Beware! Fake Ryzen 7800X3D CPUs are being sold

[@Edward135i]

When you said fake 7800X3D I was thinking they put a 7800X3D heat spreader on a 7600, but this is next level.

[@puciohenzap891]

Yeah, or sold a broken one as fully working.

[@darkangel999]

Yes also though so. Would be so much more likely because it is so much less afford to up label CPUs and sell them more expensive. Halve of the people probably wouldn’t even notice that and just assume if it’s working that it is fine. Someone put that much work into it we have to expect there to be a lot of those things. This is nothing someone would do only for a few pieces.

[@Saiohleet]

Same i thought that too, change the showed cache somehow..

[@exxor9108]

There was literally _no_ CPU on the PCB, at all.

[@kingeling]

It's much costlier to fake it this way since there are no low end Zen 5 SKUs. It would however be more convincing as people who don't check the CPU's model after installing it wouldn't have the incentive to return it immediately.

[@chrism2964]

Now we know where Userbenchmark gets its AMD CPUs.

[@RaytheonTechnologies_Official]

It's funny because it's true

[@sidewinder86ify]

Haha, true.

[@DragonOfTheMortalKombat]

Lmao

[@user-wq9mw2xz3j]

good1

[@Ado.D]

Made my day 😂

[@John-vz1wq]

Amazing breakthrough. From 7nm to 0nm process technology.

[@MrDeeb8]

Lool

[@fahisaurus]

The level of sohpistication tells me this is not one guy in a basement, but an organized group with some fairly expensive tooling.

[@XX-121]

:cough: intel :cough:

[@inkredebilchina9699]

so China?

[@Gabu_]

@@inkredebilchina9699 Calling China an "organized group" seems like a stretch.

[@SweBeach2023]

Don't underestimate what an alone guy can do these days with its easy access to CNC machines, PCBWay, cheap laser engraving machines etc.

[@XX-121]

@@SweBeach2023 the packaging too? na, not buying that this came out of someone's garage.

[@Personalinfo404]

I live out in Boston in the US and I have caught two people doing this on FB marketplace. Absolutely rat behavior.

[@Pileot]

Scammers are gonna scam... We went through a whole ordeal looking for Apple Airpods on marketplace. Absolutely flooded with decent quality looking fakes, in the end we bought new because after literally a dozen fakes we decided it wasn't worth the risk.

[@frf5000]

@@Pileotused earbuds are ruined by these “hustlers” (ratty scammers) so youre basically forced to buy new

[@AndriiTolo]

I'm sure it's the Intel boys

[@soupdragon151]

So where are they getting them from? Thats the question sure its from china but what outlet are they coming from?

[@Mr.Genesis]

@@frf5000 i love how they call themselves "Hustlers" but their entire money making scheme involves being a metropolitan con-artist

[@mrma281]

Maker: "- Call PCBWay and tell them to make the next batch with 1.3mm PCB".

[@gamecuber6]

''also make sure to change the colour to one which is more green''

[@dan7212]

@@gamecuber6 "...and while you at it, make sure they will put protctive resin on top of the capacitors"

[@Tailslol]

And put nail polish on it.

[@GeeRommers]

And, of course, we gotta change the font and the laser engraver.

[@francoisleveille409]

Maybe it was JLCPCB 🤣

[@sykoteddy]

I remember some 20 years ago NEC had someone making copies of their optical drives, and when they looked into it they realized the copy had a higher quality than NEC's products themselves...

[@sassuki]

an honest scammer 😂

[@bunkymunky]

I remember this happening with Motorola's early android smartphones, the copies were better than the originals, so much so that Motorola tracked down the makers of the fakes and tried to recruit them, they refused because they could make more money just making superior fakes, crazy world.

[@Janeichen]

​@@bunkymunkythat sounds so fucking crazy that it's hardly believable lol... Early smartphones were less sophisticated, so it seems plausible? But you happen to have a source on this? Would love to read about it

[@enlightendbel]

@@Janeichen "Early smartphones were less sophisticated!" Not really. Early smartphones spread many separate features on a PCB. You had a wifi section, GSM section, battery management section, etc, etc Modern smartphones have practically everything integrated in the SoC (which literally means System on a Chip). The rest of the PCB is just interface leads for the antennas and external inputs/outputs.

[@Pasi123]

@@bunkymunky Do you have any source for your claim? In the early Android days clones usually still ran a feature phone OS on really cheap hardware. I did find some old articles about Motorola Droid clones running Windows Mobile which is definitely better than most clones but it's still not comparable to the real ones which ran Android and had much better hardware

[@molly_mallard]

At least it didn't fry the mother board via shorts.

[@thelegendaryklobb2879]

How nice of Mr. Scammer!

[@psedog]

​@@thelegendaryklobb2879 It's the little wins 😅

[@angelarch5352]

Scammer: "You're welcome!"

[@Blue-bf8lv]

"professionals have standards" - TF2 Sniper

[@daniellazar8923]

and sponsor of our video PCBway)

[@offspringfan89]

hahaha

[@ww_latinx8363]

I actually saw a Reddit post about a suspected fake 7800x3d literally a couple days ago. It had the off color PCB, said made in china, ever so slightly did not fit in the socket, no glue on capacitors and the text was off. It’s crazy seeing this video right after

[@arntrunar]

I saw this as well! If I remember correctly, that person said it was ordered on Amazon as well.

