is it possible to counterfeit or flash a cpu to be something else?

[inquisitor1]

I saw some videos a few years back which were talking about gpu being flashed as one thing but the hardware was a lower model. theres a lot of bogus stuff from asia. can this be done with cpu?

if it says 3900x, can it be a 3600x flashed as 3900x? can that be? can it be they take a lid from a 3900x and add that to a 3600x?

just wondering how far can counterfeiting go with cpu?
thanks

 

[P4-630]

can it be they take a lid from a 3900x and add that to a 3600x?

Such, yes it has been done.

 

[inquisitor1]

Such, yes it has been done.

how can one verify the correct used cpu you buy?

 

[Bill_Bright]

Why? It is not like this will magically turn the poor performing processor into the faster one.

I see no reason to do this, except to cheat/deceive/rip off a potential buyer.

how can one verify the correct used cpu you buy?

You can't "before" you buy. But after the purchase, you can run various hardware information apps to determine the specs and compare that to the published data for that processor. If you discover it is not genuine, not sure you can do anything about it, except lick your wounds and buy new from a reputable, authorized retailer next time.

Caveat emptor

 

[Remeca]

They don't counterfeit CPUs the same way as GPUs. With a GPU it is more common to find software hacks as well as hardware modifications, where the cpu fakes I've seen are only hardware, they just print a different cpu name on the lid of an old cpu. Then the only way to tell is a direct comparison, or putting it in a system.

 

[P4-630]

As Bill mentioned

buy new from a reputable, authorized retailer

 

[freeagent]

There was a time, about 20+ years ago that there was some counterfeiting on some Intel CPUs, which brought about some kind of change. I remember there was some CF P4's that were sold, made of wax or something?

I do think it was a problem in the early days of Intel and AMD but I could be wrong..

 

[inquisitor1]

what about buying from ebay? thats the only place I can consider as I need intl shipping and most sellers accept returns. or you can get one with a dispute. otherwise buying from someone locally, you dont know unless they have the rig setup to show you. I hate ebay in every way but the only place I can consider.

 

[Bill_Bright]

eBay is much more trustworthy than it was years ago. And you can research the seller and [hopefully] determine if they can be trusted, or not. But I, frankly, am still leery buying from them. I personally would not buy anything expensive from them and that includes CPUs, unless I just didn't care about losing that money. I am not a tightwad scrooge, but I still don't like throwing away my money. So I would care, regardless.

International shipping adds another layer to the problem.

The problem buying used, however, is more complicated than potential counterfeits when it comes to CPUs. They are very fragile devices. Pins can easily be bent or broken, pads easily scratched. They can easily be destroyed unknowingly through careless mishandling and/or ESD.

And of course, used products are typically sold "as it" - that is, no warranty.

I personally would just save my pennies until I could build up my budget and buy new. But that's me and I am not in your situation.

 

[OliverQueen]

There was a time, about 20+ years ago that there was some counterfeiting on some Intel CPUs, which brought about some kind of change. I remember there was some CF P4's that were sold, made of wax or something?

I do think it was a problem in the early days of Intel and AMD but I could be wrong..

I can remember back in the 486/586 days hearing that there were some Cyrix CPU’s being sold as genuine Intel (even the BIOS would pick them up as genuine Intel processors) yet would be much poorer in FPU performance. From memory (& hearsay back then) Intel put out a bounty on shutting these people down (it is a LONNNNNG time ago now so cannot remember exact specifics)

 

[AsRock]

what about buying from ebay? thats the only place I can consider as I need intl shipping and most sellers accept returns. or you can get one with a dispute. otherwise buying from someone locally, you dont know unless they have the rig setup to show you. I hate ebay in every way but the only place I can consider.

Then buy from there and use CPU-Z to id the chip, if it turns out to not be what it supposed to be open a claim with ebay before 30 days but you should be able to find out if it is or not way before that time.