Why You Should AVOID Intel Core 2 Engineering Samples

[Dashken]

Everyone loves Intel engineering samples. They are special handpicked samples for reviewers that are more overclockable and have unlocked multipliers. Or do they?

We take a look at the Core 2 Duo engineering samples and show you why they are not the processors that everyone thinks they are. Should you buy one, or not? Read on and find out.

Link : Why You Should AVOID Core 2 Duo Engineering Samples

[pfelelep]

Very interesting article as usual indeed

But I really get confused then.
What efficient alternative do we have? I mean, how to "complain" or make things changes regarding the Intel politic?

[The_YongGrand]

Ah, I thought it was an old article, since I'm finding about these guides of eng. samples too.

So are they sent to the reviewers for testing purposes only, or just a plain old prototype?

[peaz]

Looks like old prototypes.
I wonder if it's anything to do with the recent warehouse hijack case in penang. No wonder Intel reported there's no impact to their C2D shipment schedule.

[Chai]

Originally Posted by The_YongGrand

Ah, I thought it was an old article, since I'm finding about these guides of eng. samples too.

So are they sent to the reviewers for testing purposes only, or just a plain old prototype?

The engineering samples that ARP got wasn't B0.

[peaz]

the ones being sold aren't really ES but merely marketed as ES. there's no way Intel releases so many ES out the industry to benchmark and test.

[The_YongGrand]

Then these processors are...

... REJECT item?

Like those REJECT shop kinda thing?

[peaz]

Well, you can't reject something that's not suppose to be sold in the first place

Basically it's like what the article said, these are engineering batches and also very early batches of the chip. think beta testing.

[neverthar]

Originally Posted by The_YongGrand

Ah, I thought it was an old article, since I'm finding about these guides of eng. samples too.

So are they sent to the reviewers for testing purposes only, or just a plain old prototype?

Originally Posted by peaz

Looks like old prototypes.
I wonder if it's anything to do with the recent warehouse hijack case in penang. No wonder Intel reported there's no impact to their C2D shipment schedule.

Originally Posted by The_YongGrand

Then these processors are...

... REJECT item?

Like those REJECT shop kinda thing?

Originally Posted by peaz

Well, you can't reject something that's not suppose to be sold in the first place

Basically it's like what the article said, these are engineering batches and also very early batches of the chip. think beta testing.

Further clarification:

Those sent out to reviewers during the pre-launch marketing hype were ES's tested to be 100% ok. Production variances allow 2-3% tolerances of defects or errors (Which explains why some processors can clock higher then others, and is actually why binning exists), which would under most normal circumstances, would not be encountered. These ES's were made sure so as not to cause any misrepresentation of the final product itself.

Where else those flooding into the market currently is those taken off the production line randomly (I have no data as to how many per wafer batch as this remains P&C data) for Quality Assurance purposes and tested to the maximum severity of conditions. Some would be damaged beyond usage (in other words, dead) while some have survived but with some form of damage caused during testing unknown to us (Unless you have Intel's developer tools). According to my sources, these are usually loaned to Intel staff and are for them to use so as long as they are still being employed. There is also another source of these ES's which is through the validation and testing labs as these processors would be written off as consumables once tested, meaning is not of commercial value to Intel anymore. I have personally come across this (Prescott Pentium 4's, LGA775) which after testing for booting, the one's working were about 3 out of 10 (I had a tray of 20 to test). And those bootable even though multi unlocked, could not pass any stress test at speeds more then 5% of stock clocks [FSB x base multiplier (x14)].

The reason I didn't include this into the article itself as:

1.) No documented or substantiated proof (Info passed through word of mouth, and personal experience)
2.) What I said would be tantamount to libel
3.) No proof of whether such a practice is still being done

And as for the hijack case, from what I've heard, was actually production units of desktop and mobile processors of Cedar Mill and Centrino variety. I may be wrong about that

[The_YongGrand]

Well written article.

Seriously the Engineering Sample is for the boys in the Intel labs for testing purposes only. But not sure how it leaked out, maybe one of the boys gave it to someone else, or whatever it might happen.