why a gold top on t9500?

[halfcard1]

i never saw this color before - he says the gold top is a t9500 and the gray one is a t7400

[Radioguy]

It's a T9500, but it's also an engineering sample. The "ES" says so, as well as the model "Q4GG". That the top is gold might be the least of the differences. I would avoid this unless you know that it's 100% compatible with your mobo, and then it's still a bit more risky than buying a standard CPU.

Go for the SLAYX, or SLAQH retail versions, with the former being a bit more desirable for lower voltage.

[rkawakami]

Sometimes the backside of a silicon wafer is coated with an extremely thin layer of gold. Typically that would be done in order to provide a better electrical contact with the back of the die when it is bonded inside a package. Seeing how this CPU is not inside a package, I'm kind of surprised that the extra cost of the gold deposition was spent. But I supposed Intel can afford it .

[halfcard1]

interesting

i wonder if it would give a bad temperature reading and burn everything

[Radioguy]

?

Not sure about that, although, technically, an engineering sample might not have all the temperature sensors the retail CPU would have.

[rkawakami]

It could also have some known defects or may not meet all specifications. Those things would have usually been transmitted to whoever evaluated the chip.

[91011]

About three weeks after the picture above was orginally posted online the same blogger posted some comments after using the cpu.
http://sz55gn.wordpress.com/2008/05/08/ ... g-vs-q174/