Xeon Engineering Sample

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casualserver

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Considering buying an Xeon 2690 v3 for ~$500 but it's an engineering sample. What do I need to consider before buying an engineering sample?

I asked the seller and he says the chip is not unlocked but it can still run turbo mode on all cores. Looking for an unbiased and informed opinion or considerations from someone who is not also selling me the equipment :)
 
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cdabc123


because until recently it was nearly impossible to get your hands on these cpus. at 10K+ a chip these never found their way into consumer hands (the people who normally bench their...
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James Mason

James Mason

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Well, what are you gonna do with it?
I mean, sure it's the 5th strongest CPU currently in existence.
And it retails for like $1.5k.
But it's not easy to find a good use for it.



Did not know that but now i'm glad I do.
 
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casualserver

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There's a ton of different CPU's on ebay that are engineering samples, maybe stolen not sure but the guy has 99.9% rating over 100s of sales and it's covered by ebay guarantees so I'm comfortable buying it

I use simulation/projection software that makes use of pretty much any system I could build. I'm considering dual socket but I've heard people have issues getting dual socket to work with engineer samples, so not sure if I'll try that without confirmation that it'll work.
 
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iamacow

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The only major issue with ES chips is that generally unless they are later or last revision, they are often unstable since the macro code isn't finalized. Hence the reason why intel makes ES chips before mass production.

Second. Very few motherboards run ES chips. So far the only one I really found is the Asus X99 WS with the first bios. later bios will not run those chips.
 
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casualserver

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useful points about earlier versions of ES chips potentially being unstable

a lot of ebay sellers make a list of motherboards that their chip supports and even make sure you have one of those before confirming the order (I guess it's a huge hassle for them too when customers don't have a compatible motherboards)

any idea what the unstability of an earlier chip would look like? Is it going to run too hot? run slower? spontaneously combust?

this revelation is kind of a sad one because there are some Xeon 269x v4's with up to 22 cores that are up for sale right now, since these are among the first that have come to the market, I'm assuming they are a first version and the most untested/risky of all to buy...
 
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cdabc123

cdabc123

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honestly some are just fine. the es stepping is very close to the final stepping of that chip. you can even find a gem sometimes with a 10+ core xeon and a unlocked multiplyer. those are rare though and i havent seen many on ebay. generally those are sold on fourms where everyone knows the value and they have a markup for it. look at the steping es chips will have different stepings too them if you get a chip with the final es stepping that is pretty much the same chip as the chips intel will be producing
 
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casualserver

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Interesting. I see some of them marked "ES0", "ES1" etc. I'm assuming this indicates which version of the sample it is with later being better. Is that what you mean by stepping?

Most of the time the seller includes a CPU-Z screenshot which has "Stepping", will that give me any additional info to how late of a version it is?

 
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casualserver

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Yeah all the 269x v4's are stepping 0 :( feels a bit too risky. 18 cores for 699$ woulda been nice

http://www.ebay.com/itm/2x-Intel-Xeon-HASWELL-E5-2695-v3-ES-pre-QS-QFQR-14C-better-than-2683-v3-2690-v3-/272203964891?hash=item3f609ee1db:g:G-QAAOSwxp9W9XE0&autorefresh=true

this looks pretty attractive to my untrained eyes
stepping 2 seems pretty high, I can't find a higher stepping looking through google but retail is probably the same stepping but a newer revision?

anyone see anything wrong with those? or any other alarm bells going off?

 
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cdabc123

cdabc123

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with cpus like this we never know what the final steping will be they could revise it many more times before the production sample is sold. if you want a risk-less good deal check out the xeon e5-2670s on ebay they are killer prosessers for 70$ and you should be able to get two of them for 16c 32t @ 3.2 under the price of one of those
 
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casualserver

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that does seem like good value, how much do you think it'd cost to put together a cheap system to run it?

I don't have an existing system where i'd just be swapping out the CPUs so I'd be buying all the components from scratch.

when you say "@ 3.2" do you mean you're overclocking them?
 
