Core i7 8700T 1.6 GHz ES?

[Genralkidd]

I saw a few listings on ebay and aliexpress for relatively cheap Core i7 8700T and 8700 clocked at 1.6 GHz - 2.9 GHz respectively with the ES label on them which I think means Engineering Sample. Are these legit CPU's? And if so, are they going to be sufficient for gaming even with the lower clockspeeds?

 

[Supernova1138]

ES does mean Engineering Sample, and its not a good idea to buy one. Putting aside the legality issues (Engineering Samples aren't for resale and are supposed to be either destroyed or returned to Intel) Engineering Sample CPUs may not have full functionality or suffer from other quirks aside from reduced clockspeeds. It's essentially Alpha or Beta test hardware and trying to use one as your daily driver is not a great idea.

 

[Genralkidd]

ES does mean Engineering Sample, and its not a good idea to buy one. Putting aside the legality issues (Engineering Samples aren't for resale and are supposed to be either destroyed or returned to Intel) Engineering Sample CPUs may not have full functionality or suffer from other quirks aside from reduced clockspeeds. It's essentially Alpha or Beta test hardware and trying to use one as your daily driver is not a great idea.

Gotcha thanks! Also, as a general question, when shopping for CPU's, how much does clockspeed matter when it comes to modern PC gaming? How reliable/can I count on Turbo Boost clock speeds when considering system requirements for PC games? Would a low clockspeed like that 1.6 GHz engineering sample have been a big bottleneck? Or does clockspeeds not matter as much anymore?

 

[Supernova1138]

ES does mean Engineering Sample, and its not a good idea to buy one. Putting aside the legality issues (Engineering Samples aren't for resale and are supposed to be either destroyed or returned to Intel) Engineering Sample CPUs may not have full functionality or suffer from other quirks aside from reduced clockspeeds. It's essentially Alpha or Beta test hardware and trying to use one as your daily driver is not a great idea.

Gotcha thanks! Also, as a general question, when shopping for CPU's, how much does clockspeed matter when it comes to modern PC gaming? How reliable/can I count on Turbo Boost clock speeds when considering system requirements for PC games? Would a low clockspeed like that 1.6 GHz engineering sample have been a big bottleneck? Or does clockspeeds not matter as much anymore?

Clockspeeds do still matter to an extent, especially if you are shooting for high refresh rates. Most games are still using DirectX 11 renderers and only have a single thread handling draw calls, if your single core clock is too low, then that can become a limiting factor in terms of game performance as the engine hangs up on not getting enough draw calls done each second. As for a 1.6GHz chip for gaming, that would come down to how aggressive the all core Turbo clock is, and there wouldn't be a way to tell that with an Engineering Sample until you get it and run it.

In any case, you should either save up for a legitimate CPU or look at a cheaper option rather than rolling the dice on Engineering Samples from aliexpress that may or may not work and aren't legal to own.

 

[Genralkidd]

ES does mean Engineering Sample, and its not a good idea to buy one. Putting aside the legality issues (Engineering Samples aren't for resale and are supposed to be either destroyed or returned to Intel) Engineering Sample CPUs may not have full functionality or suffer from other quirks aside from reduced clockspeeds. It's essentially Alpha or Beta test hardware and trying to use one as your daily driver is not a great idea.

Gotcha thanks! Also, as a general question, when shopping for CPU's, how much does clockspeed matter when it comes to modern PC gaming? How reliable/can I count on Turbo Boost clock speeds when considering system requirements for PC games? Would a low clockspeed like that 1.6 GHz engineering sample have been a big bottleneck? Or does clockspeeds not matter as much anymore?

Clockspeeds do still matter to an extent, especially if you are shooting for high refresh rates. Most games are still using DirectX 11 renderers and only have a single thread handling draw calls, if your single core clock is too low, then that can become a limiting factor in terms of game performance as the engine hangs up on not getting enough draw calls done each second. As for a 1.6GHz chip for gaming, that would come down to how aggressive the all core Turbo clock is, and there wouldn't be a way to tell that with an Engineering Sample until you get it and run it.

In any case, you should either save up for a legitimate CPU or look at a cheaper option rather than rolling the dice on Engineering Samples from aliexpress that may or may not work and aren't legal to own.

Yeah I was looking at some i3's in the same price range but I might just save up and wait for some kind of sale on Newegg for the i7's.