What do people think about engineering samples

[Nightowl805]

I came across a 12 core Xeon 2.4 ghz E5 2690?? V3 for 699.00. Markings show that on the die itself. So far no cup program I have found actually identifies it. I do see 24 cores. Trying to stress it under Ubuntu but not having to much luck yet......my incompetence lol. I see the cpu loads. Most are below 6% but I do see some cores, they rotate where cup load is high despite not really stressing it. It does rotate though to different cores.

Just curious what people think about them. This one I think I will try exsi when all said and done.

 

[zambanini]

where do you see that it is an example?

http://www.intel.com/support/processors/sb/CS-030747.htm


myself would avoid preproductive hw. to much unknown history might not help. for example your bios may not support the right microcode updates.

 

[cyberjock]

I would never ever consider these. I know someone that had an engineering sample once. That box was unreliable as all hell. Trying to cut corners with an engineering sample is just asking for trouble. The engineering sample may or may not be compatible with the BIOS of the motherboard, there may or may not be issues with the system because the BIOS is not designed for the engineering sample chips microcode, etc.

And if you start having stability problems, how are you ever going to prove it is or isn't that CPU? Because standard diagnostics are very unlikely to catch the problem, so you'll be unable to prove the actual fault.

Frankly, spending $700 on an engineering sample was... a waste of $700. No way I'd ever, ever consider using it for anything that is beyond "a fun project to see what an engineering sample chip does". Even if you test the hell out of it for months, there's no guarantee there isn't some microcode path that won't blow up in your face crashing the box, corrupting data, etc.

 

[Nightowl805]

where do you see that it is an example?

http://www.intel.com/support/processors/sb/CS-030747.htm


myself would avoid preproductive hw. to much unknown history might not help. for example your bios may not support the right microcode updates.

Ouch lol. In many ways it is a hobby but granted I have no right to spend that kind of money. I didn't plan on changing my q6600 but than it happened. I just want to play around with virtulization. Hopefully it won't blow up in my face too bad.