Live data from Hacker News

Newegg sold counterfeit Intel Core i7 CPUs

blogs.zdnet.com

11–20 of 25 posts

Re: Newegg sold counterfeit Intel Core i7 CPUs

#11

According to Tom Merrit of CNET & Buzz out Loud, the complete package was fake - foam fan, plastic heatsink, plastic processor, misspelled packaging, etc... It seems like a case or two (nearly 300 processors) of i7 processors were switched for fakes somewhere down the line, before making it to Newegg. EDIT - Apparently, the processors were pieces of scrap metal.

Somewhere, Tony Soprano is happy.

Re: Newegg sold counterfeit Intel Core i7 CPUs

#12
post #4
post #2

How on earth do you counterfeit a CPU of that grade without a trail a mile wide ? I'm sure plenty of consumers would never notice if you swapped an i5 for an i7 but to counterfeit an entire CPU is next to unbelievable. My guess is that if they follow these to the source they'll end up at an intel fab where they were discarded as rejects for some reason or other.

The "counterfeits" don't work at all; the "processor" is just a piece of metal and the "heatsink" is made of plastic.

That makes more sense, if they actually managed to counterfeit a CPU they ought to be given a medal or something ;)

Re: Newegg sold counterfeit Intel Core i7 CPUs

#13

the news is that newegg is aware of a shipping error that occurred with certain recent orders of the Intel Core i7-920 CPU. After investigating the issue internally it appears one of our long term partners mistakenly shipped a small number of demo boxes instead of functional units.

Demo boxes? That would explain a lot

Re: Newegg sold counterfeit Intel Core i7 CPUs

#15
post #6
post #2

How on earth do you counterfeit a CPU of that grade without a trail a mile wide ? I'm sure plenty of consumers would never notice if you swapped an i5 for an i7 but to counterfeit an entire CPU is next to unbelievable. My guess is that if they follow these to the source they'll end up at an intel fab where they were discarded as rejects for some reason or other.

From the reports I've seen, the CPU was entirely fake -- it was an inert chunk of molded metal.

[deleted]

Re: Newegg sold counterfeit Intel Core i7 CPUs

#16
post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The "counterfeits" don't work at all; the "processor" is just a piece of metal and the "heatsink" is made of plastic.

That makes more sense, if they actually managed to counterfeit a CPU they ought to be given a medal or something ;)

It's a far cry from real counterfeiting, but in the past Intel had problems with "remarking" processors; people would buy low-bin parts, sand off the markings and re-etch them with a higher speed. This was fixed with multiplier locking and (to a lesser extent) CPUID.

Re: Newegg sold counterfeit Intel Core i7 CPUs

#17

the news is that newegg is aware of a shipping error that occurred with certain recent orders of the Intel Core i7-920 CPU. After investigating the issue internally it appears one of our long term partners mistakenly shipped a small number of demo boxes instead of functional units.

This is a quote from the article which was rebuffed. Restating it here for no particular reason / without additional commentary is unnecessary clutter.

Edit: Sigh, I'm pretty sure this is a bot account.

Re: Newegg sold counterfeit Intel Core i7 CPUs

#18

the news is that newegg is aware of a shipping error that occurred with certain recent orders of the Intel Core i7-920 CPU. After investigating the issue internally it appears one of our long term partners mistakenly shipped a small number of demo boxes instead of functional units.

Demo boxes? That would explain a lot

Have a look here:

http://hardocp.com/news/2010/03/07/intel_comment_on_fake_cpu...

That makes the newegg spin definitely less believable.

Re: Newegg sold counterfeit Intel Core i7 CPUs

#19

More (full-res) pictures: http://www.hardforum.com/showpost.php?p=1035412736&postc...

Do these photos support the claim that the boxes were just demos shipped mistakenly, or that they were indeed counterfeits that were inserted into the supply chain? Thoughts?

Re: Newegg sold counterfeit Intel Core i7 CPUs

#20

the news is that newegg is aware of a shipping error that occurred with certain recent orders of the Intel Core i7-920 CPU. After investigating the issue internally it appears one of our long term partners mistakenly shipped a small number of demo boxes instead of functional units.

Demo boxes? That would explain a lot

It doesn't make sense. If it were a demo, wouldn't Intel stamp "DEMO" on it all over, so it wouldn't be mistaken for the real thing? Also, as the article points out, why would there be a blank manual in a demo chip, and why would Intel make it look nearly identical to the shipping version, modulo typos?
Post reply on HN