Intel Core i9 Gulftown Chip Sold on Ebay, Forum
Get your Gulftown in the grey market.
The Intel Gulftown chip with its six cores, expected to be called the Core i9, isn't even close to being ready for the market. But somehow engineering samples have been leaking out into the hands of testers. Just last week, we saw benchmarks of an early engineering sample of Gulftown, which impressed with its six cores.
Such engineering samples are sent out from Intel to a very exclusive crowd, all of which are bound by explicit non-disclosure agreements. Break such agreements almost always burns bridges, so you'd think that seeing a Gulftown processor on the public market for sale would be impossible. But shockingly, one such Gulftown engineering sample found its way to Ebay.
A listing on Ebay described the product as a "Intel 6-Core Xeon Westmere Gulftown 2.4GHZ LGA1366 ES Processor" and qualified itself as tested and working sold at a final price of $1,200. The chip was pictured in the listing without any of it identification marks blurred, meaning that Intel will be able to track which one of its chips ended up on Ebay.
The seller of the chip lists the item as being located in Taiwan, which leads us to believe that it could be an engineering sample leaked out from one of Intel's chipset partners – but we'll likely never know for certain.
Gulftown engineering samples in the wild aren't limited to just Taiwan, however, as Nordic Hardware reports that an even faster chip was sold on the OCTeamDenmark forums (Google cache version here) for around $850.
What do you make of this – crazy deal, or just downright crazy?
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Whoa, i wish i could buy one
For $1200 and $850 it's probably going to be a bargain compared to Intel's final street price!
I would rather get my hands on that 48 core chip
phhh... will be funny seing the guy buying this to realize that no motherboards is compatible without a proper BIOS update... that will come out in a while...
I don't know. I doubt if the 48 core chip uses Windows. We know that Gulftown has a usable OS right now.
Lol, sell it without ID blurred, seller is going to have fun with Intel tomorrow. Idiot. That was actually really cheap, but as redgarl said it might need a bios update. Considering these are going to be $700?? in x months paying $500 more for it 4 months early wasn't bad.
I would rather have programs that utilized 2 - 4 core processors efficiently.
This chip could be the deal of the century in the right hands.
Let's say I wanted to start a new hardware website. I could create instant, and massive, traffic with this processor alone. I'm not obligated to withhold information like those stuck behind an NDA, and any acrimony from Intel would only help the site more.
For someone wanting to start a site, this is worth much more than $1200. Oh, and when it's actually out in the wild, you have a pretty capable machine as well.
I'd call it a bargain.
Intel bought the cheap to find out where it leaked from
paid 1250
Just found another one listed on ebay:
http://cgi.ebay.com.au/Intel-6-Cor [...] 23042ee18e
For $1200 and $850 it's probably going to be a bargain compared to Intel's final street price!
Indeed considering the best core i7 is already about $1000.
why are these prices so low, i wasnt taking less than $2000
These have been available to certain few for a while now. The 2.4GHz i9 has already been clocked to over 6.4GHz with LN2 and 4.6GHz on air:
http://www.xtremesystems.org/forum [...] t=gulftown
http://www.xtremesystems.org/forum [...] t=gulftown
probably a scam... Lately Asia is on the increase with scamming customers by selling non existing goods.
I wish I wasn't broke at the present... I would love to play around with this chip..
Chances are someone sold off an engineering sample.
Were those listings confirmed to be real?
This chip could be the deal of the century in the right hands.Let's say I wanted to start a new hardware website. I could create instant, and massive, traffic with this processor alone. I'm not obligated to withhold information like those stuck behind an NDA, and any acrimony from Intel would only help the site more. For someone wanting to start a site, this is worth much more than $1200. Oh, and when it's actually out in the wild, you have a pretty capable machine as well. I'd call it a bargain.
The only problem with that is this would be your only one big ticket as Intel would end up shunning you. You would be blacklisted from many hardware manufacturers for practices that show you are not to be trusted. You would end up being a one hit wonder site.
When i saw this i remember the day,that Core2 E6600 was sold on e-bay (before the time that C2D was in the market) with a same price
I would rather have programs that utilized 2 - 4 core processors efficiently.
What system runs one app at a time these days?
phhh... will be funny seing the guy buying this to realize that no motherboards is compatible without a proper BIOS update... that will come out in a while...
Yeah... the Foxconn Bloodrage has had the Gulftown beta bios available for a while now...
$1,200 is a decent price I believe. I hope though Intel releases a complete SoC (or AMD as they can do a much better GPU/CPU combo).
Were's AMD though? They make such awesome server chips, but their desktop chips are absolutely dissapointing...
I bet AMD bought it.
The only problem with that is this would be your only one big ticket as Intel would end up shunning you. You would be blacklisted from many hardware manufacturers for practices that show you are not to be trusted. You would end up being a one hit wonder site.
That's not as clear as you make it. Intel wouldn't necessarily distrust you. Your confusion seems to be from assuming the purchaser broke the NDA, which he or she did not. Consequently, that person did nothing dishonest. The originator of the device would accrue some ill-will from Intel.
Were a site to break an NDA, that would be a bridge burner. A site that didn't, and suddenly has a lot of traffic because they legally bought the processor and reviewed it honestly isn't the same thing.
Either way, before you review the processor Intel isn't giving you anything, and if they don't after, you're still in the same boat. At least you have a venue and some readers, and if you write quality articles about even existing products, you have a chance. It's worth $1200 if you really want to try it. It's the best chance to get started you'll ever have.
Maybe what is happening her is that these chipset partners want to do field testing and part of the agreement for the private sales on these things is to be a (very quiet!!!) guinea pig for testing them - especially if they wanted to get them out to some serious fanatic gamers or other high-end users with deep pockets.
What a better way could anyone think of to do so without getting Intel's permission for letting them out or letting them you know you are checking up on their designs?
but can it play crysis????????
Hey! The same seller has relisted the same model with two available for Buy It Now or Best Offer. I wonder how many leaked CPUs he'll get to sell? Once again, the photo clearly shows that the chip is marked "Intel Confidential"!
Hope $1200 should last him long enough to find another job.
Wow. AMD has been selling 6 core processors for 6 months. Only use for those is servers. Nobody with a home pc has a need for that because most software doesn't even use 4 cores yet.
I want to make things clear, Intel prototypes are intel property, and they can't be sold. Event if you buy it, you don't own it.
Francois Piednoel.
Wow. AMD has been selling 6 core processors for 6 months. Only use for those is servers. Nobody with a home pc has a need for that because most software doesn't even use 4 cores yet.
I agree...there have been 6-core CPUs in servers for some time, but correct me if I'm wrong, but these will/do support Hyperthreading, making them 6 real and 6 virtual cores.
Just downright crazy.