Watch out for ES CPUs!

Hi everyone, I joined not too long ago when I bought a 1722...
Anyways, when all the parts arrived (had a tough time finding the dvd drive,
finally gave up and just got a cheap $10 dvd-rom) and installed, I flashed
my bios and firmware. After installing xp on it, it runs ok, so I thought this
is gonna be a smooth ride... installed Sp3, the problem begins... random
reboots after reboots, after trying to figure what could have gone wrong for
3 days, I gave up.
On the 4th day, I checked cpuz (don't know why I didn't do it sooner) and
it saids it's a T8300, which I bought a P8600! I monitor the cpu and found
out whenever it's operating at 2.4GHz (it had speedstep on) the reboot
happens. And neither the bios nor windows shows the P8600.
So I went to ebay and gota P9500 off extremeprocessor, it got here today
and the notebook is running smooth as I type this... no more reboots or anything problems =D
So the lesson I learned is DON'T buy early ES chips! only get QS cpus from
trusted sellers! Hope all you guys out there have a easier time with your
lappy than I do =)

Cheers,

evilangel

 

Sorry for the trouble you're experiencing. I seem to have been lucky with ES so far; my current one is quite an early sample (QZNM) and I can't even monitor its temperature. I do like getting an extra 20 minute of battery life and it using only 1.16v at full speed though.

My advice for those that bought engineering samples is to stress it as soon as possible. Run programs like OCCT or multiple threads of Prime95, and make sure there are no errors for a couple of hours. That should be enough to determine if the CPU is faulty or not. Better to know now than later I suppose.

 

Getting ES chips alway involve risks, sometimes it works out well, but...

! impressive

 

see the thing with es chips is if you dont know or trust your seller dont buy them. i sell a lot of es chips and never will i sell a defect or the wrong chip. i also only use them in my own systems now. i will never buy retail again unless es chips are gone someday

 

I always wonder how these chips seem to leak out in such large quantities; cos they are designed for internal use by Intel & partners afterall, and thus aren't meant for market at all.

Given they are normally used in Intel's QC tests, they ought to be in strict control against outward leaks, by that I mean they ought to remain Intel's property even afterwards. Beside who ever sells these are in sense distributing stolen property without the permission of Intel, not unlike the MSI barebone fiasco.

 

Is the only reason everyone wants to buy the ES chips is because of the cheaper price? Seems like it's worth paying an extra 50 bucks to get a retail version to make sure it works fine versus gambling with ES chips.

 

Well, the ES chips normally have functionalities not intended for consumers, eg: unlocked multipliers.

Which are popular for some budget desktop overclockers. Cos what your doing, is getting an extreme edition chip for fraction of the actual price.

 

Extremeprocessors T9400 ES = $143.99
Provantage T9400 Retail = $339.58

Pretty big difference.

 

^^^^ exactly.

 

Yeah, if it were only $50, I'd go retail too, but the price difference is usually $200+ if not more for the chips I end up buying.

I do frown upon reselling of systems with ES chips in it and the seller not listing the chip as such.

 

I thought it was rare these days to get ES chips with unlocked multipliers.

You folks that have bought them lately, does CPU-Z show a range of multipliers?

 

notebook es chips DO NOT have unlocked multi's the only exception to this is the extreme series those do have unlocked multi's but so do the retail versions.

the only benefit is the price

 

^zfactor sold me my E0 stepping T9800 almost three months ago, and it's been perfect.

If you buy anything less than QS, it's your own fault. Don't scare people away from buying good product.

Speaking of, has anyone seen a QS sample for the P9600?

 

@ Kevin_Jack2.0
I bought one from extreemeprocessor on E-Bay. Working perfectly. I think if somebody wants to by an ES CPU, he must buy it from this guy. I didn't check all of his CPUs, but those I've checked are QS.

 

As a rule, I wouldn't use any ES with stepping code lower than C0.

 

Ah ok, the last time I had checked eBay, there were only B2 stepping P9600s around.

Anyway, I'm glad is going well for you.

 

Wanna sell me that T8300 ES chip for cheap?

 

Sorry flipfire, that chip had already been sent back to china...
Hopefully I will get my refund soon.
Kevin_Jack2.0, this is why I made this post, to warn others like me,
I had no idea what's an ES cpu was till I made the purchase. Should
have done a little homework first.
I am using a QS P9500 from extremprocessor now, and it works well.

 

i have qs p9600's they are out there

 

My t9400 es q4hq from someone in China was unstable and would get BSOD due to "hardware failure." I bought a c0 es from extremeprocessor and it works great!!!

 

A short guide to buying ES cpus would be a great help for all the owner builders here. Perhaps there is already one somewhere on the net ...

 

http://www.techarp.com/showarticle.aspx?artno=407

Read all the pages before purchasing an ES chip.


To add in:

 

just a note, i just put my laptop together and i got a t9400 es processor from extreme processors and it works like a charm, everything went very smoothly for this build

 

congrats, another happy buyer from extreme processors. as i am =P

 

good for you