[@Kong-dk4fn]

the fake will not be able to reach the performance of the original or even not work at all, right? I mean, you can't buy a fake and have it work exactly like the original?

[@Ku5hFi3nd]

​@Kong-dk4fn They won't work at all, it's just a piece of metal attached to a piece of PCB. It will do nothing so determining if it fake is very straightforward. If purchased of Amazon simply return it. Problem is people buy parts and don't build their pc until weeks later after the return window which would make the process of recouping your money much more difficult.

[@mastersingleton]

I've saw that Reddit post as well. Its great that der8auer caught wind of this scam early before more people get scammed.

[@joe--cool]

@@Ku5hFi3nd But I bet the thermals are going to be phenomenal.

[@mbe102]

Man, this is legit awesome of you to do to help him!

[@ChrisDupres]

That was the best throw to an ad break every, Roman. You guilted me into not hitting skip forward. Very hard to do.

[@toufusoup]

I burst out laughing at 7:44 when you flipped the CPU around. What a strangely high effort scam.

[@puciohenzap891]

Needs a reaction cam.

[@anasevi9456]

what makes me laugh is even though I am 99.8% sure this isnt the truth. If there was one company out there whom could effortlessly mass manufacture and flood the market with professional fake high demand Ryzens cpus.. Where the only outward tell without delidding is a thinner pcb; it would be Intel. Still, manufacturing even in low level china is just insanely good when it wants to be these days, so the boring truth is certainly the actual truth as usual.

[@TheOneDanTek]

i was gna say why wid intel do that but with whays going on rn? i woukdnt be surprised​@@anasevi9456

[@ElGoogKO]

For 300 dollars a piece, is quite profitable. You can make the pcbs for like a few dollars, remember all those ads in various related youtubers that promote cheap pcb making?! And then easily soldering a handful of capacitors. The milling of the aluminum block and laser etching can also be done at home or if you work at a company that handles cnc milling and quickly adding some of these "pet ptojects" while doing overtime and appearing a hard worker to the bosses. After someone sells several of these they can even buy a small cnc machine for home use and not risk it at the job.

[@AgentBirdnest]

"....... ...... uhm..."

[@AnEyeRacky]

Thanks for the tips. I will change the pcb color and make it a bit thicker. Appreciate the help sir

[@S_Karthik]

Finally the launch of AMD Ryzen No CPU x3d CPU - Just 300$ - Professionally made - Can be used as a placeholder in the socket to prevent damage of pins - Does nothing - Always cool saving power - No one of the planet can make a comparison to this

[@RuruFIN]

But does it run Crysis?

[@sataniachya1840]

@@RuruFIN i think at least can run doom

[@imanjx2914]

Great for my keychain

[@Lectorn12]

Unlike Facebook Marketplace, OLX offers more protection for buyers. If you purchase an item like a 'Ryzen 7800X3D' and it turns out to be fake, OLX provides insurance and will take action, including contacting the police, against the seller who misrepresented the product. However, it's still essential to carefully read both the title and description of any ad to avoid potential issues.

[@StephieCopper1985]

🤣😂It's identical to the Marktplatz in the Netherlands.

[@mirceamanolovici7757]

Is this a new thing on OLX? I'm asking because I also got scammed on a fake mobile phone and OLX support told me they can't do anything about that and that I have to make a police complaint.

[@JRCobra1]

@@mirceamanolovici7757 exacty, nerer seen insurance in OLX

[@puciohenzap891]

@@StephieCopper1985 Marktplaats won't do a thing, the seller can send the platform a picture of a real one in the box, fake screenshots and you're out of luck.

[@D4narchy]

A good idea to keep in mind that the seller may have been scammed too, before grabbing pitchforks.

[@Lethalwick5673]

New Fear Unlocked

[@DasDaniel007]

not for me.. I don't buy used junk from stupid people and also not from Amazon where the next immigrant opens my package 😂

[@Gamerich-hr7fu]

​@@DasDaniel007I make my CPU myself. Best way to be sure

[@Darkyt-o2s]

@@DasDaniel007 where did you bought it ?

[@DasDaniel007]

@@Darkyt-o2s Imagine there are ancient establishments called Tech Stores,. you can go there and just buy it without any intermediate steps and instantly 😉

[@ImprezzionOfficial]

Just in case you would be interested in some analysis, I have a genuine 7800X3D that ran fine for months but died suddenly during a benchmark run with a hefty OC. I had it running on a X670E Gene with 105 BCLK, LLC 8, CO +10 all core, PBO Enhanced 90c, RAM at 6600C28 1:1 mode 1.450 VDDIO 1.300 VSOC 1.150 VDDP. The PC just turned off during a Y-Cruncher run and only QCODE 00 after that. I tested the CPU on 3 boards and all 3 just stick to 00 or hang on CPU LED during POST. The boards are fine with my replacement 7800X3D which works fine. There's no physical damage on the pad side and the CPU does still heat up in the socket on 00 QCODE without a cooler on it. It's not delidded. Temps at the time of failure were high 70c range but the core voltage due to BCLK and LLC 8 was very spiky and I saw 1.296v+ regularly under lighter loads. If you want the chip, I'm, in the Netherlands so shipping to Germany is cheap and fast and I'm not looking for a paid replacement or whatever. I just want the shipping covered and I'm curious if something can be found out in the name of science / my own interests in hardware. I could've RMA'ed the chip if it wasnt for the fact this is a Tray SKU CPU and AMD does not warrant Tray SKU's directly and the shop it came from immediately claimed user induced damage and also won't cover it so I just bought another one as I really can't be bothered to discuss warranty validity for weeks and be without a PC and technically the shop is right, the chip ran fine for months and it broke while overclocking and while AMD has a LOT of protections and limits set up for X3D using BCLK + LLC 8 + positive CO can still go way outside of the limits so it IS user induced damage and I don't wanna claim that as warranty tbh. This time I bought a Boxed SKU tho..

