Counterfeit AMD Microprocessors Discovered

[Ed]

Archived from groups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware.chips (More info?)

Counterfeit AMD Microprocessors Discovered in Taiwan Might Have Been
Shipped to EU [ 01/02/2005 | 08:43 AM ]
Taiwan Authorities Suspend Workshop Dealing with Fake AMD Chips

Local authorities on Friday suspended a workshop that made fake, or
remarked, AMD microprocessors in Taipei, Taiwan, and seized
unprecedented number of chips of nearly one million units.
http://www.xbitlabs.com/news/cpu/display/20050102084049.html

Ed

 

[rush]

Archived from groups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware.chips (More info?)

Ed <nomail@hotmail.com> wrote :

> Counterfeit AMD Microprocessors Discovered in Taiwan Might Have Been
> Shipped to EU [ 01/02/2005 | 08:43 AM ]
> Taiwan Authorities Suspend Workshop Dealing with Fake AMD Chips
>
> Local authorities on Friday suspended a workshop that made fake, or
> remarked, AMD microprocessors in Taipei, Taiwan, and seized
> unprecedented number of chips of nearly one million units.
> http://www.xbitlabs.com/news/cpu/display/20050102084049.html

not fake but with 'fixed' stickers
Thorton 2000+ = athlona xp 2600
and so on. We had bunch of those in Poland.

Pozdrawiam.
--
RusH //
http://randki.o2.pl/profil.php?id_r=352019
Like ninjas, true hackers are shrouded in secrecy and mystery.
You may never know -- UNTIL IT'S TOO LATE.

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware.chips (More info?)

RusH <logistyka1@pf.pl> writes:

> Ed <nomail@hotmail.com> wrote :
>
>> Counterfeit AMD Microprocessors Discovered in Taiwan Might Have Been
>> Shipped to EU [ 01/02/2005 | 08:43 AM ]
>> Taiwan Authorities Suspend Workshop Dealing with Fake AMD Chips
>>
>> Local authorities on Friday suspended a workshop that made fake, or
>> remarked, AMD microprocessors in Taipei, Taiwan, and seized
>> unprecedented number of chips of nearly one million units.
>> http://www.xbitlabs.com/news/cpu/display/20050102084049.html
>
> not fake but with 'fixed' stickers
> Thorton 2000+ = athlona xp 2600
> and so on. We had bunch of those in Poland.

There has been at least one case of faked/remarked AMD cpus here in
Denmark too.


Kai
--
Kai Harrekilde-Petersen <khp(at)harrekilde(dot)dk>

 

[keith]

Archived from groups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware.chips (More info?)

On Mon, 03 Jan 2005 13:52:43 +0100, Kai Harrekilde-Petersen wrote:

> RusH <logistyka1@pf.pl> writes:
>
>> Ed <nomail@hotmail.com> wrote :
>>
>>> Counterfeit AMD Microprocessors Discovered in Taiwan Might Have Been
>>> Shipped to EU [ 01/02/2005 | 08:43 AM ]
>>> Taiwan Authorities Suspend Workshop Dealing with Fake AMD Chips
>>>
>>> Local authorities on Friday suspended a workshop that made fake, or
>>> remarked, AMD microprocessors in Taipei, Taiwan, and seized
>>> unprecedented number of chips of nearly one million units.
>>> http://www.xbitlabs.com/news/cpu/display/20050102084049.html
>>
>> not fake but with 'fixed' stickers
>> Thorton 2000+ = athlona xp 2600
>> and so on. We had bunch of those in Poland.
>
> There has been at least one case of faked/remarked AMD cpus here in
> Denmark too.

I had a tray (well, one was real) counterfeit K6s some years back. It's
an ugly situation that I thought they'd fixed.

--
Keith

 

[rush]

Archived from groups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware.chips (More info?)

keith <krw@att.bizzzz> wrote :

> I had a tray (well, one was real) counterfeit K6s some years back.
> It's an ugly situation that I thought they'd fixed.

trose specific AMDs have only a sticker, no laser imprinted numbers on
the core :/


Pozdrawiam.
--
RusH //
http://randki.o2.pl/profil.php?id_r=352019
Like ninjas, true hackers are shrouded in secrecy and mystery.
You may never know -- UNTIL IT'S TOO LATE.

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware.chips (More info?)

