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Fake Core i7 processors are not demo chips, says Intel

By Barry Collins

Posted on 9 Mar 2010 at 09:51

Intel has denied reports that a counterfeit batch of Core i7 processors are actually the company's own demonstration chips.

The chip giant has been forced on the defensive following reports that online retailer, NewEgg.com had sold fake Core i7-920 processors to customers in the US.

In a statement issued to the press, NewEgg claimed that one of its partners had accidentally sent the company demonstration units rather than full retail processors.

However, Intel denies the dodgy processors have any hint of legitimacy. "These are not Intel samples or demo units as some press outlets have speculated," an Intel spokesman told PC Pro. "We are getting samples to inspect and until then we can say that everything in the package appears fake. Some of the photos of the processor look like it is a casting and not even a real processor of any kind."

Intel says it is investigating how the fake processors ended up on the market, and how many have been sold, although earlier reports that more than 2,000 of the fake Core i7s have been sold have been retracted.

The chip giant says that anyone who fears they've been sold a fake processor can download the Intel Processor Identification Utility, which not only checks if the processor is genuine, but reveals the rated speed of the processor to help buyers determine if it's been overclocked.

The company says anyone who's been sold a counterfeit processor should return it to the retailer and inform the police.

Update 6:10pm: NewEgg has now retracted its earlier claims that the chips were demonstration models.

"Initial information we received from our supplier, IPEX, stated that they had mistakenly shipped us 'demo units'," the company claims in a statement. "We have since come to discover the CPUs were counterfeit and are terminating our relationship with this supplier. Contrary to any speculation, D&H Distributing is not the vendor that supplied us with the Intel Core i7-920 CPUs in question."

"Newegg’s top priority is to proactively reach out to all customers who may have been affected to ensure their absolute satisfaction. We have already sent out a number of replacement units and are doing everything in our power to resolve the matter promptly and with the least amount of inconvenience to our customers."

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User comments

The YouTube video

shows a "manual" which is half a dozen blank pages stapled together, a "cooling fan" that is a lump of plastic with a picture of a fan glued to the top (which shows up in the window in the packaging) and the "processor" is a lump of metal without any pin-outs, just some "Intel" like processor identification printing on the back...

So I wouldn't call it a "sample". If anything, it would be a display-only placebo box.

By big_D on 9 Mar 2010

Intel Processor Identification Utility

Isn't this a bit of a waste of time? I mean, if your CPU is just a strip of aluminium and your heatsink is just a foam block, I don't think you're going to need to run the IPIU to tell you that. And I doubt your PC will boot with a piece of aluminium for the CPU in order to run this tool in the first place :-)

By Trippynet on 9 Mar 2010

Yeah?

If you think that this is bad, I know for a fact that fake chips have been passed into the military supply chain. Some have even turned up in front line/national guard jets. One was found in the navigation system of an F-15 a year or so back.

Most of these fake chips are consumer chips being sold as military chips (Military chips are a lot tougher) and are being sold to the military by private contractors because decades of Pentagon cost cutting and outsourcing means that the military no longer manufactures its own parts any more. They farm it out to the cheapest possible supplier, who in turn buys Chinese made fake chips.

The problem is especially bad in with older equipment. The Pentagon is still using some systems that were designed decades ago. Some of them from the 1970s. No America or Japanese companies make the parts any more so they have to be brought in from salvage yards in India where they are pulled out of scrapped equipment, or from China, where they have a good chance of either being salvaged or being fake, or even both.

By Perfectblue97 on 9 Mar 2010

This is not the same as the case in Frankfurt, where some guy bought some dodgy labeled intel core 2 quad processors (Q9550) off Allegro - apparently they are counterfeit copies, poorly labelled and no hologram and the odd thing is - they work :) better

By nicomo on 9 Mar 2010

Does this mean that AMD are no longer bottom of the processor league?

By Alperian on 9 Mar 2010

Watch out for anything that is second hand and sanded down ;) You can mod the backs of chips using conductive ink (LGA) or gold thread (if it uses pins). OC do this to tweak performance, but dodgy dealers do this to make a lesser processor appear as a more expensive version. Usually they actually work, and are of some value, but a solid lump of plastic is just a con.

By skgiven on 11 Mar 2010

NASA

You will be surprised but NASA even searches places like eBay for shuttle spare parts - if it's good enough for NASA then it's good enough for the US Military.

By rjd83 on 11 Mar 2010

Foil Coverage

A couple of these posts are so funny we need to go beyond the usual Foil Hat award and upgrade to Tin Foil Parachutes...

A hear there's also a booming market in Fake Chips both in the UK and Ireland where inferior quality Potatoes are being supplied to Chip Shops, fried and passed off as Quality Varieties such as "Home Guard" "Golden Wonder" or "Roosters."

Beware such evil may contaminate your supper...

By Gindylow on 11 Mar 2010

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