General advice on ordering CPU's from overseas

[ullbeking]

Hello,

I've found the CPU I've been looking for, at a price I can afford, on Ebay. It's being sold by multiple Chinese vendors, but nowhere else. I was just wondering why this would be the case? In particular, is there much of a market for counterfeit CPU's, or other things like that to watch out for? Am I being overly paranoid?

Thanks,

ubk

 

[RobSam]

any eBay link?

 

[ullbeking]

@RobSam Here's one that I'm looking at: Intel Xeon E3-1240L V5 2.1GHz LGA1151 8GT/s 25W CPU (no integrated graphics) | eBay I've written to them and gotten a positive response, so it's possible that now I'm just being cynical. Am I being a jerk or is my caution warranted?

 

[WANg]

@RobSam Here's one that I'm looking at: Intel Xeon E3-1240L V5 2.1GHz LGA1151 8GT/s 25W CPU (no integrated graphics) | eBay I've written to them and gotten a positive response, so it's possible that now I'm just being cynical. Am I being a jerk or is my caution warranted?

It's kinda warranted - Shenzhen is a zoo when it comes to their secondary markets, Chinese mainland consumer protection is a bit of a joke, and frankly, I don't trust 90% of the actors there. When in doubt, pay more and deal with someone you can trust.

 

[RobSam]

@RobSam Here's one that I'm looking at: Intel Xeon E3-1240L V5 2.1GHz LGA1151 8GT/s 25W CPU (no integrated graphics) | eBay I've written to them and gotten a positive response, so it's possible that now I'm just being cynical. Am I being a jerk or is my caution warranted?

I searched Taobao and found this model is sold in quantity by multiply reputable sellers and received usually good review (e.g. this and this ), so it's unlikely that this model is faked in quantity. Cannot guarantee for your eBay seller though. If were you, I would not worry too much.

 

[Samir]

It's a fake if you don't find it anywhere else. And frankly, most of the stuff being sold direct from there is fake, counterfeit or otherwise rip-off garbage, even something as simple as power cords (which on another forum someone bought in bulk and then discovered that even a monitor would create enough heat on the end of the cord that it presented a fire hazard--they really don't give a f__ about us here, just our money, so f them too).

I make it a habit to always search only for items in north america on ebay, but even then you have to be skeptical of any sellers on either coast, especially CA, since they can import large amounts of this crap and then have a mainland address to sell it from.

When it doubt with cpus, if it doesn't look like it was previously used and cleaned up and has what seems like a real person in the western world behind it, pass on it--even if it costs double to get it, at least it won't have spyware, secret hacks, IP violations, or just be a plain ripoff.

I really don't understand how direct unregulated imports like this even pass the border as back in the day you would have to go through customs nightmares and it would be too expensive to 'garbage dump' on markets like the east is doing on the west.

 

[kapone]

My rule of thumb when buying from the cesspool...er...China...is anything under $5ish... is ok to buy (if it doesn't work, ah well..), anything over is a big no no.

That's just me.

 

[frogtech]

I always wonder how chinese markets would even be capable of creating fake / counterfeit processors that emulate the exact performance or characteristics of the actual chips. I mean there has to be more to making a CPU than creating cheap power cords, right? Frankly, I don't think it's possible. At the worst case you're either getting a piece of plastic/whatever with an etched IHS on it (making it not a functional counterfeit) or a genuine cpu that was apart of the discard batch, which could have one of many random errata inherent to the particular yield flaw. Best case you get a QS or ES or an actual processor made by Intel. Just my thoughts anyway.

 

[Samir]

I always wonder how chinese markets would even be capable of creating fake / counterfeit processors that emulate the exact performance or characteristics of the actual chips. I mean there has to be more to making a CPU than creating cheap power cords, right? Frankly, I don't think it's possible. At the worst case you're either getting a piece of plastic/whatever with an etched IHS on it (making it not a functional counterfeit) or a genuine cpu that was apart of the discard batch, which could have one of many random errata inherent to the particular yield flaw. Best case you get a QS or ES or an actual processor made by Intel. Just my thoughts anyway.

They will typically have stolen the IP for such processors. And in many instances even modify them as in the lga775/771 xeons that work without modifications, which Intel never made.

If these guys paid royalties to the US companies that worked hard to design the stuff, it would be fair, but basically they're ripping off our technology and selling it back to us--and that's beyond unethical to me.

 

[xexe]

Bought 4 of x5675, just because price was low and some servers were not used. Two of CPU were ok, two of them are faulty...

 

[Evan]

Likely old stuff like X5675 is just no longer used equipment but even taking the CPU out can cause the to become faulty if not handled well.

So much cheap stuff just does not work and yet looks like the real thing so where is the saving when producing it I don’t know.

 

[dreamsin]

Yeah, a seller with 1000+ positive feedback on CPUs + buyer protection and you guys are going hard on him.
Amazing.

Also ripoff companies capable of faking latest Intel CPUs?
It might be an alternative chip with fake writings on top, but cmon.

 

[brinox]

Or it could be a frankenproc like Linus found: