upgrade cpu, newegg or ebay

hey guys, i m considering upgrading my p6860 poor cpu to t9300.
on newegg it is about 320 bucks and on ebay it ranges from 200-300 bucks.
do you think it is good to buy form ebay? i dont know whether i could return the cpu if it doesnt work. any suggestions? thanks

 

the preferable choice would be the one that costs less obviously, but only if the buy risk is the same, so I would say only buy from ebay if you can find a buyer that has a high percent of positive ratings (95-100%), and go through paypal. Also, you might want to establish communications with him first, just so you know that he isn't a mute (it happens). And lastly, check his feedback for buyers who've returned items to him if possible, to see whether or not it was easy for them to do so.

Basically it comes down to whether or not you trust the seller. If you don't, use newegg.

 

also check on which items he got his rating, look for similar sales feedback.
and by all means contact before placing the actual order, might get a discount if being persistent enough

all that said if you feel the price/uncertainty factor is not satisfactory you have newegg.

 

Go for eBay. Check the sellers feedback.

The rule of thumb is 90% positive or higher. Below is a no buy.

 

ebay an there are a few sellers from china that are awesome. and cheap. i personally by es final samples myself because i save money and have never in my life actually had a bad es sample just make sure to get c or e stepping and a qs (final sample) it will save you some money but this is mo though

 

thanks a lot . you are so nice

i have checked ebay and found that t9500 are priced not much higher than t9300. 210$ for t9300 and 240$ for t9500(shipping are both 15$)

i could not post url here coz 15 posts limit....

this guy has got 100% positive feedback and he is from taiwan. seems to be an awesome seller?

t9500 or t9300? which one would you choose?

 

for 30$ i would go for the t9500 (they used to be priced 100$+ over the t9300)
however make sure you check thestepping.

 

the stepping is c0 and i also checked intel specification update. i have decided to grab the t9500 cpu. CWAL

 

yep c0 is same as retail for t9500, have fun.

 

I was reading this thread and not to get too far off topic, but could someone explain "stepping" to me and what to look for/ not look for in a processor?

 

i have a t9800 for sale..

 

unfortunately mine is pm965 chipset

 

if you google "intel t9500", 1st result will give intel spec (you can look up any cpu at that intel site)
look at core stepping, thats should be the final build.
so when buying an es cpu off ebay it is highly recommended to find a cpu which have same stepping as the last revision.

 

Hmm... T9800 for sale? how much?

 

yeap as royk50 said, this was the last revision before it went retail, technically it is a retail version. I have such a chip, that in bios readers,etc says it is an ES, but no such markings appear on it, just an intel code.

 

i bought my T8300 from newegg 'cause i wanted to have the warranty just in case.

 

I was curious too, but there's a site called "chiplist.com" that lists out the chips in each series (Merom, Penryn, etc.) and gives you the info. I found it when I was trying to figure out if an Ebay CPU was an engineering sample or not- Chiplist has the code and the stepping (C0 on my search, T9300) and that one is actually a real OEM, not an ES.

Can't really tell you what that means, but at least you can find out what it is for any chip

Edit: oops, ninja'd on the stepping thing. Well, thanks, now I know what that's all about