much different than selling your neighbor's car on EBay. You don't own it and you don't own an ES processor. You're just borrowing it from Intel.
 
Heh, price isn't that bad for what is essentially a bootleg of something better than the 975, which itself is $1000.
 
Heh, price isn't that bad for what is essentially a bootleg of something better than the 975, which itself is $1000.

except that the 975 is almost 1ghz faster than this i9.
stock clock 2.4 is weaksauce but I guess these being 32nm will have lots of OC potential.
 
My first thought is would it need a BIOS upgrade to run the chip..a BIOS that might not be posted on the mobo's websites and is only avaliable to the beta testers?

That, and how stable would it be, an engineering sample is obviously not a final product.
 
That, and how stable would it be, an engineering sample is obviously not a final product.
By the time Intel ES chips get out into the public, they are pretty much final chips already.
 
What's the purpose of issuing ES chips to the public? What kind of testing can Intel expect from it that they can't reproduce in-house?
 
What's the purpose of issuing ES chips to the public? What kind of testing can Intel expect from it that they can't reproduce in-house?
How can a motherboard or RAM manufacturer ensure compatibility with a CPU if they don't actually have one to test with? That's just one example for you.
 
How can a motherboard or RAM manufacturer ensure compatibility with a CPU if they don't actually have one to test with? That's just one example for you.
I understand this, assuming your definition of "public" consists solely of the manufacturers. But for individuals to obtain them?
 
Well, Intel doesn't just randomly give ES chips to members of the public. The people who get them are involved in the computer hardware industry in some professional manner.
 
You also have to sign an NDA agreement and the serial number of each CPU can be tracked back to the person / company that originally received it. Part of that agreement is the "not for re-sale" part. This seller didn't even bother to hide the serial number. It's no different than selling stolen property on EBay. If EBay had a spine the seller would be banned for life. Hopefully Intel tracks the seller and the company he worked at down.

An ES chip is just that, an engineering sample. All CPUs including retail CPUs have bugs and a long list of things that don't work 100% correctly that need fixing. ES chips will have more bugs and issues. That's why Intel releases these to testers; so they can get some feedback on what works and what doesn't and get as many of the major issues fixed as possible before going retail with them.

Here's a nice Intel document that lists all of the bugs in a Core i7-900 series CPU.
http://download.intel.com/design/processor/specupdt/320836.pdf

It's an eye opening document for those that think CPUs are perfect.
2+2 on an ES processor might not equal 4.

Buying an ES processor off of EBay is a real gamble. No warranty and no guarantee that it is going to work correctly.
 
You have to remember the difficulties of international law enforcement, though. Even if Intel wanted to pursue the lawbreaker, it would probably have to wade through a bunch of beaurocracy to get anything accomplished.

But man, wouldn't it be cool to buy one of these? I mean, if it worked it'd be amazing.
 
Also the person it was assigned to could have already reported it as stolen / lost or some such, so knowing who it was "given" to, might not actually help anything.
 
That guy has sold quite a few ES cpu's (look back on his history of feedback). Hes been doing it for awhile so he has some connection for sure, and obviously Intel doesnt care (nor ebay).
 
Hilarious. These people get their hands on these chips and think they can just throw it on eBay... companies pick up on this kind of stuff real quick.
 
except that the 975 is almost 1ghz faster than this i9.
stock clock 2.4 is weaksauce but I guess these being 32nm will have lots of OC potential.

debatable.all those transistors on such a small process, plus 6/12 cores.
 
You also have to sign an NDA agreement and the serial number of each CPU can be tracked back to the person / company that originally received it. Part of that agreement is the "not for re-sale" part. This seller didn't even bother to hide the serial number. It's no different than selling stolen property on EBay. If EBay had a spine the seller would be banned for life. Hopefully Intel tracks the seller and the company he worked at down.

An ES chip is just that, an engineering sample. All CPUs including retail CPUs have bugs and a long list of things that don't work 100% correctly that need fixing. ES chips will have more bugs and issues. That's why Intel releases these to testers; so they can get some feedback on what works and what doesn't and get as many of the major issues fixed as possible before going retail with them.

Here's a nice Intel document that lists all of the bugs in a Core i7-900 series CPU.
http://download.intel.com/design/processor/specupdt/320836.pdf

It's an eye opening document for those that think CPUs are perfect.
2+2 on an ES processor might not equal 4.

Buying an ES processor off of EBay is a real gamble. No warranty and no guarantee that it is going to work correctly.

why do you care so much.

I think this sort of thing is awesome and would love to see it happen more often.
 
except that the 975 is almost 1ghz faster than this i9.
stock clock 2.4 is weaksauce but I guess these being 32nm will have lots of OC potential.
That's a funny statement considering AMD spent all those years drilling into users that GHz doesn't matter.
 
GHz did not matter when P4 came up against the Athon which had a significantly better IPC. This 32nm chip will not have such a large IPC advantage over current i7 chips.
 
If anything Intel expects this. This is pretty much free advertisement and publicity for them.
 
i wonder what 1366 boards can get above 220+ BCLK when trying to overclock this i9 past 4ghz.

i wonder if its more related to the chip or board...
 
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