Unboxing the Fake Intel Core i7-920 257
SkinnyGuy writes "The only thing more remarkable than NewEgg shipping fake Core i7 CPUs to customers is getting your hands on one and checking it out. Apparently there are only a couple hundred of these things in existence and Gearlog somehow managed to get and unbox one. The images are fascinating."
Wow, newegg must be getting huge... (Score:5, Funny)
to have added a third g to their name.
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No. That means a new egg on their faces :)
It's a sign of the forgery. (Score:2)
The mispelings on the bocks, the led processor, the fake distributor.
Re:It's a sign of the forgery. (Score:4, Funny)
Eye don bee leaf any ting yu sey.
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This reminds me of the dude that paid almost $800 for an Xbox Box on eBay.
http://www.igniq.com/2005/12/man-pays-800-for-empty-xbox-360-box-on.html [igniq.com]
Caveat Emptor.
-JJS
The irony here is... (Score:5, Insightful)
That the fakes could become more valuable eventually than the real item, simply by dint of their fame and rarity.
Re:The irony here is... (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:The irony here is... (Score:5, Funny)
At least the lead used to make these things won't end up in childrens' toys or in baby food.
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Please recycle.
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Which leaves one big question unanswered: why bother? Was somebody actually dumb enough to believe they could sell enough lead "processors" to make the whole thing worthwhile?
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why bother? Was somebody actually dumb enough to believe they could sell enough lead "processors" to make the whole thing worthwhile?
What makes you think they haven't already? I'm sure whoever did this sold the whole batch to someone, or swapped out real chips for the fakes.
Re:The irony here is... (Score:4, Insightful)
Probably not. Which leads me to think that the plan was not to sell fakes as the real thing but was to steal a whole lot of the real processors and replace them with fakes so it wouldn't be noticed for a while.
Re:The irony here is... (Score:5, Funny)
the fakes could become more valuable eventually than the real item
At least until somebody starts faking the fakes.
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Divide by zero much?
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At least until somebody starts faking the fakes.
Nothing is worse than the feeling you get when you find out that you got duped. What you thought was the fake lead CPU that you ordered, turns out instead to be an imitation made of cadmium.
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If grammatical errors and spelling mistakes did not matter,
The labels look very good; notice the embossed fake hologram in the left corner. But you can also see that that the word "socket " is spelled wrong. "Sochet"?
and
This processor is all set for use "ina Desktop PC.
would hardly be worth mentioning. I, for one, like living in a world where fakes can be spotted so easily.
Display models? (Score:3, Insightful)
They could be units that were made by a separate company for display model purposes.
Just like those fake TVs in IKEA. They're only the shell without anything inside.
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Yeah, hence the spelling mistakes. Sure.
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Actually, no, thats not what irony means.
It is absurd, unreasonable, and somewhat depressing (from my point of view, at least) that fakes are more valuable than useful CPUs, but it is most certainly not ironic.
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ironic /arnk/ Show Spelled[ahy-ron-ik] Show IPA
-adjective
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Rarity alone does not cause higher prices. Demand is also required. The unexpected part is that there might turn out to be collector demand for these.
Warning! (Score:5, Funny)
They are saying the processor is actually made of lead, so the overclocking potential is dismal.
That combined with the underpowered foam cooler relegates this processor to HTPC uses only.
Re:Warning! (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Warning! (Score:5, Funny)
Nah, the cooler can't be made of melamine.
They used all that up in the baby food [usatoday.com].
Windows 7 - Primitive Edition (Score:4, Funny)
Windows 7 - Primitive Edition is certified by Microsoft to run on this processor.
Keep an eye on the blogs for announcement of the Ubuntu lead-block remix for this real soon now.
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Would that be the Ubuntu Uncomfortable Unicorn, or Mythical Manticore release?
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No way was this an accident (Score:3, Funny)
Re:No way was this an accident (Score:5, Funny)
The cpu "cooler." The misspellings on the box. This was fraud.
Are you sure?
Re:No way was this an accident (Score:5, Funny)
Wow, you think? That's some fine detective work. Tell me, was it the lead "processor" or the solid plastic "fan" that gave it away?
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I thought he just bought an limited extreme performance edition, now with 50% more lead...
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Yes, but by whom? I really doubt NewEgg would try to pull something like this. Their reputation is the only thing that separates them from any number of other online parts sellers.
Re:No way was this an accident (Score:5, Insightful)
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Someone who wanted to pull a couple of hundred processors out of the supply chain. By making fake boxes and shipping them they might be able to hide at what point they were stolen.
Who ever did this probably did not expected their decoys to make it as far as they did. It more likely that the fakes were meant to cover up the theft just long enough to get away with the goods. At best they probably thought the switch would go unnoticed for a couple of days. They are probably laughing their asses off about decoys to make it all the way to the very end of the retail chain, i.e. being shipped to customers.
