[tpi2007]

Hi guys and gals!

I searched OCN for a thread / club on this topic and couldn't find any!

Searches for rare / unusual / odd + CPU /Processor returned no results, so this might be a good place to start a thread / club for those that have that rare CPU, old or new, being used or cherished in a collection ( or just in a big box full of computer parts) to come out and share those CPU's with the community!

I'm thinking of x86 chips primarily, but I guess any rare / unusual CPU is worthy of being in the club.

As an example of rare CPU's I would consider both those that were produced / bought in very low numbers because of either availability or high purchase price, or even those CPU's that were not bought by many because the next one was better for almost the same price; some CPU's that were mainly OEM and not very famous at it either, or even some engineering samples that were actually named, produced in small numbers and considered for full production.

Examples of rare / unusual CPU's:

- 80186 / 80188;

- 80286 4 Mhz / 6 Mhz / 20 Mhz / 25 Mhz;

- Cyrix 5x86 120Mhz and other Cyrix CPU's;

- Pentium OverDrive 63 / 83 Mhz and other Pentium Overdrives;

- AMD K6-3 450 Mhz and 500 Mhz (even more rare);

- VIA C3 (check slngsht's post);

- Vortex86 SoC;

- Transmeta Crusoe;

- Pentium 4 2.8 Ghz, 400 Mhz FSB; 3.0 Ghz 400MHz FSB (SL6YH and SL74Q) - even rarer! Thanks to Princess Garnet for bringing it up!

- Pentium 4 3.4 Ghz Extreme Edition; Pentium 4 3.8 Ghz;

- Pentium Dual Core E6500K (unlocked multiplier, sold in Asia in limited quantities);

- Core 2 Duo E8190 (essentially an E8200 without Virtualization);

- Core 2 Duo E8300 2.83 Ghz - Most people got either the E8200 in OEM systems, or bought the legendary E8400;

- Core 2 Duo E8700 3.5 Ghz (ohhhh, some lucky people got their hands on one of these - NoGuru);

- Core 2 Quad Q7600 2.7 Ghz, 800 Mhz FSB, 2 MB L2 (2 x 1 MB);

- Core 2 Quad Q6400 2.13 Ghz; Core 2 Quad QX6800 2.93 Ghz and QX6850 3 Ghz;

- AMD Phenom II X4 42 Black Edition TWKR - Limited Edition, not for sale, 4 cores, 2 Ghz (but fully unlocked), 6MB L3, 45nm; (thanks to dixson01974 , who used to own one, for the reminder!)

- Xeon X5698 4.4 Ghz, 12Mb L3, 32nm, Dual Core w/HT, Socket 1366.

If you have such a CPU or any other rare or unusual one, post your pics/CPU-Z validation/HWbot submission, and I'll add you as a member! If you remember more rare / unusual CPU's, you're welcome to share the info!

Cheers!

Owners:

- adadk - Core 2 Duo E8700

- addersnake - Core 2 Quad Q7600 2.7 Ghz, 800 Mhz FSB, 2 MB L2 (2 x 1 MB)

- allikat - 2 Intel Xeons 1.70 GHz, 256K Cache, 400 MHz FSB (based on the P4 Willamette core)

- kenolak - Pentium 4 3.4 Ghz Extreme Edition, 2MB L3 - Gallatin, Skt 478

- Nintendo Maniac 64 - Cyrix Media GXi-200BP (All-in-one processor: x86 CPU + display controller and 2D graphics accelerator + 16-bit audio subsystem + PCI controller + Memory Controller)

- N3C14R - Transmeta Crusoe TM5600 533 Mhz, 512 Kb L2

- NoGuru - Core 2 Duo E8700 3.5 Ghz, 1333 Mhz FSB, 6MB L2

- slngsht - 4 VIA C3 CPU's - 667 Mhz, 700 Mhz, 1 Ghz and 1.2 Ghz

- SwishaMane - AMD Athlon X2 s939 ES and Phenom II x4 Deneb TWKR ES

- The Master Chief - Pentium II Overdrive for Pentium Pro based PC's, 300/333Mhz (Brand New in Box!)

- tpi2007 - Pentium Overdrive 83 Mhz, Cyrix 5x86 120 Mhz, Cyrix 5x86 100 Mhz, AMD 5x86 133 Mhz ADZ

For the proud owners:

 [IMG alt="post-flame-small.gif"]https://www.overclock.net/images/smilies/post-flame-small.gif[/IMG][URL=http://www.overclock.net/general-processor-discussions/1020608-rare-unusual-cpu-club.html]The rare / unusual CPU club[/URL][IMG alt="post-flame-small.gif"]https://www.overclock.net/images/smilies/post-flame-small.gif[/IMG]

 

[cheenou77]

hahha,,,awesome thread!

 

[tpi2007]

Thanks!

If you remember some more rare / unusual CPU's you're welcome to post them here!

