true, I am just pushing back on the idea that "abusing a chip is mostly a myth" and "if a CPU is working on the day you buy it, it's fine for desktop use-cases". For server parts that can't be OC'd - true, I guess. For regular CPUs? Absolutely not true, enthusiasts abuse the shit out of them and even if you do no further damage yourself, the degradation can continue over time etc as parts of the circuit just become critically unstable from small routine usage etc.

(people treat their CPUs like gamer piss-jugs, big deferred cost tomorrow for a small benefit today.)

But yes - ironically this means surplus server CPUs are actually way more reliable than used enthusiast CPUs. In some cases they are drop-in compatible in the consumer platform (although not so much in newer stuff), and the server stuff got the better bins in the first place, and it's cheaper (because they sold a lot more units), and also hasn't been abused by an enthusiast for 5 years etc. If you are on a platform like Z97 or X99 that supports the Xeon chips, the server chips are a complete no-brainer.

And some xeons are even multiplier unlocked etc - used to be a thing, back in the day.

("server bins are binned for leakage and don't compete with gaming cpus" is another myth that is not really true except for XOC binning - server CPUs are better binned than enthusiast ones for ambient use-cases.)