While excitement is high among tech enthusiasts over the launch of the 16 – core Intel Xeon D 1571 today, a much more powerful processor is available on eBay: the same architecture that lead to the D 1571 is also being followed by Intel to build the E5 series of CPUs, of which E5-2600 V4 is one. The series is yet to be revealed, except that one of them is selling on eBay for $999.
The person selling the engineering sample has mentioned that it works fine for all purposes and is easily installable on computers intended for use. This is likely to be true, since the processor is numbered A0, which, for those who are not versed in hardware development, means that it is past the early stages of sampling and likely works. The CPU has 2.5 MB of L3 Cache and 45 MB of LLC. It’s TDP is 145 Watts, which is an indication of the fact that the chip is not yet optimised to be sold officially – at which level it is expected to have a little more than half of that TDP.
Since the chip is a sample, it is not sure which model it is intended to be, but experts claim that that it’s either an E5 2696 V4 or an E5 2697 V4 chip. What makes this chip interesting is also the price – $999 is dirt cheap for something like this at least once it is past the development phase. Heck, even the 10-core sibling of this E5-series Broadwell Chip costs more than that! Hence, experts are wondering if the chip has been used significantly and whether the chip is stable enough for operation.