Cheers!

 

[the_beast]

I had an AMD K6-3 @ 450MHz which was pretty uncommon - was back in the days when AMD were very niche, and few K6-3's were sold (the K6-2 was much more common).

Ran a dual Pentium Pro @ 200MHz system with SCSI drives as well for a while - was very nippy at the time. Had a massive 64MB RAM and everything. Those socket 8 CPUs were massive...

Also had a couple of Cyrix systems, but nothing out of the (then) ordinary.

Don't have it any of these any more though - had to clear all the crap out a couple of years back, and pretty much all of my older/less used gear went.

 

[Chuckclc]

Dang I remember those chips. They were notorious for how hot they ran back then, that was before the days when cpu fans and heatsinks were common.

 

[RevyYYYe]

Awesome thread.. most of these chips are unknwn/disregarded to me

 

[slngsht]

I have a few Via C3 (Cyrix) Socket 370 processors that are somewhat rare. They were cheap in the day and used in low power applications versus their Celeron and Pentium 3 competitors and would work in the same motherboards. They underperformed and didn't do very well in the performance segment. Here are my hwbot submissions for these four processors:

6-7-11 edit: the links are bad for my submissions since they have updated hwbot.

Via C3 667 Samuel

Via C3 1.0ghz Ezra

Via C3 1.2ghz

Via C3 700A 150nm

If you really want to lol, check out the Superpi32m scores. The 667 took over 12 hours to complete.

 

[tpi2007]

Quote:

Originally Posted by the_beast;13572066
I had an AMD K6-3 @ 450MHz which was pretty uncommon - was back in the days when AMD were very niche, and few K6-3's were sold (the K6-2 was much more common).

Ran a dual Pentium Pro @ 200MHz system with SCSI drives as well for a while - was very nippy at the time. Had a massive 64MB RAM and everything. Those socket 8 CPUs were massive...

Also had a couple of Cyrix systems, but nothing out of the (then) ordinary.

Don't have it any of these any more though - had to clear all the crap out a couple of years back, and pretty much all of my older/less used gear went.

Hmmm, that AMD K6-3 business caught my interest! Just went to read a bit. Turns out the 500 MHz K6-III was even more rare - so rare it was recalled because it drew too much current from some motherboards! I'll add the K6-3 450 Mhz and 500 Mhz to the list.

Man, you had some VERY NICE systems back then! A Pentium Pro system was a wet dream to most people back then, let alone a dual system LOLOL. I'm not sure, but the Pentium Pro is, if not the biggest CPU ever made, at least one of the biggest. You've just reminded me I have to buy one from eBay for my collection

By the way, do you think the Pentium Pro qualifies as a rare / unusual CPU ? I'm not aware how well it sold in the professional area of business.
Quote:

Originally Posted by Chuckclc;13572106
Dang I remember those chips. They were notorious for how hot they ran back then, that was before the days when cpu fans and heatsinks were common.

The chips I put in the photo all need an active cooling fan. I have a tiny Cooler Master heatsink + fan on my Cyrix 5x86 100 Mhz. Since CPU sockets didn't have fixation points back then, the heatsink attaches to the CPU itself. It actually looks very cute

Even the 486DX4 100 Mhz already needed, at the very least, a passive heatsink, but I think most needed an active heatsink+fan combo. A 486DX2 66Mhz could do with a passive heatsink tough.

Quote:

Originally Posted by RevyYYYe;13572121
Awesome thread.. most of these chips are unknwn/disregarded to me

Thanks, glad you liked it!

 

[tpi2007]

Quote:

Originally Posted by slngsht;13572269
I have a few Via C3 (Cyrix) Socket 370 processors that are somewhat rare. They were cheap in the day and used in low power applications versus their Celeron and Pentium 3 competitors and would work in the same motherboards. They underperformed and didn't do very well in the performance segment. Here are my hwbot submissions for these four processors:

Via C3 667 Samuel

Via C3 1.0ghz Ezra

Via C3 1.2ghz

Via C3 700A 150nm

If you really want to lol, check out the Superpi32m scores. The 667 took over 12 hours to complete.

Wow! You just got yourself a spot on the owner's club with this entry!

When I was writing the first post I thought about Transmeta's Crusoe, but believe me, I somehow managed to forget about the VIA CPU's.

Shame on me! Adding them to the list right away!

LOL @ 12 hours (almost 13) on Superpi

Nice idea to put some scores on the web for posterity! I'll try to do some with the Cyrix 5x86 too (I wonder what I'll be able to run).

Btw, nice photo

 

[the_beast]

Not sure the C3s count as rare - they powered a large chunk of the thin client market before AMD & Intel brought out lower powered chips.