[@Hanginthere4100]

7800X3D ❎ 7800 XD ✅

[@puciohenzap891]

❌

[@AND182D]

ahahahahahahahahhahahahahahah!!!!!!

[@tacticoolsteve]

something seems wrong about your comment LOLOL.

[@auritro3903]

78003D

[@F1stzz]

7800xD frfr

[@rhoharane]

The last part weirdly turned into a product review.

[@MerkDolf]

Sounded how to improve your scam.

[@angelarch5352]

"I give this fake CPU a score of 4 out of 5, for accuracy"

[@koosy2987]

The holes in the heatsink could be intentionally added to adjust the weight, potentially making it harder to distinguish a fake CPU from a real one by weight alone. Try to spot a fake by weighing the CPUs.

[@r4plez]

They would be drilled not threaded, this is for mounting on laser graver printer. That fakes looks like from profesional manufacture line..

[@koosy2987]

@@r4plez Plausible..

[@Leo.501]

I avoid Olx as much as I can( I am also from Ro), usually when I buy or sell somthing there (when I dont have any option left) I prefer testing and meeting in person... I am really glad that this video is made in order to warn others about scamers like these, good job! Cheers!👍

[@lattyware]

Here in the UK I ordered one from Amazon's warehouse ("tested and working", they say), and just got shipped an empty box, no CPU at all. Amazon didn't question it at all, just offered me a refund and didn't even ask for the box back, so I guess it can't be that rare. I then ordered a brand new one and got a chip that reboots every few minutes. So far third one seems to be holding up, but it's been a journey.

[@ahyaan2552]

at least amazon customer support here in the uk is extremely good

[@zakit]

The guy tested and was working with the cpu. He told you the truth 😂

[@exithe]

Rebooting sounds more like a bios/memory issue if you got a new CPU. Worked on comptuers for year and years its never the CPU.... or almost never.

[@lattyware]

@@exithe Well, as it's 2 months later I can say the new CPU worked fine, so it was.

[@T.K.9]

Amazon is so rich they don't even care. And will refund immediately as long as you have proof and or when you return an item, they see that the tracking says that it's returned. I even know people buying equipment, use it only once and return it for a full refund without issues.

[@elmzsni]

thanks for helping that person out! always nice to help your fellow man

[@FloppaAppreciationSociet-ds7zf]

OLX is like central-eastern Europe's equivalent of Craigslist or Facebook Marketplace. You probably shouldn't be shopping for PC components there, unless you're looking for something old and cheap.

[@MP-ul]

OLX has a raiting system and if you buy from a dude with negative rating then this is on you.

[@puciohenzap891]

It's the de-facto classifieds page, nothing wrong with that.

[@vishwajeetpanwar3271]

​@@MP-ulWhich country ? Not all have Rating system right now I think

[@juanme555]

@@MP-ul every online store has a rating system including fb marketplace

[@kurtoskalacs9116]

completely clueless, you can find absolutely amazing deals on OLX and I would argue that scams are far and few between as long as you check the sellers rating and account creation date. In the 9 years of flipping there I got scammed one single time on a R7 2700 & X470 combo.

[@vrboxo]

You never got back to me about the die lapping tool I asked about. :( But it's fine! I went ahead and free-handed it. I don't know if I did it correctly, but I definitely did not kill my processor, so I suppose I did alright. Thanks for responding to the email, even if you ultimately didn't follow through. Just the fact that you're willing/able to respond to random emails at all, is admirable.

[@schnitz5450]

If they just put some hot glue it would be indistinguishable from a photo

[@Tailslol]

Nail polish would be even more realistic,or conformal coating.

[@WayneWatson1]

Still all the other things would have to be changed also.

[@drk_blood]

I'm from Romania as well. Watched your channel for many years. Cheers ❤

[@salapolivalenta77]

olx is a weird market place, is not a surprise for me as a romanian. But to do a fake on this level is just mind blowing. Hard to believe that somebody from Romania could have the tools to do something like this. Simply unbelieavable! It's too bad I can't like this video 100 times!!

[@actuaIpotato]

It's definitely not made in Romania tho. Was probably bought from somewhere with the plan of selling it as legit and turning a profit. Very scary indeed

[@ThorDyrden]

Don't sell your country short - Romania can manufacture some high-quality products - e.g Meze Audio... but I doubt this fake was produced in Romania.

[@actuaIpotato]

@@ThorDyrden Never tried to, but the normal grifter doesn't have access to the resources necessary to make such a detailed fake. Our grifters are more of the "send you a box filled with potatoes" type. Or buy a fake and sell it as legit. Making the fake is too much work.

