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Engineering sample X6800!

Leporello

Leporello

Leporello

Associate
Joined
27 Oct 2005
Posts
475
Here's a poser for the CPU experts here. I've recently aquired from a well known auction site a very competitively priced X6800. The reason I paid so little is that the chip I received was an Intel engineering sample. As I understand it, these chips are actually owned by Intel who supply them to testers and reviewers under licence on condition that they are not sold. Thus my ownership of the X6800 that I bought so cheaply is somewhat questionable in law. If I don't return the chip to the vendor I could guilty of receiving stolen property. Does anyone have any informed thoughts on this dilemma?

Now to some technical issues about this chip. When I installed it, the Core temps at idle were 71c, under load these rose to 79c. My other processor, an E6600, in the same system, using the same components and default settings, ran at 41c idle to 46c under load. I tried reseating the heatsink etc but the x6800 still ran at 71c. I have now replaced the E6600 and my temperatues are all back to normal.

One other thing I noticed when trying the X6800 was that the Intel Desktop Control panel reported the CPU temperature to be -128c (minus). Now this, combined with the bizarre Core temps on the X6800, makes me wonder whether the chip is in some way damaged. If my engineering sample has been tested by one or more reviewers at extreme overclocks could it have been damaged in the process?

I'd welcome comments.

Thanks for your attention.
 
I don't know about the legal side of things.

As for damaging, yes the chip could definitely have been (and probably has) been pushed to its limit and beyond by the previous owner.

The ES chips are not finalised products and can have any sort of problems you care to mention. I'm not surprised yours does.

A lot of the ES samples have unlocked multipliers, which can mean they are amazing for overclocking. However, they can be unstable even at stock speeds, due to the fact they are built on first generation silicone; any errata which have been rectified by the time the CPU goes retail are probably still present in the ES.

They're also known to be extremely picky about motherboards. Even with latest bios, it might not work properly. This could explain the weird temp readings.

Jon
 
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keep it

you cant really be done by the police at all if its from fleabay, unless it stated in the description 'THIS IS STOLEN'

not that they would really track you down for an intel processor....
if you had some prototype intel 64core cpu then perhaps
 
I had an engineering sample E6300 a few months back.

It was not multiplier unlocked, it was stuck at 7, i couldnt even adjust it downwards.

It ran pretty hot despite having decent cooling, and it didnt overclock thjat well at all.

You'll have difficulty selling it on i would think, i had to virtually give mine away :)
 
Could be a stepping that temperature reading programs don't read right, G0 stepping people are getting the same issue atm.
 
i thought ES's generally ran rather hot anyway? i'd keep it, loads of es get sold on the auction site... they have potential, i was lucky enough to test one... just dug out the pic :D
overclockedmotherfucker.jpg
 
The phaze wasnt mine, was some custom tuned mach2 gt, all i can remember is that it was damn noisy, the voltage was maxed out at 1.8v, and i can't remember the temperature :( i believe it was still -ve though :)
 
Sorry to hijack but has anyone come across an Intel Confidential chip? Is it the same as a Engineering sample or different in some way. Leporello does your chip say ES of Intel confidential on the ihs?
 
My ES cpus say Intel Confidential or something to that effect on the IHS yes. Also the actual namestring has ES in it as well.
 
BILKO1 said:
Sorry to hijack but has anyone come across an Intel Confidential chip? Is it the same as a Engineering sample or different in some way. Leporello does your chip say ES of Intel confidential on the ihs?
Click to expand...
Yes it does. The full markings...

INTEL CONFIDENTIAL
QMYP ES MALAY
*** '05 80557PH0774M
L61 OA773 *

Do other people's ES chips run as hot as this one? See my starter in this thread.
 
If those temps are accurate (the Core temps at idle were 71c, under load these rose to 79c.) it would explain why it was being auctioned off cheap. I'd be hesitant to use it at those temps!
 
Have you touched the heatsink to see if it was actually feeling noticeably warmer? (Don't burn yourself...)
If it's just an inaccurate reading then there shouldn't be much to worry about, I'd definately keep it if you picked it up cheap.
 
The E6700 ES that I had ran pretty hot. About 70C under load if I remember correctly.
 
My E6700 ES has been solid for me, 4.3Ghz at 1.525v., dual ORTHOS stable, etc.

The earlier steppings (before C2D was even released) were a bit sketchy, but the B1 (retail was B2) steppings were very good for overclocking generally speaking.

The only problem I have with mine is that flashing to the later BIOS for my motherboard it moans about a "uCode loading error" when it POSTs because it doesn't recognise the CPU (ASUS presumably removed support for it in the BIOS since no one should technically own ES CPUs in retail channels). Still functions as per normal though.

If you can get them for a decent price then they're worth having imo.

By the way "Intel Confidential" = ES.
 
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its basically a pre-release cpu which is for reviewers/developers only, so stuff like the temp probe might not work right on retail motherboards, usually the ones with just (es) next to the specification are ones for reviewers and should be just as good as retail, or even better because the cpu's reviewers get are usually hand picked to be good. although it is illegal to sell them so the guy who sold you it is breaking the law.
 
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