In technology, there are always people who would like to have in their hands the latest that has been launched on the market, and there are even those who go further and seek to have the products before they are put on sale, as is the case at hand. .
Intel i9-12900K ES2 processors released for sale in China
While we wait for the 12th generation Intel Core, with Alder Lake-S architecture, to be officially launched on the Chinese black market and specifically on its particular eBay, known as Taobao, engineering samples of its most powerful model. To be specific, i9-12900K ES2 are being sold for 700 dollars Americans to change.
Let’s not forget that these processors are not part of the commercial model that we usually have in stores, but are often units that are sent to assemblers and PC manufacturers. These samples are used to better understand the new architecture and to create motherboards according to their specifications, as well as measure the performance of these CPUs in their future hardware. Because these versions of the processor were built for extreme performance testing, they are not (in theory) ready for long-term use in a PC, as it has not passed the quality tests for it.
It is not the first time that processors of the next generation of Core CPUs end up for sale on Taobao, and a few weeks ago qualification samples appeared by $ 1,250 from i9-12900K, which are much more reliable as they are the same as the commercial model than the i9-12900K ES2 that has been on sale these days.
Is it worth buying an i9-12900K ES 2 in the second hand market of China?
The answer is directly a resounding no, and the reasons are not reduced only to what we have already explained, but also due to the fact that a few weeks after its launch it is a waste of time and money. What’s more, there are no motherboards you can test the processor with, and you risk ending up with a faulty i9-12900K, as engineering samples undergo very harsh stress tests.
So in terms of reliability it is much better that you wait a few weeks to have the new top of the range from Intel and not gamble with a CPU that you do not even know if it will work. What’s more, even without knowing the final prices of the Gen 12 of Pat Gelsinger’s (there are only rumors as we have seen) there is no doubt that you can risk paying more for not waiting a few days.
And where have these samples come from if you can tell? Well, of workers from Intel partner companies no more and no less, it has no more secret. Curiously, they no longer hide to sell these samples, perhaps the signed NDA has fallen and they are now free to do whatever they want with the CPUs, or perhaps they skip them because China, as we well know, is another story.