[@rhangman8284]

Guessing it would be like all those other scams as a service type setup where the main group develops kits and sells them to smaller time scammers. So someone most likely in China would be producing these in bulk. Pay them, receive a blank fake. The end user then buys a legit CPU, engraves the blank fake with matching markings, puts it in the original box and sells it. Given the engraving was way off, possibly the kit doesn't include a template. Scammer then either keeps the CPU which they now got for almost free or possibly they can return it for a full refund. Obviously at this point they no longer have a box though. Nothing to stop them selling the legit CPU without a box though. Buyers probably be more suspicious though, which would be the reason you put the fake in the real box. Sell the real one on a platform with protection though and that shouldn't be an issue.

[@AndreiGabrielGrimpels]

We have companies in RO that can manufacture just about anything. What are you talking about? This is actually not that hard to produce. All you have there is a very cheap PCB, a metal cap and some glue. But I do agree that this is probably bought from China probaly by some kid in a small town looking to make some easy money.

[@ranjitmandal1612]

Thank you for helping that dude 🙏

[@puciohenzap891]

Just like in Chernobyl: "There is no core!". Could it be it was some kind of demo / dummy CPU stolen from an expo or a show / lab? Looks almost too good for a fake.

[@justaguyfromeurope]

Was thinking along these same lines as one possibility, at first, but I doubt they'd have an assigned SN on the IHS itself. AFAIK, they'd just print the classic 0000000000000 on it to avoid exactly this scenario where someone might get their hands on it and try to sell it as real.

[@no.nomoreidontcare]

you're underestimating how easy it is nowadays to order cnc machined parts, or custom pcbs

[@XantheFIN]

You not seen enough fakes. This is still low quality in my eyes.

[@ashenwattegedera]

But why would a dummy cpu have retail packaging with matching S/N tho? That seem like too much effort for a dummy

[@no.nomoreidontcare]

@@ashenwattegedera thats barely any effort, they have to etch the ihs and print a sticker anyway, might as well match them

[@johnpaulbacon8320]

Great job on this vdieo. I have been a big fan of your's since I first found your channel. :)

[@bythelee]

I can easily imagine an out-of-work craftsman having the tools and skills to build this in their garage / workshop. Sensible if risky way to earn a decent profit, preying on PC builders looking to save some money. The really worrying aspects are: the BOX looks completely genuine. How did they get that? And worst of all, the matching serial number (cpu and box) plus the genuine looking security seal on the box. The different font on the heatspreader stood out instantly to me. Nothing else did.

[@SianaGearz]

The easiest way to get the numbers to match is simply to make all boxes and all heatspreaders carry the same serial number, and then never sell the things to retail just mail them one per customer. I think the fake heatspreader is a zinc alloy casting, if you can accomodate the MOQ, you can order them almost as easily as a PCB if you know your way around the contract manufacturing industry. Genuine heatspreader is copper so it's much more difficult to manufacture.

[@TheGodpharma]

This is 100% a Chinese scam. They completely lack any scruples, and even otherwise legit manufacturers will make convincing fakes and sell them via the back door when there's a profit to be made. The box was probably added by the final seller.

[@peasantpoet]

@@TheGodpharma The boxes and fake product could be made in the same factory which is why they have the same serial number. This has been happening for quite some time with sporting goods products and automotive parts, including knock-off serial numbers. The scam culture in China is only just starting to see Chinese youths turn against it (according to statements on other social media platforms). Until the CCP and Winnie the Pooh cares, the scams will keep happening.

[@SuperSertyuio]

Wow, i'm from Romania myself and was planning on getting one from that site! This came at a great time! I did bought SH GPUs from there and had no issue with any of them (1060, 1660ti and 3070, all working perfectly fine!). But as with all SH sellers, it s about luck!

[@dragonproductions236]

Those holes on the underside of the heatspreader are probably from casting it. Machining the heatspreader is a waste of time if you just need a block of copper

[@georgwarhead2801]

i dont think its made out of copper, would be too expensive. just use a piece of aluminium, preheat hundreds of them to 4-500 c° and then stamp it into form with a 100 ton press, takes maybe 2-3 hours to do 100 pieces, nickelplate all of them, order 100 pcb´s from pcbway with capacitors allready placed, glue them , get some fake boxes and stickers, done. in one day you can probably make ~500 pieces ready to ship with a market value of ~150K if you sell them for 300 each....its scary!

[@seethisth4753]

@@georgwarhead2801 I'd guess that the boxes are real as faking them would make everything far more complex. They just laser the serial number based on the box.

[@jaro6985]

@@georgwarhead2801 I don't think its aluminum or he would have said it feels a lot lighter. Holes are tapped so not from casting alone, they'd be using it either for nickel plate process as he says, or maybe some machining op.

[@TinkerLynx]

It's a cast zinc alloy (pot metal) it's 80% the weight of copper but that piece is a bit thicker so it's be about the same weight.

[@ДилиянКостов]

@@georgwarhead2801 Such an criminal mindset u got there.

[@rgstroud]

QC inspection info like this is invaluable! Even for the end user. Great job and thanks for bying this to bring us this info.

[@lucianbadoi6792]

Bought my 7800x 3d on OLX and mine works perfectly, you got me scared a little at the begining.

[@ilichramirezsanchez5996]

mate, you're just incredible! hats off to you and kudos for doing what you just did! as a guy from Romania, I'm disappointed to see this happen... I just came to your video, because I'm looking to buy this CPU...

[@DeLawrence97]

The last segment of the video is basically der8auer telling the scammers how to do it better next time...