One other CPU I own (still have it) is a Vortex86, which most people here won't have heard of (despite the fact it's fully x86 compatible, and only a few years old). It's basically a complete all-in-one system, with a Pentium cpu core @ 150MHz, northbridge, southbridge and AGP graphics subsystem all integrated into a single SoC. It's on an industrial PC/104 (9cm square) motherboard used for system control etc - I've got a couple of them, and the whole system uses ~3-4W at load. Always been intending to build digital photo frames and home automation controllers with them, just never got round to it...

 

[tpi2007]

Quote:

Originally Posted by the_beast;13572476
Not sure the C3s count as rare - they powered a large chunk of the thin client market before AMD & Intel brought out lower powered chips.

One other CPU I own (still have it) is a Vortex86, which most people here won't have heard of (despite the fact it's fully x86 compatible, and only a few years old). It's basically a complete all-in-one system, with a Pentium cpu core @ 150MHz, northbridge, southbridge and AGP graphics subsystem all integrated into a single SoC. It's on an industrial PC/104 (9cm square) motherboard used for system control etc - I've got a couple of them, and the whole system uses ~3-4W at load. Always been intending to build digital photo frames and home automation controllers with them, just never got round to it...

Hmmm, you do have a point with the C3. Maybe we should classify them more in the "unusual" category rather than "rare".

Vortex86, good find... I think I never heard of that one. Can you take a picture ?

Just went looking for it, very interesting. Intel is just now doing this with the Atom. I'll add it to the list, along with the website. I wonder how much power the fastest model uses.

 

[the_beast]

Quote:

Originally Posted by tpi2007;13572580
Vortex86, good find... I think I never heard of that one. Can you take a picture ?

Just went looking for it, very interesting. Intel is just now doing this with the Atom. I'll add it to the list, along with the website. I wonder how much power the fastest model uses.

Not got them to hand - in storage at the moment (which is a fancy way of saying they're packed up in a box in my mum's loft waiting for me to move them or chuck them).

The boards I have are here though. On one of the three boards it has a heatsink as shown on the top right of this page though, and all the connectors are black not coloured. I presume that's an earlier model. The page puts the cpu clock at 166MHz though - I'm sure mine are 150MHz, although that might just be me remembering wrongly as it's been a few years since I played with them.

 

[harishgayatri]

Do these count?

VIA C3 667Mhz processor & Intel i486DX2

I have the pics for Intel i486DX2

 

[Princess Garnet]

You should require either a CPU-Z or a picture of the CPU with something (like a piece of paper) with the owner's name on it or something, you know, just for verification.

Core 2 Duo E8700, oh... don't even mention it! I still sort of want one. If I remember right, I think I even saw a Core 2 Duo E8800 (3.66Ghz?) result turned in at some hardware results website somewhere! Seems it was made though, just not released?

http://www.x86-guide.com/en/cpu/Intel-Core-2-Duo-E8800-%28ES%29-cpu-no4350.html

If my Pentium III-S 1.4GHz Tualatin qualifies as unusual, I'll get some pictures of it.

 

[FlAwLeSS_666]

I've had this sitting on my desk for some years, don't remember what the chip was, but I do know it was from my dads computer back in 2001 and was an AMD based system.

If you can tell me what it is, that'd be great.

Edit::: so I did some digging, and found out that its a AMD Athlon 1300

 

[mcmosher]

I'm going to guess its a thunderbird:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:KL_AMD_Athlon_XP_Thunderbird.jpg

 

[the_beast]

Quote:

Originally Posted by FlAwLeSS_666;13574539
I've had this sitting on my desk for some years, don't remember what the chip was, but I do know it was from my dads computer back in 2001 and was an AMD based system.

If you can tell me what it is, that'd be great.

Edit::: so I did some digging, and found out that its a AMD Athlon 1300

Digging? It's printed right on the die...

 

[Hyoketsu]

Sweet thread

Too bad I don't currently have anything to add to the list. I had a couple of 133MHz Pentiums (Or was the first one 100MHz? Consarnit, can't remember :/) a while back, but I don't know their exact models. Despite being in love with PCs, as a little kiddo, I was pretty much clueless about the various "deeper" specs of certain components.

EDIT: Wiki to the rescue. Unless I overlooked something, this should be it:
Quote:

Model#: Pentium 1110\133
Freq: 133 MHz
L1 cache: 8 + 8 KB
FSB: 66 MT/s
Multi: 2×
Voltage: 3.135-3.6 V
TDP: 11.2 W
Socket 7
Release date: June 1, 1995

Wow, seriously, 1995? I got it when I was 8 years old, which means the CPU was ~3 years old at that time. Pretty decent, though, of course, still a tad on the old side. I used to think it was already a fossil by the time I got my hands on it

Anyway, enough rambling. Does this count as rare/unusual? Does it count if I lost it several years ago?

 

[Iris]

Ive actually probably come across a lot of the old/rare CPUs you've listed. I work for a big PC refurbisher and the systems that come in sport all sorts of CPUs, old and new.

 

[cokezone]

I used to have a QX9750 sold it off ages ago for around £600