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cdabc123

cdabc123

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140$ for the cpus
350$ for a supermicro dual socket mobo (we can go cheaper with a dell mobo but there are some issues with that
idk if you already have ram but you can get 32 gigs for 50$ with ecc server ram

3.2 is their turbo if you look at my sig i managed to get mine clocked to 3.43 but i have the only board in existence that can overclock these xeons.

if you are just going for core count i could also show you a build runing 4 10-15 core cpus that shouldnt be more than 800
 
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casualserver

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Please tell me more :)

also when dual socketing and even moreso with quad socketing isn't it hard to find compatible ES versions of the chip?

One of the nice things about the link I gave you before was that those 2 2695 v3's were the same stepping, same revision, and confirmed to run fine together already.
 
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cdabc123

cdabc123

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mobo- http://www.ebay.com/itm/SuperMicro-X8QB6-F-Motherboard-Socket-LGA1567-Includes-4x-Heatsinks-IO-Shield-/231459706693?hash=item35e412d745:g:w3cAAOSw~gRVgcu0 only decent quad socket mobo under 500

cpus 4x http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/4x-Intel-Xeon-E7-8860-Q5AP-ES-10-CORE-20HT-24mb-L3-2-267-LGA1567-Tested-FASTPOST-/131446039497?hash=item1e9acb63c9 these are es to save some money they are a later steping and all matched

a quick note when you are looking at xeons with codes like e* 2*** thay will only support being used in a dual socket config for xeon e* 4*** you can use them up to four sockets, e7 8*** can be used in 8 socket configs and e* 1*** canot be paired. other then that as long as the stepings are the same you should be able to pair them freely. same goes for es chips. if you want a sure bet get a non es e5 2670 those chips have NO issues with them.

their is also a gem of a cpu out their. their is one es steping of the e5 2670s from a specific place that are fully unlocked sadly you can only run one at a time
 
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cdabc123

cdabc123

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these were the BEASTS of a few years back and cpus havent changed all that much so they are still epic prosessers. and you are reading that incorrect quad channel is unrelated to how much ram it can hold. each one of the chips supports up to 4096GB of ram :p however, im sad to say the motherboard only supports up to 1024GB. ddr3 ecc ram is also CRAZY cheap so 128gigs is pretty easy to get to.
 
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casualserver

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hmm 4000gb, not 4... slight misinterpretation on my part

this looks pretty sick, 40 core system for a bit over 1k USD

how come I can't find e7-8860 in any passmark or cinebench rankings?

Also the socket type seems kind of rare, I only get a couple of relevant hits on ebay searching for "LGA1567 motherboard" and pretty much nothing when looking at amazon or retail options. The specific motherboard you linked me looks perfect but I'm a bit concerned in the case one of these old motherboards breaks down and I have trouble finding a replacement
 
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Karsten75

Karsten75

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All I can say is don't do any serious work on it - like run bank transactions or some such. Engineering samples are pre-production processors and may have issues - they also may not. You don't know. They're not intended for resale, but if you can lay your hands on one and want to build a "play server", they're awesome.

http://cpu-world.com/ usually has detailed specifications that may assist you. THey have list of engineering samples, steppings, etc.
 
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cdabc123

cdabc123

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because until recently it was nearly impossible to get your hands on these cpus. at 10K+ a chip these never found their way into consumer hands (the people who normally bench their systems) and now they are old enough that people dont search specifically for them instead looking for E5 v4 or v3 systems. for finding replacements i see quite a few server bare bones for sale around 600 so you will be able to find a new mobo if necessary, although you shouldn't have that issues these mobos can run close to 100%load 24/7 for many years

for some reference i believe these cpus should pull 30-40k on pass-mark depending on how well the benchamrk scales to quad chips.
 
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cdabc123

cdabc123

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if you get the final steping of a es chip their is a good chance it will be a perfectly stable chip.
 
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