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Right. A pallet of these things is a couple million dollars. Produce enough to replace a pallet and sell the real ones on the black market. All you need to do is convince on warehouse worker to do the dirty work for you. Even if they get 1/4 or 1/8th the value its still a nice chunk of change.
I wouldnt be surprised if this was connected to organized crime.
Re:No way was this an accident (Score:5, Funny)
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Sadly, this isn't an actual Simpsons quote, but it is misquoted all the time... the actual quote: "Good work Lou, you'll make Sergeant for this."
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YEEEEEEEEEEEAAAAH!
Alphine Stereo for sale (Score:5, Funny)
My friend once bought an Alpine stereo from someone. When we looked closer at the box it was actually "Alphine" with an h. Okay so typical story. The funny part was the box. It had a picture of a Lamborghini on it. But the one they took a picture of was actually a toy. You could see this when you looked close. They didn't even bother to use a real Lamborghini picture! Even that was a fake! We couldn't stop laughing for at least an hour. The lengths some people will go to dupe people, if they spent that energy on creating something with actual worth..
Re:Alphine Stereo for sale (Score:5, Funny)
>They didn't even bother to use a real Lamborghini picture! Even that was a fake!
Its like a movie where the killer is always giving the police hints on his next crime. The fraudster gave your friend at least two hints, but he still bought it. Even fraudsters have the occasional attack of conscience.
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My first DVD player was made by "Sany".
It actually worked (mostly) for over a year before it finally overheated and died completely.
I knew it was a cheap knockoff, but this was way back in 2000 when DVD players still cost money, and it was something like $40, including a free copy of Fightclub.
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That reminds me of the time I tried to order a magnetbox television from my sorny laptop.
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Yes, Mexico is a great place to buy as many shirts as you want where the decals will come off after the first wash. You can find some very nice Folex watches down there as well.
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And don't even get me started on the "Sieko" watches they had for sale.
When faceguards for watches were popular in the 80s, we saw an ASeikon watch on sale at JC Penney's, with the parallel vertical bands of the guard hiding the "A" and "n" when viewed from straight above.
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The article was about counterfeits. I posted an anecdote about counterfeits. Hence it's not off topic or trollish in anyway shape or form.
Nice try though. I guess we see who modded me a troll. Keep hiding behind AC big man.
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I also have a brother that bought a digital camera from some guy at an Arby's. It's the only digital camera I've seen that takes 35mm film!
Perhaps it really *is* digital and it records the bits on the film. That'd be worth seeing :-)
fine (Score:3, Interesting)
just as long as we catch the fake lead PHARMACEUTICALS
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Such things are subject to extremely minimal regulation, and less scrutiny. Since low levels of lead are unlikely to cause dramatic symptoms in
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Q: What's the difference between a $50 brand-name pill and a $2 "fake"?
A: $48.
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If you are lucky. Counterfeit pharmaceuticals are not like generics. If you purchase a counterfeit, you don't know who is providing you with the drug. You think you are buying it from Johnson & Johnson, Pfizer, Roche, etc. But the counterfeiters have stolen the identity of the company, so you can't easily go after the suppliers of your drugs if their quality is poor.
Generics, on the other hand, do not hide who they are.
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EE here.
Counterfeit parts start fires. My co-worker was testing a 400A breaker, but it didn't trip. It eventually melted at about 800A, which did technically break the circuit, but not in an approved manner.
It looked fully legit, holograms, nice box, everything.
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hey (Score:4, Funny)
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No, it works, but the picture wasn't blue. Only blue has inherent cooling properties.
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Are they saying a picture of a fan does not provide the same level of cooling as a real fan?
That depends on if you're using an Intel Magritte or not...
Re:hey (Score:5, Funny)
That depends on if you're using an Intel Magritte or not.
Ceci n'est pas une heat-pipe
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Are they saying a picture of a fan does not provide the same level of cooling as a real fan?
No, it does, and the box includes a picture of a frequency/temperature monitor you can glue to your screen to prove it.
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Are they saying a picture of a fan does not provide the same level of cooling as a real fan?
It's at least as good as the fan that came with my retail boxed E8400. 59C in a cool basement server room isn't exactly optimal for a non-overclocked system.
Ironically enough... (Score:2)
"Apparently there are only a couple hundred of these things in existence..."
And now, due to all the stories about them, they have become modern-day artifacts and will probably sell on eBay as collectibles for more than the real thing.
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Which means somebody will start making imitations. Make sure you get the real fake and not a fake fake!
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ROHS compliance (Score:3, Funny)
I seriously doubt these lead processors are ROHS compliant.