[@Woodwerker]

Unbelievable!!!! wow how insane! Thanks for the video buddy!

[@dennissmith1435]

This is very interesting. I ordered a 7800X3d from Amazon. I didn't realize until after I had ordered it, that it was coming from somewhere in Asia. I also paid about $300 for the CPU. I'm thinking now, I might be getting one of these fake CPUs. It hasn't yet arrived. We'll see what it looks like when it arrives. At least I can get my money back from Amazon if it's fake.

[@khakha1378]

Me too I bought this CPU for $308 from Amazon but I found it from third seller not Amazon store . So after one day from buying this CPU the order was cancelled . In Amazon there is a third seller sell it for low price and that is fake price .

[@Violet-ui]

It probably will not arrive

[@ash36230]

At least with Amazon you should be protected by their buyer protections

[@SuperBobbyiv]

Yeah the same thing happened to me i bought for it for low price like 300 and amazon hit me up and cancelled it for me and refunded me

[@IIHydraII]

Amazon buyer protection is extremely thorough, you'll be fine

[@Darkhalfcustoms]

This is super nice of you to help that guy out. This is just another reason I don't mind paying a bit more for your thermal paste.

[@VincentGroenewold]

What a good action to pay him for a regular one! Super interesting, never seen or heard of this.

[@DanielBerthellemy]

Thank you for all the notes about differences, now we can forge even more believable fakes!

[@infango]

You can order loot of PCBs form PCBway and they offer custom machining with cheap second hand boxes ( you can bay them form big pc sellers ), no body reported it on my AMD group in Poland ( and OLX is very popular in my country .. ) only some time we get some fake Core i9s ..

[@legendmaster1989]

Nah Intels so bad no one gon fake em

[@shinokami007]

thanks for the heads up and analysis :3

[@lv426-mbp]

OLX is a scam hometown, in Ukraine were a lot of Intel CPU fakes sold on OLX

[@Spectrophia]

Slava Ukraine!

[@Emoziga]

@@Spectrophia Lard to heroi!

[@julfy_god]

well to be honest you can get legitimate cpus from olx, like there's a lot of resellers that sell am4/am5 cpus from aliexpress at a markup

[@devilzuser0050]

Nice people there.. or not.

[@bokami3445]

Liked! Glad I watched this and i hope more people see this and aware to beware

[@Taikostuff]

You're a class act for buying the scam cpu

[@rl473]

This is super scary.. Thanks for sharing this information.

[@ren7a8ero]

What about the holographic seal, is there some difference?

[@FrenziedManbeast]

This is one reason why I don't bother with local markets like FB - I can order used stuff off eBay for a slight premium with the full buyer protection EB offers. Still save heaps on used tech, and broken/fake items get returned no questions asked with full refund. Thanks for the deep dive into this - scammers gon scam.

[@Hostilenemy]

The amount of time and money they spent perfecting this fake CPU, they'd get better ROI if they apply themselves to an actual job.

[@betag24cn]

this is a actual job, the ihs i bet is sold spearatedly, as a ihs replacement the problem is the laser drawing fake amd, the pcb they got form some place and the fake box, is easy to do in reality

[@benvasquez2964]

Great video. Very imformative info. Thank you

[@xRaptorScreamx]

For OLX purchases that are scams, you can contact the Police for theft, and the website will give them details about the sellers

[@krzbrew]

But olx will only return your money once the investigation is over and the perp is found guilty. And usually it takes several years. Plus in most cases the police here would dismiss the claim as of too low amount of damage.

[@Hey1234Hey]

Be aware that this happens on amazon as well. Fake cpu market is rampant on third party retailers. Preferably always get cpu from retailers heavily involved in tech industry with good reputation. Like Microcenter or your local tech retail shop that's been around for years

[@bes12000]

If I had Microcenter close by I would be there all the time, lol ..sadly I have to rely on Newegg and Amazon

[@LastCrystal]

You can refund stuff on OLX, the seller doesn't even get your money until 24h from you getting the package or unless you confirm that everything is okay (OLX holds the money till then). The guy probably found the scammer on OLX and made the purchase outside of it or in person. You also should allways check comments/star rating and how long he is selling for. imo. pretty poor awareness from the buyer side but at least now we know to watch out for scam CPUs in there.

[@ivangerginov5648]

Your OLX must be different from mine. In Bulgaria they have no access to any money, they just provide the listings and the messaging feature. The shipping company deals with the money transfer since 99.9% of the people want to pay in cash, upon receiving and checking the item.

[@LastCrystal]

@@ivangerginov5648 I see, didn't realize there are differences in other countries. In Poland u can buy most of the stuff with OLX Delivery and you have Protection Package with it.

[@legendmaster1989]

@@ivangerginov5648what shipping company

[@UruguayOC]

Thanks for this video Roman!

[@macktheinterloper]

This looks to me like an in-store display mockup or something similar made to be displayed as an advertisement. Much like some brick-and-mortar stores still have fake phones on display that look almost exactly like the real deal. I don't think this was designed as a scam, but people (especially here in Eastern Europe) are very creative.

[@BubbaBearsFriend]

They wouldn't go to the trouble of faking the chips on the heat spreader making it a different cast from the mass produced one just for a demo unit. Also demo units have serial numbers that aren't like a normal one's.

