Would you buy a Engineering Sample (ES) CPU off of eBay?

I'm looking at a 2nd gen i7 CPU on eBay for a decent price, but it is a ES version. I've read on another thread that ES CPU's cannot monitor temps, therefor cannot control fans.
Is this still true?
Has anyone had success/disappointment with ES versions of CPU's?

 

The no temperature sensor was more in the Core 2 era, I think now ES chips just run a bit hotter, and are missing some features..

 

Considering that ES processors cannot legally be sold, have no guarantee and we're talking about ebay here; I would only buy one if it was less than the cost of a trip to McDonalds ($10) or can otherwise consider throwing the money away.

Yeah I have no faith in ebay, nor in paying real $$$ for (legally) unsellable merchandise or in upgrading/sidegrading notebooks.

Much better to put your money into new/refurbished (complete) systems that will perform to the level you need (or continue using the current system - if its still working - and save to buy something better later).

Sorry, probably not the answer(s) you wanted to hear: but it's my honest version of these aspects of reality.

Good luck.

 

If I was looking for a new processor, the first place I would look is on Ebay for an ES/QS CPU. The only hiccup is that some use pre-production steppings that aren't as good as later production steppings, but unless we are talking about 45nm Core 2 processors, the difference is minimal. But the sellers almost always list the steppings, and with a little google you can find out which steppings are the best ones to get, although they will cost more. If you are buying a shiny new and expensive CPU, I think getting a QS/ES from Ebay is a smart move.

 

depends on the price. my ES was 100-200 cheaper than retail and worth it. i got a 920XM for 200 from DR.

 

Here is the auction. The CPU is a 2720 with D0 stepping. I'm not sure what that means. I've only found that that stepping is used for es processors, which I was already aware of.


intel i7 2720QM ES CPU

http://item.mobileweb.ebay.com/viewitem?itemId=170900459313

 

E1 was the final shipping stepping.

So D0 is a major and minor revision away from release.

 

Hmmm. That doesn't sound good.

What about chips like 3630 and 3632 that haven't been released yet? They are at a rev e1.

 

Well i'll let you in on some stuff. Selling ES are against the law as its Engineering samples and property of Intel. They offer no warranty or support. Most sellers call them "Extra Spicy"

Now some bios wont recanize a ES chip. These chips are used for testing and are sent out by Intel "i have gotten a few they come in nice little cases" Most will have unlocked multipliers. They don't run hotter then retail chips they don't clock higher then retail. Some mobo's will give you issues with them but for the most part all mine played nice.

They all have temp sensors. Some of the Core 2 "i had a Q9770 ES" had issues with the temp offset so the temps would read 10-15c hotter then they were. Easily corrected with coretemp but had no problems.

Now my 3960X ES is one of the best clocking 3960's i seen and gets great temps also. All the ES's came from the same wafer and clock pretty close so it was a great batch/wafer "reason why benchers will look at batch numbers"


But i will give you some words. ES's 9/10 have been clocked to high hell with volts that will make you cringe. Most were taken to the thermal limits for testing and may be damaged. Yes its cool to have a ES but i would never buy one let alone off ebay without knowing the history of who had it and whats been done to it.

 

I read that the Q154 (the 2720qm in the ebay listing), has an extra 2mb of cache and is also unlocked. Has anyone ever confirmed that they are unlocked?

Anyway I would buy an ES CPU as long as it had the features I needed.

I have an SP9400 (very early stepping) with no temp sensors enabled (and there was no way to enable them). It was 2.4ghz stock and I had it overclocked past 3ghz for most of it's life (also overvolted a lot, for a while it ran at 1.45V ). It still works great. Though I wouldn't want another CPU with no temp sensors.

Yes you don't get a warranty on an ES CPU, but even if you bought a used OEM CPU on ebay you wouldn't get a warranty most of the time, so it's not really a reason not to get an ES CPU.

 

+1 Also, I couldn't manage to find affordable OEM X9100 E0 (SLGE7, it's RARE to start with) - $360-without-the-shipping-and-custom-duties-for-3-year-old-dual-core-CPU, no thanks. OEM is just for peace of mind, my previous CPUs were OEM ones (SLAYX T9500, SLAZ3 X9000), but this one (QHBQ X9100) runs like a champ and has everything that it should. As long as you pay attention on what you are going to buy and there is nice return policy, there's nothing to worry about (though I bought this QHBQ locally).

 

ES\QS are pretty much the only processors I look to buy.

It's the easiest way to get a high-end processor for cheap.

 

I've decided to back off of the ES/QS CPU's. Mostly because none of the processors I was looking at were shipping from the US. I don't want to have to deal with international shipping if I need to return it.

Also, I'm obviously looking for a inexpensive processor due to low budget. To waste any money on a processor that may die in a month or two doesn't sit well.

I'll just keep trolling the forum marketplace...

Thanks for all of your replies. I've learned a lot.

 

I had both 2720qm OEM and ES in my Vostro 3750. I got exactly the same perfs. The ES one was even cooler. So I only buy ES processors now. I'll probably get the 3720qm ES at 199 euros from Laptop monkey as it is the best price/performance deal for now.

Afaic I never saw a processor "died". A motherboard yes, a gpu yes, but not a processor.

 

I have an i7-920xm ES I installed in my Asus G73jh a while back. Haven't had an issue since and has been overclocked since day one. It currently runs completely stable at 2.79 on all four cores, 3.6 single core. Stock is 2.00 on all four cores, 3.2 single core.

 

Intel i7 820QM 1.73G 8M Socket PGA988 Mobile CPU Processr Q1TN ES | eBay bought this Intel i7 820QM 1.73G 8M Socket PGA988 Mobile CPU Processr Q1TN ES,I updated the bios to the latest and windows would hang even when installing would not go past the welcome screen,but strangely would load windows crated with my i3 but only in safe mode,2 others gave him negative feedback for this item but I am just over the 45 days as I hadnt bought the laptop to put it in till a few days ago.

 

I woudnt do that if I were yuu. It's not worth it.