

Hands On: Unboxing the Fake Intel Core i7-920 - ilamont
http://www.gearlog.com/2010/03/hands_on_fake_intel_core_i7-92_1.php

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jazzychad
I posted a much more entertaining forum thread yesterday about this, but no
upvotes... bah. <http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1179578>

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andrewcooke
[edit: please ignore; don't want to delete because then the responses will
seem odd, but this no longer makes sense given the new title]

New title from ilamont isn't smart. It's inconsistent.

[Something can be counterfeit _and_ lead. Like, for example, a fake Intel Core
i7-920 processor. Also, HN traditionally keeps titles.]

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ilamont
"working counterfeit" didn't quite fit. Do you have a better suggestion? It's
worth making the distinction -- see <http://www.bunniestudios.com/blog/?p=918>
for example of working counterfeit chips made during "ghost" shifts at Chinese
factories.

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andrewcooke
How about "Hands On: Unboxing the Fake Intel Core i7-920"? (but fwiw I do -
now - see the distinction you were trying to make).

[edit: maybe "third shift" is more popular than "ghost shift"?
[http://money.cnn.com/magazines/fortune/fortune_archive/2006/...](http://money.cnn.com/magazines/fortune/fortune_archive/2006/05/01/8375455/index.htm)]

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ilamont
Changed.

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ajross
Newegg is going to lose a bundle on this fiasco. Serves them right for not
bothering to do any QC on a big-ticket item that they're getting from a fly-
by-night warehouser. I'm honestly surprised they weren't buying these from
Intel directly.

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sliverstorm
Newegg has a very loyal customer base that generally appreciates the extremely
low lead times, fast ship times and speedy RMA's. From the reviews I see, they
also seem to usually be pretty understanding when they receive a problematic
product.

I don't think Newegg will suffer that much.

As for your criticism, one of their upsides is speed. You can't do a lot of QC
on sealed products and keep up speed.

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ajross
Even if they don't lose a single customer, they still lose money. The upstream
supplier isn't going to write them a check out of the kindness of its heart;
it's probably already gutted and shut down. The counterfeiters already have
their money, and ultimately it's the retailer that takes the hit.

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ars
Unless like most companies they pay suppliers after 30 to 90 days. (Net 30 or
Net 90.)

I think CPUs sell quickly enough that this delay will catch the check before
it's sent.

I wonder if the supplier was in on it - they might not have been.

I really hope someone follows the money trail right down to the bottom. I have
a feeling newegg won't - it costs too much for it to be worth it to them. But
I hope Intel does it.

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axiom
Am I the only one who's shocked that there's actually enough of a market out
there for these kinds of fakes that somewhere there's a factory producing
these?

