Why are Core 2 Duo E8700s so rare?

[lijiaxuan080314]

As the following photos proved, this processor does exist. Though I tried hard to find one, at last, I found nothing. Why is this processor that rare?
p.s.:The processor in the photo isn't mine.

[lijiaxuan080314]

CPU mugshot

[lijiaxuan080314]

CPU-z snapshot

[H3nrik V!]

Doesn't seem to be listed here on CPU-World.

I have a hard time reading the sSpec on the photo, you have attached. Is it SLB9L? That's an E8600. But The B could as well be an 8 and the last L an E, from my monitor at least. That would be SL89L, SLB9E or SL89E

This: https://www.cpu-world.com/news_2010/2010090101_Intel_prepares_Pentium_E5800_CPU.html mentions some speculations about E8700, 8800 and 8900, but again only speculations

But can you tell the sSpec more clearly?

[crazybubba64]

SLB9E is the s-spec of the E8700.

It absolutely is a real CPU and extremely rare.

My hunch is that these were either only shipped out to a select few customers (maybe some sort of exclusivity agreement?) or were briefly sampled before getting canned.

I have one of these chips and submitted a CPUID dump to this site.

Here's a CPU-Z validation.

And here's a scan I took:


Interestingly, the picture you shared above shows a chip that came from the same lot as this one. I haven't seen any of these with different lot codes, so I think there was only a single production run.

[crazybubba64]

If you wanted an approximation of this CPU performance-wise without needing to search the ends of the earth to find one, you could sticker-mod a Xeon X5270 SLBAQ, as it is more-or-less the same chip.

[lijiaxuan080314]

[wren4777]

Most likely an i7-870X type situation where it was cancelled after the first few retail chips were made.

[rjluna2]

Looks like the last model for this series

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Intel_Core_2_processors#%22Wolfdale%22_(45_nm,_1333_MT/s)