[@JustSomeVideos0]

That's exactly what I was thinking but why go to the trouble of creating from scratch. If AMD were making display versions they'd likely use original stock but with chiplets mising or chiplets that lost the silicon lottery completely. On a smaller scale the cost of tooling etc would be cost-prohibitive. A store would more likely just get a returned / defective CPU and display that... It's sad that someone has gone to so much effort to basically steal money.

[@IDontModWTFz]

The amount of people stealing from computer shops is getting higher, it would suprise me if they are display models that have been stolen/resold not knowing they're duds. I've found countless phones/EE wifi boxes over the years that just have metal weights inside them to make them feel real.

[@middle_pickup]

Pretty cool that you bought the guy's CPU to do this video. Your channel is next level.

[@regele4063]

we've seen scam 4090s and fake vram chips I'm from Romania and i'm 99% no one from my country bothers with that cause the market is too small for a scam like that, so most likely they come from outside, maybe Asia? looking on OLX i see a dodgy listing, even from my town lol. I've seen one, maybe a year ago, on facebook, just like that, sealed and for really cheap price, but these guys usually scam you for sending them money in advance for shipping

[@TheUffelpuff]

I´d say the IHS is probably cast from some metal scrap like old aluminum soda cans or something. the uneven edge visible on the fake at ~9:50 at least to me totally looks like a mold split line but the screw holes are probably for the electroplating process as you say.

[@The_Noticer.]

What are we doing as a species when we're wasting our precious resources on stuff like this. So much unnecessary garbage gets produced.

[@betag24cn]

you are complaining about a scam when daily people drive around for no reason wasting galons of gasoline and generating so much pollution to drink on a plastic cup that will not be recycled? this is nothing, the daily crap we do is the problem what we need is solutions to problems, not comments complaining

[@Gabu_]

Of all evils of capitalism, you're complaining about something this minor? How about bringing down the banks and the stock market, instead?

[@The_Noticer.]

@@Gabu_ Because this is the relevant aspect of it that is portrayed in the video.

[@marcogenovesi8570]

scamming people has always existed, you must be new

[@marcogenovesi8570]

@@Gabu_ this is not an "evil of capitalism". How about you go and shove this communism somewhere else

[@badlicious]

Great VoD as usual!

[@SwishaMane420]

Pathetic. The amount of effort put into this could be put into legitimate work. As hard as they worked to make this, they could just work for a real company!

[@00-Dima]

Thats the Chinese for you

[@ryutenmen]

Also in Romania, the biggest retail store - eMag, which allows other official/legal stores to sell product in their site, dont check what those stores sell and so, some of them sell fakes, like 1TB Micro SD cards SanDisk, Sony, etc which only have 32-64GB instead of 1TB and instead of writing speeds of around 100MB/s they are at 5-10MB/s. there are many reviews from buyers who brought them for GoPro and their cameras even tells the directly that there's something wrong with their cards and cannot write yo it.

[@Andrew-ky8oc8cq4n]

"Somebody" did not do this. This is the product of hundreds of willing participants to this scam. The printing company, head spreader cnc shop, pcb manufacturer, etc. The management and most of the workers at these companies would have been aware they were making fake products.

[@sirmonkey1985]

Pcb's yes but they'll easily turn a blind eye with a little extra money. The CNC stuff I could see being done without anyone knowing since some machine shops will let employees run stuff off the clock during normal down time. The rest of it can be done at home. But ultimately these were likely used to scam retailers originally until they exhausted that loop hole and moved to other market options.

[@Versette]

​@@sirmonkey1985I wouldn't agree You can order PCBs from China (and some EU companies too, even) without even telling them what's it for No questions will be asked and they'll make them according to specification Same with many CNC manufacturers, they just get an order, and make it Unless anywhere in that process, they see something related to AMD And even then, if the workers etc. don't think about CPUs/don't know, so it would cause issues Tbh licensing in China is so ignored sometimes... PCBWay and JLC literally don't care about what logos you order them to silkscreen on a PCB, for example Many CNC manufacturers also would make any shape like a car logo with no questions asked, for example It's the text engraving I have most questions about, and assembly of the final scam product

[@lemagreengreen]

Conceivably something like this could come out of a small garage workshop. My money is on some sort of semi-large scale return scam, weird how they didn't match the PCB color though since clearly they've paid quite a lot of attention to appearance.

[@soupdragon151]

Oh sure, but in China this thing happens all the time

[@soupdragon151]

@@lemagreengreen How though? Send them to OEM's? More likely its small scale "invisible" outlets like AliExpress and well the bargain basement Facebook Marketplace clone this came from originally. Used to bait 'n' switch from genuine outlets by individual buyers much harder to track than corporate buyers. There is so much cheap fake tat that comes from china this is just the tip of the iceberg bought a bunch of fake Playstation controllers once the attention to detail was outstanding they were very hard to spot and they did work, just not very well but enough for them to sell to the gullible which included me apparently

[@AdnanKhan-be9dr]

Thank you for uncovering this.

[@Del_UK]

Great video, bringing attention to this issue. Scary part is, the amount of design that went into the fake heat spreader and the PCB. What would be cost of 1,000 units of each part? You might be looking at €10,000 costs maybe €15,000 with packaging? 1,000 x €300 = €300,000. That's a lot of profit. The holes it the heat spreader might be to balance the weight to a genuine version. Threaded hole would make process quicker for batch nickel plating. Whole set of this, from start (Raw parts) to boxed (FAKE 7800X3D), including tools required to complete work. €25,000-30,000.