RusH <logistyka1@pf.pl> writes:

> keith <krw@att.bizzzz> wrote :
>
>> I had a tray (well, one was real) counterfeit K6s some years back.
>> It's an ugly situation that I thought they'd fixed.
>
> trose specific AMDs have only a sticker, no laser imprinted numbers on
> the core :/

Germany is on the list as well, it seems:
http://www.computerworld.dk/default.asp?Mode=2&ArticleID=26520

Link to the story about the forged AMD processors in Denmark:
http://www.computerworld.dk/default.asp?Mode=2&ArticleID=26434

(Sorry, both stories are in danish).

Description of the forgery:
"De falske XP 3200+ cpu'er har en grøn farveklat mindre end en
millimeter, der hvor overlodningen er foretaget. Farveklatten kan ses
i området omkring mærket "L3" og varierer en ganske lille smule fra
originalfarven, men ellers er cpu'en udstyret med den normale label
fra AMD for en XP 3200+ cpu."

English translation:
"The forged XP3200+ CPU's have a green dot with a diameter less than
one millimeter, where the soldering has been done. The dot can be
seen near the marking 'L3' and varies slight from the original colour,
but the CPU is labeled with the normal label from AMD for an XP3200+
CPU."

Regards,


Kai
--
Kai Harrekilde-Petersen <khp(at)harrekilde(dot)dk>

 

[rush]

Archived from groups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware.chips (More info?)

Kai Harrekilde-Petersen <khp@harrekilde.dk> wrote :

> English translation:
> "The forged XP3200+ CPU's have a green dot with a diameter less
> than one millimeter, where the soldering has been done. The dot
> can be seen near the marking 'L3' and varies slight from the
> original colour, but the CPU is labeled with the normal label from
> AMD for an XP3200+ CPU."

wow, those in poland were simply relabeled, you could see in cpu-z that
the cache was 'missing'

Pozdrawiam.
--
RusH //
http://randki.o2.pl/profil.php?id_r=352019
Like ninjas, true hackers are shrouded in secrecy and mystery.
You may never know -- UNTIL IT'S TOO LATE.

 

[keith]

Archived from groups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware.chips (More info?)

On Tue, 04 Jan 2005 13:57:03 +0000, RusH wrote:

> keith <krw@att.bizzzz> wrote :
>
>> I had a tray (well, one was real) counterfeit K6s some years back.
>> It's an ugly situation that I thought they'd fixed.
>
> trose specific AMDs have only a sticker, no laser imprinted numbers on
> the core :/

Oh, my. The fools. I don't buy Rolex watches off the streets of
Manhattan (or via spam) either.

Teh K6 frauds we bought were before the LASER signatures, but the fraud
was rather obvious. The units in question were turned over to our
beagles and then to AMD, and that's the last I head about 'em.
....and I was left with one real one to test, though frankly any
information gained from fraudulent parts wasn't all that interesting
either.

--
Keith

 

[rush]

Archived from groups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware.chips (More info?)

keith <krw@att.bizzzz> wrote :

> Oh, my. The fools. I don't buy Rolex watches off the streets of
> Manhattan (or via spam) either.

big suppliers are no mexicans selling sh** in the back-alley

> Teh K6 frauds we bought were before the LASER signatures, but the
> fraud was rather obvious. The units in question were turned over
> to our beagles and then to AMD, and that's the last I head about
> 'em. ...

well, here you can turn yourselfe on a foot at most . My favourite
quote is "this is not ours, we dont have this serial number in our
database", forget about supplier stickers, they dont sticker because
its too expensive.

Most of AMD stock comes from Germany, so I suspect that a big chunk of
them is 'fixed', even at big retailers.

Pozdrawiam.
--
RusH //
http://randki.o2.pl/profil.php?id_r=352019
Like ninjas, true hackers are shrouded in secrecy and mystery.
You may never know -- UNTIL IT'S TOO LATE.

 

[rush]

Archived from groups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware.chips (More info?)

keith <krw@att.bizzzz> wrote :

> Supplier? Why are you buying stuff that's not from the
> *manufacturer*, or authorized disty? <that's a rhetorical
> question>

well, I dont see any "authorised retailer" list on the www.amd.com

>> Most of AMD stock comes from Germany, so I suspect that a big
>> chunk of them is 'fixed', even at big retailers.
>
> Huh? They sell to distributors and direct to manufacturers. I
> highly doubt that *most* of AMD's stock "comes from" Germany.

most of Polish AMD stock, I should be more specific

> When we got our counterfeit stuff, AMD
> was packaging in Canuckistan. ...which, BTW was the tip-off. The
> bogus parts had the wrong substrate markings. It didn't come from
> Canuckistan.

