Are these counterfeit Xeon CPUs?

[Serverking]

I got these two Xeon 2640 V4 from Amazon Warehouse sales tonight and when I took them out of the box they didn't seem right.

Few things are off.

1. If you look at the pcb you see they don't have the same look if you googled "2640 V4"
2. They don't fit in any LGA 2011-3 sockets, I have tired from SuperMicro to ASRock mobos
3. They only fit in LGA 2011-1, but still the mobos don't boot up I have tired 2 boards.

Amazon Warehouse sales

Edit: Pics of the boxes with SN on one taken off seems like and the other not matching.

 

[CookiesLikeWhoa]

Likely Yes.

Reasoning: They appear to be V1/2 versions of the chip that someone remarked as v4. Which would be enough to scream "scam".

 

[TRACKER]

Well, boxes are from v4 for sure

 

[Rand__]

There have been a lot of stories about Amazon selling counterfeit CPUs (or GPUs or SSDs) throughout the years and still recently (wrong CPUs). Often from order/return scams, 3rd party sellers but also on grand scale iirc.
So very likely unfortunately

 

[Patriot]

Likely Yes.

Reasoning: They appear to be V1/2 versions of the chip that someone remarked as v4. Which would be enough to scream "scam".

Yes, the IHS is not v4, take a picture of the bottom and I will tell you what gen it is.
But def v1 or v2.

 

[Serverking]

Yes, the IHS is not v4, take a picture of the bottom and I will tell you what gen it is.
But def v1 or v2.

Bottom side pics

 

[RageBone]

as expected, lga 2011-0 therefor sandy / ivy -Bridge CPU.


SCAM

 

[Patriot]

That is the LCC ivy die. <= 6c v2

 

[am45931472]

that's crazy. obviously if it doesnt fit the socket then its not legit. how is remarking even done anyway. The IHS of the remark looks perfect, i would never have known that was fake.

 

[Patriot]

that's crazy. obviously if it doesnt fit the socket then its not legit. how is remarking even done anyway. The IHS of the remark looks perfect, i would never have known that was fake.

Aside from the underside. V3, has a little R3 next to the orientation and both V3 and V4's heatsink are quite unique. v1 & v2 have the little -0 on the pcb

 

[Frank173]

Most likely, at least when fulfilled and shipped by Amazon, customers scammed Amazon and someone in the return department did not check carefully enough before selling returned items. I can't come up with a single reason why Amazon would intentionally do this given the massive reputational risk and damage. Different story with third party vendors...

There have been a lot of stories about Amazon selling counterfeit CPUs (or GPUs or SSDs) throughout the years and still recently (wrong CPUs). Often from order/return scams, 3rd party sellers but also on grand scale iirc.
So very likely unfortunately

 

[Serverking]

Most likely, at least when fulfilled and shipped by Amazon, customers scammed Amazon and someone in the return department did not check carefully enough before selling returned items. I can't come up with a single reason why Amazon would intentionally do this given the massive reputational risk and damage. Different story with third party vendors...

Its very likely someone is mass producing these, the markings don't come off even with a bit of soap.

The Amazon site has another one listed at same price and everything.... I just feel bad for the next person to get it. There should be a way to chat with the VPs etc.

 

[Frank173]

Report it to Intel and let them work with Amazon.

Its very likely someone is mass producing these, the markings don't come off even with a bit of soap.

The Amazon site has another one listed at same price and everything.... I just feel bad for the next person to get it. There should be a way to chat with the VPs etc.

 

[BlueFox]

Here's my addition that I received today. Guessing it's actually an E5-2603v3. Hopefully this doesn't actually get put back into inventory, but I doubt Amazon would actually follow up. Have a feeling this is just going to become more and more common as it's not hard to laser engrave.

 

[CookiesLikeWhoa]

The 8 is upside down. Really annoys my OCD...

 

[Serverking]

Hopefully this doesn't actually get put back into inventory, but I doubt Amazon would actually follow up.

There is no follow up.... seems like no one over there cares, as long as Jeff Bezos's belly is fill.

 

[cookiesowns]

as re-marked chips are getting more and more common, and most of these going into Linux systems ( no CPUID validation ) it's hard to know what youd be getting.

I got a few QS/ES chips that were re-labeled even though they were advertised as "Retail OEM" not a fan of that..

 

[Markess]

I notice the OP got the CPUs from Amazon Warehouse Sales. While I don't have any scientific data to back it up, seems like there's a lot of bogus and mismarked product regularly getting sold through that channel. There's even a few you-tubers that regularly buy bulk lots from Amazon Warehouse Sales just to video the unboxing & comment on how much of it isn't legit.

Since many of these items are returns, there seems to be a lot of "creative substitution" on the part of the returning party that Amazon doesn't seem to catch. Lots of boxes for pricey Motherboards, CPUs and Graphics cards that instead contain low end, or counterfeit items that "fit" the internal packaging, so seem to slide by.

Myself, I got an "iPhone" that was just a genuine iPhone box with documentation and enough play-doh in the bottom to make it the right weight. Crazy

 

[marcoi]

i will never buy anything from Amazon Warehouse again. I got a set of memory a while back and it was swapped. IE someone took 64 GB kit and swapped 2GB sticks into the heat shields. I'm lucky i didnt blow my motherboard when powering it up.

So unless Amazon Warehouse does better QC, they are off limits for me. I rather deal with forums sales or ebay.

 

[Serverking]

> IE someone took 64 GB kit and swapped 2GB sticks into the heat shields.

Yep DDR3 kits masked as DDR4 kits.

It was better few years ago when this kind of thing was very rare. I miss the old days