[@ady4r]

It'll be made in China very cheaply or even in a backstreet workshop in some country with very low wages. Probably won't be that costly to make believe it or not. The counterfeit market is very prolific. I very much doubt it was made in Romania. Probably brought in bulk from Asia by another criminal and sold in smaller batches further down the chain. Complete scumbags but not uncommon. The 7800 X3D is a popular product so they wouldn't mess around with a low selling model. The new Ryzen Zero series.

[@ABaumstumpf]

"You might be looking at €10,000 costs maybe €15,000 with packaging?" You are waaaayyy overestimating the costs.

[@Del_UK]

@@ABaumstumpf You sound very experienced in this market.

[@ABaumstumpf]

@@Del_UK "You sound very experienced in this market." Yes as i worked with PCB and milling designs for prototypes. Single piece prices are high, but these things are made en masse. A simple PCB populated only on one side with cheap caps - that is not even 50cents a piece. For stamped metal you are looking at ~1500$ upfront for the die but that is a one-time cost. The hardest part here is getting the fake designs correctly (good enough like this where it is hard to notice anything amiss for most people).

[@legendmaster1989]

@@ABaumstumpf1500 just for the dye each selling at 400$? That makes no sense

[@JustMyFish]

I think it's a dummy display model for a shop window. For display purposes only. I worked in a mobile phone shop, and we would have dummy display models of expensive phones on the back there is a RED tab that says (Sample for display purposes only) they are made by a props company and are just used has point of sale or has props for TV.

[@user-bn6lm8ng3v]

thank you for explaining this. did not know this was a thing for electronics, i know its a thing for food

[@Hateroz]

Just bought a 7800X3D to upgrade from my 5900X (changing platforms) for 315€ (incl. shipping) on a well known french marketplace, seller says the CPU is brand new in the box. Thanks for releasing this video as I will now be able to tell if the CPU is fake or not.

[@offspringfan89]

Is the warranty of AMD CPUs transferable?

[@Hateroz]

@@offspringfan89 What is this supposed to mean?

[@TSgotstolengoddamm]

Should be if u get the og sales recept ​@@offspringfan89

[@igelbofh]

@@offspringfan89in Europe all warranty is transferable as it is attached to the goods, not the purchaser

[@erkinalp]

@@igelbofh not in B2B, B2B typically have same warranty duration but attached to the purchaser

[@Hoggaforfan]

@6:00 wouldn't say it's it could create an combability issues but saves money not having to create a new heatsink stamping tool, can also use any heatsinks already stamped. It's a few millions there that can be saved unless really needed. Holes are most likely there for removing the pouring wholes since it's look casted and not stamped.

[@williamtopping]

Expect scamazon to be full of them. They can sit alongside the fake SD cards, fake cables, and dangerous electrical.

[@jmt8706official]

They sold me a scorched espresso machine that leaked from the inside. You could see the black scortch marks on the metal outside, sold it to me as new. I returned it with a comment on what I found wrong with it, they probably resold it to someone else.

[@cameronsmith7575]

I got a 13900k from my local Best buy exactly like this about a year ago. I was delidding it anyway for a direct die water block and the IHS came off easily just like that. Thinner wafer, no die, just black silicone gluing the IHS on. Purchased in store and it was sealed.

[@xnonsuchx]

But is the S/N unique or do all fakes have the same one? And are there any box clues that it’s not genuine?

[@der8auer-en]

I guess they all have the same one. But we'd need more of the fakes to know

[@ranjitmandal1612]

😮

[@PatrickBaptist]

Man this is something else I thought you were gonna show a relidded lower model, this is a null chip/cpu, doesn't do anything, not slower but straight out a dud, I wasn;t expecting that at all, thanks for helping that guy that got scammed.

[@MetalMystica]

At least you bought something from F'ing Bruce Lee!

[@asengineer4594]

@der8auer-en small holes can be for weight difference compensation. I saw fake portable HDD/SSDs with metal billets inside to match original specs. They were even recognized by the operating system, and a small chip tricked the system into storing data... which of course couldn't be read.

[@nasko235679]

This is some catch me if you can levels of forgery. My mind can't grasp why someone would go to such detail, but I guess if they're doing it it must be profitable.

[@Tautolonaut]

I'm guessing meth was involved lol

[@modrribaz1691]

Has to be considering that more than 50% of the total manufacturing costs for a cpu goes into the silicone itself...remove the silicone, you get more than 150% the profit margin.

[@SianaGearz]

@@modrribaz1691 Oh there's a lot of corners to be cut. Of course there's no silicon, right. Then the real substrate PCB has a lot of layers and it has blind&buried vias, while this is a plain dual sided one. Then the real one has an unusual stackup, and this is just standard, which is why the thickness won't match. Then heatspreader is a precision die-forged copper piece which is oooooooof expensive. Since this doesn't actually need to spread heat, it just needs to look and weigh about right, it's likely zinc alloy, which can be cast quite cheaply into alu tooling. Then just packaging and stuff, the basics. I doubt this whole package everything cost much more than 20€.

[@modrribaz1691]

@@SianaGearz Of course, I only hypothesized it would still be profitable even without just a die.

[@ScottGrammer]

I know you're getting to make a video out of this, but it was really nice of you to pay that dude full retail so he could get the chip he wanted.

