Why the components in your PC could be fakes

 

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By Stewart Mitchell

Posted on 21 Feb 2008 at 08:14

Convincing fakes

Indeed, in many cases the counterfeits are so good they even fool the company that produced the originals. "The best copies may go undetected even by a technician," concedes AGMA executive director Lily Mei. "OEMs might only notice if there is a sudden spike in products returned for servicing."

That's bad news for the consumer, and for the system builders and manufacturers that use the flaky components, because although they might look and feel convincing they often use inferior materials that could dramatically shorten their lifespan.

"Memory is a classic counterfeit component," says Fletcher. "You plug it in and expect it to work. If it doesn't you could get your money back, but that's much more difficult if the unit fails three months later. People think they have got a Hynix or a Toshiba but when it fails they find that the branding has simply been added to a cheaper chip."

The same problems arise when counterfeiters lie about the actual speed of memory. "Gamers want the fastest memory possible," says Fletcher. "But the fakes are often running much more slowly than advertised."

While end users suffer, the real losers are the OEMs and producers who include spurious technology in their systems. "It's an expensive problem when it's a simple component, but when you've built that into a motherboard, then a system and then shipped it, it is even more expensive."

The advice from everyone with in the industry, not surprisingly, is to buy only from recognised sources, but with such confusion in the marketplace, even that doesn't guarantee you're going to receive the genuine article.