28c Xeon Platinum 8173M CPUs $3400

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Samir

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Judging from their other items for sale, it seems like they're importing things directly from China, which could mean they're not genuine.

A lot of companies do this selling counterfeit goods, so just be careful--it's the wild west sometimes on the west coast.
 
Jul 30, 2017
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Judging from their other items for sale, it seems like they're importing things directly from China, which could mean they're not genuine.

A lot of companies do this selling counterfeit goods, so just be careful--it's the wild west sometimes on the west coast.
Fake cpu's that work aren't a thing right?
You mean they will ship you a QS/ES cpu or do you mean they will ship you a brick?
 

PithyChats

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What some companies do is remark QS/ES chips with full retail markings. Thus they look like production steppings but the silicon underneath is QS/ES. I am not claiming this is the case here, but I have seen this.
 

Samir

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Fake cpu's that work aren't a thing right?
You mean they will ship you a QS/ES cpu or do you mean they will ship you a brick?
Generally fake things that look like the real thing will come off the same assembly lines but miss some qc steps. So there's a good chance they'll work fine, but there's also a chance you could see issues you wouldn't with a genuine product and you'd have no warranty (not unlike genuine used products, but at least the genuine stuff should be built well enough to make its way to ebay).
 

Samir

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Yep, something like those. It sounds legit that they are pulls and that they have all the right markings on the labels. But as the thread on here on fake intel nics shows, it's only when you get into the details do you see where the corners were cut.

I've got to the point now that if I'm buying anything and it's 'new' from California and also available directly from China, I skip the seller and specifically look for used to get the genuine article. Too much fraud out there.
 

PithyChats

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@PithyChats how would you even do that? Its etched in metal? The chips themselves will also show up as ES in bios and cpuz tools.

I can see someone delidding, then selling a dud CPU with a new lid, but on procs this expensive I can't see it.
The few I've seen were pretty much impossible to tell apart from the real deal physically. They do still show up as ES in BIOS and CPUZ tools as you mention, but physically they were spot on. My guess, the lid is sanded down, and then re-etched; possibly with a laser. The other way might be to take production stepping lids from broken CPUs and then glue them on ES models. Both of these are just wild speculation though...
 

Samir

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The few I've seen were pretty much impossible to tell apart from the real deal physically. They do still show up as ES in BIOS and CPUZ tools as you mention, but physically they were spot on. My guess, the lid is sanded down, and then re-etched; possibly with a laser. The other way might be to take production stepping lids from broken CPUs and then glue them on ES models. Both of these are just wild speculation though...
And even though this process sounds tedious, it's on high dollar items like this where the effort can pay off if it adds a couple of hundred to the sale price.
 

PithyChats

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And even though this process sounds tedious, it's on high dollar items like this where the effort can pay off if it adds a couple of hundred to the sale price.

For sure. On the E5-269x V4's there might be a couple of thousand dollar delta between the selling price of a QS chip and the real deal!
 

Jon Soliemon

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Mar 12, 2018
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Hi. I Googled 8173M and stumbled on this thread. I am the seller of the eBay listing above. We do not import from China. The processors are not ES or QS. The lids have not been tampered with in any way. We have personally tested these processors on a HP Z8 Workstation. The screen shots you see were taken by us on a HP Z8 Workstation.

Let us know if you have any questions.
 
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Samir

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Thank you for joining the discussion.

Where are you sourcing these new products for so much less than normal? Do these still have the factory warranty?
 

j_h_o

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From the ebay page, I'd assume the chips were being pulled from HP workstations and they're doing additional modifications/upgrades for their clients.