[@malccy72]

Did you get in contact with AMD about this possible widespread problem, derBauer? Would love to hear their response.

[@MiGujack3]

Their response: "please buy from reputable resellers and never secondhand, sucks to be you uwu"

[@betag24cn]

lmao do you think this is the first time this happens?this is the first time that it doesnt have a silicone chip inside, most scams are celetons, old series of chips, burned damaged cpus, this is just that, but amd

[@SolaufeinG]

Also nice find and video. The material of the IHS's was the same? did you weight them or something?

[@STEELFOX2000]

WOW!!! That's an innovation!! 1st CPU in the word that not use SILICON!!! 🤣🤣🤣🤣

[@kaupaxup]

They need to keep iterating though, still some kinks in their revolutionary product to work out

[@tbone-d2v]

And stays at ambient temps

[@SIPEROTH]

@@tbone-d2v No cooler needed ether. The future is bright.

[@DieselPLL]

The first functional transistors with "0 nm" technology 😁

[@NegativeROG]

Are the serial numbers legit? If that CPU came in that box, and the serial numbers match, could the numbers be traced back to a legit CPU? Could they be traced back to a customer? Awesome job, Roman!!! Heroes like you are keeping our hard-earned dollars in _our_ pockets, and out of the hands of despicable thieves. THANKS!

[@BurakUnan]

What I always find fascinating with fake products is, that they put a lot of effort and thought into faking it. Considering how much they invest in faking it, they could make a real commercial product. But no. Imagine the effort required to fake it, the planning, the logistics, the manufacturing, the packaging, the materials, the design, ... it's a complete industrial process.

[@DarkAttack14]

Uhhh, yeah I have a feeling scammers don't have access to EUV lithography machines to make their own real commercial product lol

[@BurakUnan]

@@DarkAttack14 smartie pants lol I didn't mean they could design and manufacture cpu or other chipsets. They could make simple products with that kind of effort and organisation.

[@SIPEROTH]

@@BurakUnan The issue is the money. They can even sell this as a decorative CPU look alike for $20 for someone that wants to decorate their space with a computer tech look, like the motherboards this KZbinr has on the wall. But selling something for 20 or 25 is not the same as selling something for 300 so they are trying to make big money instead of little honest money.

[@marcogenovesi8570]

this can be done with like 1-2k of laser engraver, a small metal lathe or CNC, and PCBWay.

[@AstroSpark2]

No way I got an OLX ad at the beginning of the video😭

[@Dailyrider94]

Props for buying it from him for retail price! respect

[@ianemery2925]

One thought about the "screw holes" in the heat spreader. Did you compare the weights of the real and fake CPUs? That extra metal might have made it too heavy and get picked up by the very accurate weighing machines used in some parcel distribution centres; so the holes might have dual purpose, to shave down the weight closer to the original. (I have had parcels rejected for being 1 gram over weight).

[@Edek_Zgredek800]

I bought fake Ryzen 7 5800X3D about year ago. 1/4 retail price on polish flea market - no warranty. Of course it's dead. I got it with nice box looking like genuine. Seller had lot of cool electronics like other Ryzen CPUs, fake GTX 1050 Ti, fake AirPods and so on.

[@BBWahoo]

Always buy from your local scammer instead!

[@chrisblack6258]

That's so cool! Can't resist going there and getting scammed too!

[@ranjitmandal1612]

😨

[@rulik007]

Any box CPU have a global warranty and you can RMA

[@soupdragon151]

@@rulik007 Pretty sure scammers don't offer a warranty

[@nickdarling5557]

That's cool you basically replaced his fake CPU for a real one. Good work!

[@f3rns]

Man. In my wildest dreams I could never imagine they would fake a CPU.

[@caturscr6169]

woww.. this is insane brow.. beware for your guys. thkyou for the content brow.

[@ers-br]

Maybe the faking of internals are for X-Ray checking? :) Here in Brazil OLX is also crowded with scammers :(

[@Tomas9970_1]

Can you X-ray through a block of aluminium though? I think it's really just for looking from the side as someone found the gap to be too obvious (it even matches the shape of the dies).

[@skipguenter3711]

Late August (about 26th) Amazon US had a listing from "the AMD Store" for Ryzen 9 9950X that was $90 under what they'd been selling for. They also had 9900X, 7950X and 7900X CPUs. It was from a mainland Chinese company (name was written in Simplified Mandarin) and had a bit longer shipping time. It was only listed for about 3 days and the last day the name of the seller changed to something in English but nothing else changed. The next day it was no longer listed. Very suspicious... I'm gonna guess they ended up in Romania! LOL

[@alcorza3567]

Should speak to Steve @gamersnexus. He's hung out with those AMD guys from their labs. Might be interesting to see if AMD is aware of this already or what the story is.

[@arva1kes]

Check the weight - holes might be to finetune weight to match original. Thats the reason to have metal in there. Whats the weight diff vs original?

[@zMeul]

how to destroy the 2nd hand market

[@Pseedholm]

I bought a 7900x3d from OfferUp here in the states. The ihs marking on the bottom made me think it was fake until I compared it to another am5 cpu, thankfully they both had the same markings

[@MillhouseDaPlug]

You are a legend helping this guy out like that, i understand you are able to make content but still this is really nice of you... makes me wounder if the person/ppl making the fakes will try to sell some bs story to other content creators trying to make even more money

[@keithsandle683]

Brilliant information - thank you.