Why does this Opteron say ES?

[Street]

I'm putting together a workstation here and have been playing with the CPUs, overclocking them etc... I loaded up CPUZ to have a look at them and one of them reads as follows...

Why have I got an ES version here? The other CPU is a normal Opteron 246, runs at a lower voltage and has SSE3. Will it cause any problems having mis-matched CPUs?

 

[welshtom]

Thats an Engineering Sample, not a retail chip, very strange

 

[Dunky]

I have a feeling that it might cause an issue. I thinking about applications which use SSE3. If they a program which requires SSE3 is on the 'SSE3 core' then it's fine but if the scheduler then moves a thread or the whole application to the above proc then it will just bomb out.

If you bought this from a shop then drop them a line and see what they can do however I think I remember hearding that if you send it back to AMD direct, they'll send you a non-ES one (since the public technically aren't meant to have ES samples). No source on this but it rings a bell (mostly likely at XS).

 

[NightSt@lk3r]

you could sell that ES for a lot of money and just buy another Opty

 

[tickle me elmo]

it would probably show ES on the bootup screen as well.

 

[Dunky]

you could sell that ES for a lot of money and just buy another Opty

Doubt it, Socket 940 so not many overclockers would be interested plus the newer Opterons are 90nm (lower voltage too) with SSE3 - he'd probably get less than a new 246 even though it's an ES.

 

[TaKeN]

Is the mulitplier unlocked then on this chip ?

 

[Street]

I'll probably send it back then... The workstation is being used for 3D modelling, stuff like that, not sure if the lack of SSE3 would cause any issues with that but better safe than sorry

 

[Durzel]

I'd sell it rather than send it back, or at least try to sell it. ES chips fetch decent money because they are multiplier unlocked. Even if you don't intend to overclock it you can be sure someone out there will want to try.

I'd be surprised if you didn't get enough from selling it to buy another retail Opty and still have quite a bit of change.

 

[Street]

I'll mention it to the boss, see what he says. Although like someone mentioned earlier, its S940 so it might not sell as well...