EU [suspect] Intel X540-T2 29€

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hmartin

hmartin

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hakabe

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dtrv

dtrv

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Free shipping from GB to Germany? don't think this is not hacked ...

Gesendet von meinem ONE E1003 mit Tapatalk
 
hmartin

hmartin

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dtrv said:
Who is Prolly?

All I can see is
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You are right, but I have seen other eBay auctions where the seller claims to be in Europe in the item location but their address is in China (usually Shenzhen).

The shipping times quoted are always for a few weeks, so you can usually put 1+1 together and come to the conclusion the seller is lying about their location to appear in the search results for that country, even though it's shipped from China. Sometimes they're smart enough to use a local forwarder in the destination country so the package is not obviously from China (local label over the original shipping label).

For this particular auction, since the number of available items is not decreasing (6 available, 12 sold...) I'm guessing it's not legit.
 
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saivert

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X540-T2 is one of the most wildly counterfeit NICs though. There have been listings for this NIC for the past 5 years and price is always a lot lower than the actual market value.
There was a thread around here a few years ago where one bought some and tried them. They do actually work but for how long is anyones guess.
 
hmartin

hmartin

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Seems the seller's account was compromised (as some predicted):


Guess no one is getting an X540-T2 for 29€. If it's too good to be true...
 
Pri

Pri

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Although we call these cards counterfeit (the cheap ones) I found out recently that Intel sells the chips used in the X540-T4 in bulk for about $70 a unit. So the replica ones are using tray chips and building the rest of the card using similar function components to meet that $100-$130 price point that these are commonly listed at.

The official real Intels come with a hologram on the back under the product identification which you can enter into a website to verify the product is legitimately made by Intel.
 
hmartin

hmartin

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Pri said:
Intel sells the chips used in the X540-T4 in bulk for about $70 a unit. So the replica ones are using tray chips and building the rest of the card using similar function components to meet that $100-$130 price point that these are commonly listed at.
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Is that counterfeit though? I guess in Intel's eyes it would be, since the sellers are advertising the card as an Intel X540. I'd consider that "unauthorized" since they are using genuine Intel chips to make the cards.

Intel's pricing on the card itself is quite high:



If someone else is able to make a functional card using genuine tray chips, I'm all for cheaper hardware (as long as they respect Intel's intellectual property/brand). Maybe it would be best if they marketed it under a different name to avoid issues. I know at least for the EU, customs can be quite serious about confiscating and destroying products deemed to be counterfeit/unauthorized.
 
Pri

Pri

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You're totally right they shouldn't be listing them as genuine Intel cards, only genuine Intel chips.

I've personally purchased replicas of the i340-T4 and found them to be meh with ports failing. So when I bought my X540-T2's I made sure to purchase legitimate cards with the Intel verification holograms. Cost about double what the Chinese ones go for on ebay but that piece of mind was worth it to me.
 
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