Are intel Xeon ES (engineer sample) CPUs safe to use ?

[peaceduke]

I was looking for some used Xeon CPUs on ebay
and there is lot of ES Xeons
the cost is 3-4x less than new officially released ones
why is that ? are they safe to buy and use ?

I have my eyes on that one

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Intel-Xeon-E5-2683v4-ES-16-Core-2-0GHz-Turbo-2-5GHz-40-MB-120W-CPU-Processor-/152331189457?hash=item2377a57cd1:g:3h0AAOSwcUBYN84S

 

[jaslion]

I was looking for some used Xeon CPUs on ebay
and there is lot of ES Xeons
the cost is 3-4x less than new officially released ones
why is that ? are they safe to buy and use ?

I have my eyes on that one

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Intel-Xeon-E5-2683v4-ES-16-Core-2-0GHz-Turbo-2-5GHz-40-MB-120W-CPU-Processor-/152331189457?hash=item2377a57cd1:g:3h0AAOSwcUBYN84S

Yes these are usually safe to use however it is illegal to sell these. These chips aren't meant to leave intel and are after the release of the actually processor that consumers can buy meant to be destroyed. You might get a deal but you might also get an unstable chip.

 

[Ecky]

They're pre-production silicon and frequently have problems. Plus, Intel has prosecuted people who have sold them before, because they're Intel property and not for resale. I would avoid.

 

[peaceduke]

I was looking for some used Xeon CPUs on ebay
and there is lot of ES Xeons
the cost is 3-4x less than new officially released ones
why is that ? are they safe to buy and use ?

I have my eyes on that one

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Intel-Xeon-E5-2683v4-ES-16-Core-2-0GHz-Turbo-2-5GHz-40-MB-120W-CPU-Processor-/152331189457?hash=item2377a57cd1:g:3h0AAOSwcUBYN84S

Yes these are usually safe to use however it is illegal to sell these. These chips aren't meant to leave intel and are after the release of the actually processor that consumers can buy meant to be destroyed. You might get a deal but you might also get an unstable chip.

I don't give a damn about legality stuff
if they sell them on ebay it means you can buy it
its not a drug its just CPU

moreover its not my problem that intel can't trace their trash

would you buy them (in terms of stability) ?

 

[jaslion]

I was looking for some used Xeon CPUs on ebay
and there is lot of ES Xeons
the cost is 3-4x less than new officially released ones
why is that ? are they safe to buy and use ?

I have my eyes on that one

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Intel-Xeon-E5-2683v4-ES-16-Core-2-0GHz-Turbo-2-5GHz-40-MB-120W-CPU-Processor-/152331189457?hash=item2377a57cd1:g:3h0AAOSwcUBYN84S

Yes these are usually safe to use however it is illegal to sell these. These chips aren't meant to leave intel and are after the release of the actually processor that consumers can buy meant to be destroyed. You might get a deal but you might also get an unstable chip.

I don't give a damn about legality stuff
if they sell them on ebay it means you can buy it
its not a drug its just CPU

moreover its not my problem that intel can't trace their trash

would you buy them (in terms of stability) ?

I personally would skip them because they are an ES and most likely sooner or later something will go wrong with it.

 

[synphul]

Think of es as a 'beta' cpu. Nothing is guaranteed to work properly, there's no warranty of any kind, they're illegal to own/sell. It may not mean much until someone ends up being on the wrong side of intel's legal team. Not sure why someone wants to buy something they call trash.

Even without the whole es controversy unless someone has a specific need for 16 cores in most common applications it's going to be a turd. The speed is 2ghz to 2.5ghz (according to the listing) when the official 2683v4 features speeds from 2.1ghz to 3ghz. A quad core 7700k costs less and will outperform it in most tasks. A similarly priced brand new with warranty broadwell-e 6850k with a speed of 3.6ghz to 3.8ghz (and can be overclocked further) would outperform that xeon in most tasks.

Two things affect processor performance, ipc and core speed. Amd's fx cpu's with their 8 cores fall behind intel cpu's with half the core count repeatedly despite having higher clock speeds because they have low ipc. While the xeon in question has higher ipc it's gimped by low clock speeds, potato potahto. Low core performance and high core count has already been witnessed in most day to day programs and falls behind. If the es cpu ends up glitching you'll have bought a $550 paperweight instead of potentially spending the same or over $100 less on a 6800k or 6850k.

 

[peaceduke]

Think of es as a 'beta' cpu. Nothing is guaranteed to work properly, there's no warranty of any kind, they're illegal to own/sell. It may not mean much until someone ends up being on the wrong side of intel's legal team. Not sure why someone wants to buy something they call trash.

Even without the whole es controversy unless someone has a specific need for 16 cores in most common applications it's going to be a turd. The speed is 2ghz to 2.5ghz (according to the listing) when the official 2683v4 features speeds from 2.1ghz to 3ghz. A quad core 7700k costs less and will outperform it in most tasks. A similarly priced brand new with warranty broadwell-e 6850k with a speed of 3.6ghz to 3.8ghz (and can be overclocked further) would outperform that xeon in most tasks.

Two things affect processor performance, ipc and core speed. Amd's fx cpu's with their 8 cores fall behind intel cpu's with half the core count repeatedly despite having higher clock speeds because they have low ipc. While the xeon in question has higher ipc it's gimped by low clock speeds, potato potahto. Low core performance and high core count has already been witnessed in most day to day programs and falls behind. If the es cpu ends up glitching you'll have bought a $550 paperweight instead of potentially spending the same or over $100 less on a 6800k or 6850k.

I called them trash because

they are overpriced like 6950x , and like nvidias m/p 5000 quadros
they cost 2500 and can do same as titan X - only thing that makes quadro work better is the driver
but of course you can't install quadro accelerator driven on GTX card , it has hardware lock inside
one dude from russia did that trick and made GTX work like quadro , after that Nvidia changed their behavior in defense frontline and now you can't do that even with hardware surgery

the only thing that Xeons have against i7 is the ability to use multiple CPUs in one rig
avoiding RAM GPU and HDD purchase for each unit


if there were no AMD on the market they would cost even more
amd is a salvation in terms of price policy of intel and Nvidia

 

[Susquehannock]

"would you buy them (in terms of stability) ? "

No. No I would not. All other aforementioned issues aside. These are almost always HEAVILY used items.

 

[peaceduke]

"would you buy them (in terms of stability) ? "

No. No I would not. All other aforementioned issues aside. These are almost always HEAVILY used items.

tell me GPU expert
when Volta will be released ? )

 

[Susquehannock]

tell me GPU expert
when Volta will be released ? )

No idea. Perhaps a statement at GTC 2017 this May.

 

[VoltaDynam7cs]

I was looking for some used Xeon CPUs on ebay
and there is lot of ES Xeons
the cost is 3-4x less than new officially released ones
why is that ? are they safe to buy and use ?

I have my eyes on that one

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Intel-Xeon-E5-2683v4-ES-16-Core-2-0GHz-Turbo-2-5GHz-40-MB-120W-CPU-Processor-/152331189457?hash=item2377a57cd1:g:3h0AAOSwcUBYN84S

I would say they are safe to use, as long as you stay away from Aliexpress or the Chinese mafia might show up at your doorstep.

The likelihood of an ES CPU frying a motherboard is as low as the actual consumer chip doing the same. However, depending on the one you have, it may not work on certain motherboards. My Intel Confdential i7-6700T (technically a K since the multiplier is unlocked) works fine with my ASUS Z170-AR, but if I had an earlier engineering sample of the 6700, it might not have worked.

Buying is safe, to a degree. If you want to literally throw your money down the drain then you should be good to go. But selling those chips is a crime, at least if you signed all of those papers from Intel. But buying them is 100% legal as far as I know, so doing that is an effective way of trolling the seller.
[:voltadynam7cs:1]
I think you can sell them, since you didn't sign any of those papers.

Hope this answers your question.

-Volta

 

[synphul]

The trouble is if Intel considers them property of Intel (and they do) then selling someone else's property is essentially selling stolen goods. Purchasing is buying stolen goods, same as buying any other stolen merchandise someone doesn't have the rights to 'own'. ES chips are supposed to be sent back to Intel as it's their property. Personally I wouldn't want to get into a legal battle with Intel. They have more lawyers than I'd ever have and companies aren't always shy of making an example of people. Why roll the dice?

 

[VoltaDynam7cs]

The trouble is if Intel considers them property of Intel (and they do) then selling someone else's property is essentially selling stolen goods. Purchasing is buying stolen goods, same as buying any other stolen merchandise someone doesn't have the rights to 'own'. ES chips are supposed to be sent back to Intel as it's their property. Personally I wouldn't want to get into a legal battle with Intel. They have more lawyers than I'd ever have and companies aren't always shy of making an example of people. Why roll the dice?

He's right. Totally forgot about that. :/ Personally, I bought mine because they're cheap and rare. But I'm with him, and discourage buying them unless you agree to send it back to Intel if they come for it.

 

[Ladislav Jech]

They're pre-production silicon and frequently have problems. Plus, Intel has prosecuted people who have sold them before, because they're Intel property and not for resale. I would avoid.

Got about 4 pieces and newer experienced a problem, they are worth it, little limited frequencies, but sometimes for 10-20% percent of retail price... -> it is worth it

 

[pc enthusiast 2]

I was looking for some used Xeon CPUs on ebay
and there is lot of ES Xeons
the cost is 3-4x less than new officially released ones
why is that ? are they safe to buy and use ?

I have my eyes on that one

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Intel-Xeon-E5-2683v4-ES-16-Core-2-0GHz-Turbo-2-5GHz-40-MB-120W-CPU-Processor-/152331189457?hash=item2377a57cd1:g:3h0AAOSwcUBYN84S

TBH , I never intended to buy an ES sample.. but lately, i closed a deal with a local dealer and he managed to sell me an i9 10980xe ES sample mounted on an Asrock 299 creator board.

honestly speaking, this product is as good as a retail CPU would be or probably even better as they're cherry-picked samples to copy and bring into production later on following the same module and on top they're coming directly from the inventor itself.

I honestly never had a problem with stability and reliability however i still wish that since i paid for a brand new cpu and i deserved that but surfed through the whole web i came to know that they're as identical or better than as the retail chips would be.

Conclusion: Try not to buy them but if you get those try to live with them without having a doubt in your mind..