Processors I saw were only rebranded, you could see the lack of cache
in cpuz or other program, maybe it was local branch of counterfeit.
AMD move to play with cache sizes and FSB was too tempting not to try
it I guess. I myselfe buy only semprons and unlock cache/mobile.

Pozdrawiam.
--
RusH //
http://randki.o2.pl/profil.php?id_r=352019
Like ninjas, true hackers are shrouded in secrecy and mystery.
You may never know -- UNTIL IT'S TOO LATE.

 

[keith]

Archived from groups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware.chips (More info?)

On Thu, 06 Jan 2005 07:44:25 +0000, RusH wrote:

> keith <krw@att.bizzzz> wrote :
>
>> Supplier? Why are you buying stuff that's not from the
>> *manufacturer*, or authorized disty? <that's a rhetorical
>> question>
>
> well, I dont see any "authorised retailer" list on the www.amd.com

You don't see any distributors? Note that retailer <<>> distributor.

>>> Most of AMD stock comes from Germany, so I suspect that a big
>>> chunk of them is 'fixed', even at big retailers.
>>
>> Huh? They sell to distributors and direct to manufacturers. I
>> highly doubt that *most* of AMD's stock "comes from" Germany.
>
> most of Polish AMD stock, I should be more specific

EVen so. I didn't think they packaged stuff in Germany. Perhaps that's
where tehir distributor is??

>> When we got our counterfeit stuff, AMD was packaging in Canuckistan.
>> ...which, BTW was the tip-off. The bogus parts had the wrong substrate
>> markings. It didn't come from Canuckistan.
>
> Processors I saw were only rebranded, you could see the lack of cache in
> cpuz or other program, maybe it was local branch of counterfeit. AMD
> move to play with cache sizes and FSB was too tempting not to try it I
> guess. I myselfe buy only semprons and unlock cache/mobile.

These were chips that they dug out of the scrap somewhere. We noticed
them because they were not packaged where we knew AMD was packaging their
chips. They were AMD floor-sweepings dressed up as real parts. The
counterfeit chip market is huge in these sorts of markets.

--
Keith

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware.chips (More info?)

In article <pan.2005.01.06.02.50.25.544415@att.bizzzz>, keith
<krw@att.bizzzz> writes

>Huh? They sell to distributors and direct to manufacturers. I highly
>doubt that *most* of AMD's stock "comes from" Germany.

Unless I've misunderstood you, AMD's fabrication plant is in Dresden.
Last time I looked, that was in Germany.

--
..sigmonster on vacation

 

[keith]

Archived from groups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware.chips (More info?)

On Thu, 06 Jan 2005 22:20:25 +0000, Mike Tomlinson wrote:

> In article <pan.2005.01.06.02.50.25.544415@att.bizzzz>, keith
> <krw@att.bizzzz> writes
>
>>Huh? They sell to distributors and direct to manufacturers. I highly
>>doubt that *most* of AMD's stock "comes from" Germany.
>
> Unless I've misunderstood you, AMD's fabrication plant is in Dresden.
> Last time I looked, that was in Germany.

Ok, where do they package the chips? ...or are you buying naked chips?
At least I didn't think they had a packaging plant in Dresden. I could
easily be wrong here, but it would be little unusual. The large packaging
plants are in Canuckistan and the far-east.

--
Keith

 

[Ed]

Archived from groups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware.chips (More info?)

On Thu, 06 Jan 2005 21:26:31 -0500, keith <krw@att.bizzzz> wrote:

>On Thu, 06 Jan 2005 22:20:25 +0000, Mike Tomlinson wrote:
>
>> In article <pan.2005.01.06.02.50.25.544415@att.bizzzz>, keith
>> <krw@att.bizzzz> writes
>>
>>>Huh? They sell to distributors and direct to manufacturers. I highly
>>>doubt that *most* of AMD's stock "comes from" Germany.
>>
>> Unless I've misunderstood you, AMD's fabrication plant is in Dresden.
>> Last time I looked, that was in Germany.
>
>Ok, where do they package the chips? ...or are you buying naked chips?
>At least I didn't think they had a packaging plant in Dresden. I could
>easily be wrong here, but it would be little unusual. The large packaging
>plants are in Canuckistan and the far-east.


AMD Manufacturing Facilities Overview
http://www.amd.com/us-en/Corporate/Careers/0,,51_82_628_502%5E505,00.html

 

[keith]

Archived from groups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware.chips (More info?)

