Video: Intel is clandestinely selling Core i5 and new i7 chips in Taiwan
By Vladislav Savov 
posted Aug 14th 2009 9:07AM
posted Aug 14th 2009 9:07AM
posted Aug 14th 2009 9:07AM
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"but come on Intel, if you're not going to announce these things, at least start selling them on the sly over here too."
The map of the world doesn't only contain the US of A...
Engadget is based in the States... so "over here" is a perfectly valid request. If you'd like to start up your own blog and kindly ask Intel to start selling elsewhere, you have all the rights in the world... well, in most countries you do.
$19,500 for a i7. Hole-e-sheet! :)
Except that is 19,500 in Taiwan's currency.
Are you sure? :|
Seriously ... the source is one of those small shops in what appears to be a huge mall?
Wait a minute, gotta get some info over to Luxist.com, the mall over here has stores just like that selling 20$ Louis Vuitton purses too.
They must be real!
Seriously, this is not something you can fake easily like a purse. How many other socket 1156 cpu's and motherboards are there out there?
Dextro, I think you're confusing China piracy with Taiwan's. I'd have a much easier time finding your "$20 Louis Vuitton purse" here is the good ol US of A than in Taiwan. Please educate yourself before slandering all asian countries for ripoffs.
And then you watched the video and felt like a real dick.
If you've ever been to Taiwan, Hong Kong, etc. you'll know that these shops, though shabby looking by your standards for a computer-store, are the legit style of retail in the area. It's these packed stores with no-frills, that allows the cheap prices.
Those are really KIRF chips.
@egotman & ihatemorons(ironically):I know this is perfectly possible to be real, and no I don't feel like a dick, I even watched the video first and I do read stuff before making preliminary conclusions. I'm just not happy with a source like this.
These might as well be rebranded CPU's, and you'd have to be naive as sh*t to believe something nowadays to be genuine because they write it on the box. It's a pretty bold statement to say Intel is selling these things based on images of posters and boxes of products you don't know are genuine.
@wayne: And how on earth did I "slander" all asian countries for ripoffs? Educate myself? Maybe don't be so shortsighted yourself by assuming I live "here in the good ol US of A".
Alot of those folks are authorised AMD and Intel resellers, believe it ornot
Here in the US we like our stores big, and boxy and filled with uninformed teenagers.
We are frightened by this stall concept.
Most legit shops worldwide look like that...
That said I don't think it's quite all that hard to obtain counterfeits in Taiwan either. Harder than mainland China certainly but anybody who thinks it's impossible is naive.
Only in Asia, where vendors sell high tech gadgets exactly the same way as in a farmer's market. I'd love to be abel to negotiate price on my i7/x58 purchases too.
winning is
EVERYTHING!
plenty easy to get in the usa, you just have to know the grey market technology suppliers, *cough*ma labs*cough*
CPU counterfeiting is huge over there. Are you sure they're the genuine article?
Could be fake judgin by the size of that shop. Also the price for the i7 870 a bit high?
oh, it's very real. I haven't been there for years, but I believe that's Kwang Hwa Shang Tsang. If you want to build a desktop, you go there and shop around for the top of the line parts for the best prices. I don't think you can get away with counterfeiting anything in Taiwan now. It's hard to find even pirated DVD screeners that you'd see sold on the streets of NYC.
I think the exchange rate is something like 1 USD = 32 NT so do the math.
When do you think the Core i5 chips will start popping up in OEM desktops and laptops? I know they are going to be "released" in September, but what's the usual lag time?
Agree. I used to work at that mall three summers ago as a trancelator so the shops can communicate with people around the world. It was not the best job by far, and the place is not the cheapest place to shop if you are like me who does shopping online. But I really have to say that the items are indeed genuine, as asus, HP, Sony authorized dealers are aslo occupancies of many of these cheap looking shops. And the service center for Amd, Intel, wd, seagate..etc are just around the corner. So stupid it would be if any of these shops tries to post rebranded fakes in the front door. Besides, all these shops were really run by only a handful of real dealers, . So they buy products in volume price, distributes new products to the down stream shops and regulates price high to maximize revenue. Greedy bastards, but sell genuine roducts. Is this enough details for you doubters?
For everyone confused about the prices: It's Taiwan. They have their own currency. The US price is already mentioned by Engadget.
Also Taiwan /= China in terms of piracy. ASUS, Gigabyte, and other big electronics manufacturers are all Taiwan-based. Taiwan has been making electronics before many of us soiled our first diapers, and their economy is staggering for its size. It's not unreasonable to think that Taiwan would get high tech before us, and that it's not all pirated.
Unless of course you believe that Japan = China. In which case I give up.
What's go great about the 860 and 870 that make them worth more than a 920?
If you go by MSRP, the 920 and the 860 are the same price.
For an non-over-clocked system, you can build more computer for less money with an 860.
Clock speeds:
920 2.66=>2.93
860 2.80=>3.46
870 2.93=>3.60
However the 920 may have a higher QPI, than the 860 & it doesn't support triple channel DDR3.
Whoever said that these products are questionable because it's sold in "shabby" stores like that in Taiwan and just because it's "labeled" as such, must be uninformed. First of all, these stores mostly have the same legit suppliers, so the street price doesn't vary too much. Second, as someone mentioned already, most of these big companies are Taiwan based, just that their manufacturers are located in China because it's damn cheap to make stuff there. This is one of the reasons why China has 'prospered' so to speak. So it's not surprising that Taiwan can get stuff earlier than most.
Just adding to what you guys already said, it's most definitely legit. I've lived there for a couple of years and that Guang Hua Shang Chang market is where all computer stuff is at. Even a lot of foreigners stop by there to buys loads of electronics. Most of the times if you get to know the owner of the store and buy frequently, you can get really good deals. And to confuse Taiwan with China, especially in a website like this, is preposterous.
It's this plaza: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guang_Hua_Digital_Plaza
I've been there, great prices if you know how to bargain.
Some real stuff:
http://forum.coolaler.com/showthread.php?t=216592
They're not selling them here yet because they'll completely eat the C2Q market. The i7s are already selling like hotcakes, and people who don't even need 1/4 of the power are buying them, so why introduce something that's going to cannibalize the sales of your low budget 'hit'? C2Qs are still being sucked up by OEMs and enthusiasts and sold in machines - "4 cores for $599!!!". If I5s were introduced when they were supposed to be in July then many of the people who were buying new computers/laptops or parts for an upgrade and who were on a budget (ie: can't quite hit the 920/940) would opt for the I5 at least, over the C2Q. C2Q and Intel series 4 chipsets would thus have to be sold for cheaper. Intel is simply waiting for their C2Qs and 'last generation' series 4 chipsets to be used up and sold by manuf. before introducing the I5s, at least in the US.