Should I or should I not buy: i7 860 Engineering Sample for $180?

[sartorius]

Hey everyone, me again with another quick question for this 1156 build I've been working on.

There's an i7 860 for sale on eBay here. Apparently it's an engineering sample.

I've already got a triple SLI 1156 board sitting around, and I was originally going to buy a used i5 760 from Amazon for $170. The i5 would come with a HSF, while the i7 won't.

For $180 (+$10 shipping), would this be worth it at all?

I'll mostly be gaming heavily (Metro 2033, L4D2, TF2, Crysis, BFBC2, Crysis 2 when it releases), and I've heard that HT doesn't help at all with that. Biggest multitasking I do is iTunes with 30+ tabs open in Chrome. Would it be better to just save some money from going i5?

Also, what benefits or problems would come from this being an engineering sample? Would there even be any at all?

 

[popatim]

the ES chips are not ment to be in the public domain and you don't know what they have been put through in the past nor how early a sample it was (ie - might be a buggy one or not have all the features a production one has)

Its your call though...

 

[sartorius]

Posted a question in their General Discussions section, but now that I look at it that area is pretty dead.

 

[popatim]

The cherry pickedone usually go to the high end overclockers so we're back to you dont know whats been done do it or if its damaged in some way; imo at least.

 

[sartorius]

220 gets you a 2500K.. NOT a chance

I think you missed the part where I said I already have an ASRock P55 Extreme. Found a refurbished one for $75 and jumped on it--triple SLI/CF for that cheap was too good of a deal to pass up on--and now I've found this i7 for almost half of what they're still being sold for.

If I had never found that motherboard for that price I would've been all over a 2500k.

 

[sartorius]

Damn.. Just looked back at the page and looks like he just took it down.

Oh well. He reposted it before, as he had it up a few days ago. He might repost it again.



EDIT: Just found an i5 750 for $155. I think I'll just go for it and forget about the i7.

All it had going for it was Hyperthreading, which won't do me any good in gaming. Plus, I'll save a good $60 and not have to buy a heatsink.

Well, it was fun while it lasted. Thanks for everything guys, I'm just gonna buy the i5.

 

[sartorius]

Best answer selected by sartorius.