On Fri, 07 Jan 2005 07:34:09 -0600, Ed wrote:

> On Thu, 06 Jan 2005 21:26:31 -0500, keith <krw@att.bizzzz> wrote:
>
>>On Thu, 06 Jan 2005 22:20:25 +0000, Mike Tomlinson wrote:
>>
>>> In article <pan.2005.01.06.02.50.25.544415@att.bizzzz>, keith
>>> <krw@att.bizzzz> writes
>>>
>>>>Huh? They sell to distributors and direct to manufacturers. I highly
>>>>doubt that *most* of AMD's stock "comes from" Germany.
>>>
>>> Unless I've misunderstood you, AMD's fabrication plant is in Dresden.
>>> Last time I looked, that was in Germany.
>>
>>Ok, where do they package the chips? ...or are you buying naked chips?
>>At least I didn't think they had a packaging plant in Dresden. I could
>>easily be wrong here, but it would be little unusual. The large packaging
>>plants are in Canuckistan and the far-east.
>
>
> AMD Manufacturing Facilities Overview
> http://www.amd.com/us-en/Corporate/Careers/0,,51_82_628_502%5E505,00.html

Yes, this makes more sense:

AMD's back-end manufacturing facilities are located in Penang,
Malaysia; Bangkok, Thailand; Singapore and Suzhou, China.

--
Keith

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware.chips (More info?)

On Thu, 06 Jan 2005 21:26:31 -0500, keith <krw@att.bizzzz> put finger
to keyboard and composed:

>On Thu, 06 Jan 2005 22:20:25 +0000, Mike Tomlinson wrote:
>
>> In article <pan.2005.01.06.02.50.25.544415@att.bizzzz>, keith
>> <krw@att.bizzzz> writes
>>
>>>Huh? They sell to distributors and direct to manufacturers. I highly
>>>doubt that *most* of AMD's stock "comes from" Germany.
>>
>> Unless I've misunderstood you, AMD's fabrication plant is in Dresden.
>> Last time I looked, that was in Germany.
>
>Ok, where do they package the chips? ...or are you buying naked chips?
>At least I didn't think they had a packaging plant in Dresden. I could
>easily be wrong here, but it would be little unusual. The large packaging
>plants are in Canuckistan and the far-east.

http://www.xbitlabs.com/news/cpu/display/20050106142242.html

"The microprocessors that were illegally sold might have been stolen
from one of AMD’s three packaging and testing plants in Asia and
shipped to Taiwan for re-marking. The possible source of the defective
chips could be one of AMD’s packaging and testing plants in Singapore
or Malaysia, or in Suzhou, Jiangsu Province (China)."


- Franc Zabkar
--
Please remove one 's' from my address when replying by email.

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware.chips (More info?)

In article <pan.2005.01.07.15.15.19.480329@att.bizzzz>, keith
<krw@att.bizzzz> writes

> AMD's back-end manufacturing facilities are located in Penang,
> Malaysia; Bangkok, Thailand; Singapore and Suzhou, China.

Thanks all. I'd assumed wafer fabrication and encapsulation into PGA
package would both take place at the same plant, but apparently not.

--
..sigmonster on vacation

 

[keith]

Archived from groups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware.chips (More info?)

On Sat, 08 Jan 2005 04:36:41 +0000, Mike Tomlinson wrote:

> In article <pan.2005.01.07.15.15.19.480329@att.bizzzz>, keith
> <krw@att.bizzzz> writes
>
>> AMD's back-end manufacturing facilities are located in Penang,
>> Malaysia; Bangkok, Thailand; Singapore and Suzhou, China.
>
> Thanks all. I'd assumed wafer fabrication and encapsulation into PGA
> package would both take place at the same plant, but apparently not.

That's the obvious conclusion, but packaging is "low tech" stuff and can
be more easily shiped to a lower cost location. The daily output of a fab
isn't a large volume and is easily shipped. I thought it strange that the
wafers made here were sometimes shipped (sometimes hand-carried) to the
far-east for packaging and then back for test. ...seems like a waste, but
the bean-counters own the beans.

--
Keith

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware.chips (More info?)

