Intel Confidential CPU?

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Hiya, hope this is a fitting qustion for this community.

So recently made a purchase from a second hand market. I just wanted the case that the computer I bought used, but got the full computer with all its parts
However when I removed the cooler and cleaned off the remaining paste I saw this CPU was marked as Intel Confidential.

Frankly I've got no idea what this means, was this CPU used for Intel Internal only and somehow ended up in the wild? Did it belong to some third party company? How do I know what generation the CPU is? (Guessing some software will be able to tell me this). Are these normal to find second hand?

If anyone knows anything regarding this strange occurrence - please let me know

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It's an engineering sample that was produced before the final product was available. They use the really early ones to figure out if what they got back from the fab actually runs and how fast it will go safely. Later ones end up at motherboard partners so they can test their new board designs.

It is pretty common for them to leak out onto the second hand market after the final release. I've never heard of one that had any real problems, but in theory you might be buying something that has some issue that they hadn't discovered at that point.

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Could be a prod ready engineering sample. They get around more than you may think.

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Neat. What does your OS tell you it is?

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This seems to be an engineering sample CPU. Since these are pre-production, that could mean it's basically a fully functional CPU. It could also have serious issues.

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The big caveat is that the BIOS must allow it, and most released versions do not.

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confidential cpus are typically engineering samples, usually given to motherboard companies to work on bioses for the cpu generation and meant to be returned to the company after done. engeering sample cpus can be missing features, lower clocks and such that the retail varient may have.

as for geneeation of cpu, its easier to find out via what motherboard socket it is

on thecontext of finding second hand, i wouldnt say its common, but can happen. some chinese companies sell dirt cheap ES cpus for basic computing.

the ilm says lga 115x, so its either 1156(1st gen), 1155(2nd or 3rd gen), 1150(4th and 5th gen) or 1151(6th to 8th gen)

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It’s a i5-8600 3.1 Ghz 6-core.

as others have said it’s a pre release sample for testing and might have bugs but the QP4W tells you the processor type

https://www.cpu-world.com/sspec/QP/QP4W.html

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I've ended up with a different one before. only worked with the included motherboard but the guy I gave it to claims to have gotten it running with a modded bios in an overclocker board.

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I'd still keep it. Even though it doesn't appear to be a more rare CPU (like, a 5950X or similar). Might become worth a little bit in a few years.

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Confidential Lake

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Very likely stolen from an Intel dev partner.

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This is a special chip, salt and vinegar flavour

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Thanks for the explanation!

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5950x is rare?

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More rare than an i5-8600 and probably becomes rather rare as time moves on.

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I used to work at a games studio that would get these delivered fairly regularly, usually paired with a particular motherboard and presumably a custom BIOS.

I think we were technically supposed to return them but the manufacturers never enforced it, so once the chip was actually released to the public - and assuming the sample was stable enough for general use - the PC would rotate into normal stock and eventually get sold for cheap to staff or end up in the spare parts bin.

While it was cool at first to get pre-production chips before anyone else, it became pretty mundane and I'm not at all surprised to see them out in the wild decades later. Interesting piece of history though!

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Frame it. Neato.

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I saw many engineering sample intel cpus on second hand markets and they were sold at lower prices than corresponding mass production cpus

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Intel Confidential CPU?