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Performance? (Score:3, Funny)
Mis-printed postage stamps (Score:2)
Interesting that a few of these could end up worth more than their original bretheran.
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CSI Sillicon Valley (Score:5, Funny)
"Hmm. Mis-spellings on the box. A sticker of a fan. A solid block of metal for the CPU.
I'd say the buyers were
<removes sunglasses>
mis-lead."
YEEAAAAAAAAH!
Lead processor? (Score:2)
No need to defend NewEgg (Score:5, Insightful)
This story is not "OMG! NewEgg is so bad!! They shipped fake CPUs!" okay? No one is bashing NewEgg, you can relax, your job there is probably safe.
The story is "Wow! Look at these hunks of lead and plastic blocks with stickers that look like fans on them!" I mean, someone went to a lot of trouble to make these things. It's an interesting story.
Re:No need to defend NewEgg (Score:5, Insightful)
I feel bad for the distributer. NewEgg is probably a huge customer of theirs and I doubt they did this. If these had been mislabeled or relabeled chips I could say some company trying to pull it off. But this is a sure fail so no company would do this knowingly.
Odds are somebody in some warehouse got a pallet of expensive CPUs for a good price when they "fell off the back of a truck".
I am more interested in where in the supply chain this happened.
Does the distributer buy straight from Intel? If so maybe the shipping company they used? or the Shipping company that was used between the distributer and NewEgg?
Just wonder where the switch happened.
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Re:No need to defend NewEgg (Score:5, Informative)
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Making working fakes would be less trouble, it is done quite frequently at plants in China. The production lines are already set up, you just go in after hours. You generally won't find the holograms on these kinds of 'fakes', though. Here, you find counterfeit holograms, on solid lead fake cores. That's interesting to me.
Obviously, it is an interesting story for most people. Most people without a vested interest in NewEgg, that is. Nobody gives a rat's ass that you don't find it interesting. Honestly, I ca
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Well, no, the fakes needed to be there. The fake "fan" showed through a window in the box; that's why they made the sticker. The lead "CPU" gave the box the right heft and feel as if it contained an actual CPU.
How long before the first fake fake? (Score:5, Funny)
Dude, I bought a fake i7 on eBay, but it turned out to be real! What a ripoff!
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Can you get in trouble for selling Fraudulent "Fraud Intel core i7"s?
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"The failure on the part of the manufacturer of these fakes is that they shipped them to precisely the wrong market. Thousands of these puppies could have ended up in desktop computers and nobody would ever have known. The average consumer has no idea what's inside the case. Instead, though, the fakes end up at Newegg, where they get purchased by exactly the kind of people who can recognize them for what they are. It's almost like they were trying to get caught."
Subtle troll is subtle... Either that or you didn't even bother to RTFS and figure out that these things are not just fake, but totally non-functional. In which case, Obvious troll is obvious...
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Uh... If you had looked at the pictures you would know that "thousands" of these couldn't have ended up in desktop computers. The "fake" processors are not actually functional. It is a hunk of lead. It doesn't even have pins. It would be impossible for anyone to actually install this in a computer.
Further, I don't know who you think buys retail processors besides techies? Mom n pop buy their computers from dell, and dell would certainly stop these processors from reaching them, no PC with this part cou
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It would be impossible for anyone to actually install this in a computer.
You underestimate the stupidity of some users, even those that attempt to build their own machines. I would not be surprised if someone tried to install the lead chip sideways into a PCI slot or insert it into the optical drive.
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The real stroy is where exactly did the fakes come from. Somebody went to a lot of trouble to create these fakes and I find it hard to beleive they only made 100-200 and then quit.
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I've wondered the same thing for a long time. Why buy from a "distributor" who is just a middle-man that drives up the price. BUT, it does sort of make from Newegg's perspective. They don't just buy Intel CPUs from th
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Another reason is that Intel won't sell to stores smaller than, say, Amazon because they don't want to ship less than a truckload.
A good chunk of the "distributer overhead" covers the customer service, accounts receivable, and other staff that Intel doesn't have to handle, as well as the logistics to cover warehousing & shipping SKUs smaller than pallet size.
If they took over distribution to stores, prices wouldn't fall as much as one might think because Intel would take over those functions and charge
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Which you'll throw in a big box with many other items where it will then fall out of its minimal plastic packaging and rattle around, getting bent pins which the receiver will have to carefully bend back.
Newegg, I love ya but you need to work on your packaging process.
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I can't speak for Intel specifically, but if you need to place blame, place it squarely on the shoulders of the manufacturers. It has been my experience that they steadfastly refuse to sell to end users like you and I. If you want something, you must go through an authorized distributor. Usually, they'd claim that "we're not set up to sell directly to the public". In reality, I'm sure it has more to do with money and contacts, i.e. [avoiding] cutting into someone else's bottom line.
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