On Thu, 6 Jan 2005 07:44:25 +0000 (UTC), RusH <logistyka1@pf.pl>
wrote:

>keith <krw@att.bizzzz> wrote :
>
>> Supplier? Why are you buying stuff that's not from the
>> *manufacturer*, or authorized disty? <that's a rhetorical
>> question>
>
>well, I dont see any "authorised retailer" list on the www.amd.com

Ya didn't look too hard now did ya?

http://www2.amd.com/us-en/sbl/front/1,,,00.html


Ok, to be fair, this list is only for the US/Canada. However Keith
was specifically talking about authorized distributors, of which there
are usually only a handful (or less) in any given country.

>> Huh? They sell to distributors and direct to manufacturers. I
>> highly doubt that *most* of AMD's stock "comes from" Germany.
>
>most of Polish AMD stock, I should be more specific

What do you mean it "comes from Germany"? Is that where they are
assembled? Is that where the Authorized Distributors for Poland are
all located? Or is that where you're gray-market parts are being
funneled through?

>> When we got our counterfeit stuff, AMD
>> was packaging in Canuckistan. ...which, BTW was the tip-off. The
>> bogus parts had the wrong substrate markings. It didn't come from
>> Canuckistan.
>
>Processors I saw were only rebranded, you could see the lack of cache
>in cpuz or other program, maybe it was local branch of counterfeit.

These chips OBVIOUSLY would not have come through any sort of
authorized channel. They were most certainly chips that found their
way into the gray market, where remarked by some scammer and then
filtered back into the market through some shady dealers. Such things
happen regularly.

Occasionally, as might have happened in the Taiwanese case, an
Authorized AMD distributor might have picked up the remarked chips
through the gray-market and sold them as OEM chips. Some of the big
distributors will do this, but it's fairly rare. Most of the proper
distributors will only purchase direct through AMD or will be VERY
careful about any gray market chips they buy and clearly sell them as
such.

>AMD move to play with cache sizes and FSB was too tempting not to try
>it I guess. I myselfe buy only semprons and unlock cache/mobile.

I only buy boxed processors, so I avoid all this trouble... Err, at
least in theory. I do know that a few years back ('98 or '99 I
think?) there WERE some Intel PII or PIII chips that were being
remarked and than repackaged into proper Intel boxes. I guess some
rather stores were making a bit of cash on the side by reselling the
boxes for these processors AFTER selling the actual chips to users.
However that was pretty short-lived, and I suspect that there just
isn't any money in such a complicated setup these days. Getting the
processors, the boxes, the heatsinks, remarking the chips and then
packaging it all up would probably result in razor-thin profit margins
and products that are pretty easy to track.

-------------
Tony Hill
hilla <underscore> 20 <at> yahoo <dot> ca

 

[rush]

Archived from groups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware.chips (More info?)

Tony Hill <hilla_nospam_20@yahoo.ca> wrote :

> Ya didn't look too hard now did ya?

I did

> http://www2.amd.com/us-en/sbl/front/1,,,00.html
>
> Ok, to be fair, this list is only for the US/Canada

exactly

> However
> Keith was specifically talking about authorized distributors, of
> which there are usually only a handful (or less) in any given
> country.

This is the company i was talking about :
http://www.ab.pl/firma/dostawcy-wg-statusu.php

They were 7th 5 years ago, now they'r hmm 4-5 largest distributor.
No AMD on the list. No Intel either. We bouth processors and ram from
small importers (very handy, you keep independent from central source
and get competitive prices). And I mean few boxes the size of 15' CRT
monitor every week so it were no small pickles.

>>most of Polish AMD stock, I should be more specific
>
> What do you mean it "comes from Germany"? Is that where they are
> assembled?

No, they were imported mostly from Germany. Suposedly from authorised
distributor (but you never know for sure when price is the main
factor).

> Is that where the Authorized Distributors for Poland
> are all located? Or is that where you're gray-market parts are
> being funneled through?

Thats the second Polish source of all pc parts after 3 biggest
distributors.

> proper distributors will only purchase direct through AMD or will
> be VERY careful about any gray market chips they buy and clearly
> sell them as such.

'very careful' is not the phrase i'm familiar with. 'VERY cheap' -
now that sounds about right.

> at least in theory. I do know that a few years back ('98 or '99 I
> think?) there WERE some Intel PII or PIII chips that were being
> remarked and than repackaged into proper Intel boxes. I guess
> some rather stores were making a bit of cash on the side by
> reselling the boxes for these processors AFTER selling the actual
> chips to users. However that was pretty short-lived, and I suspect
> that there just isn't any money in such a complicated setup these
> days. Getting the processors, the boxes, the heatsinks, remarking
> the chips and then packaging it all up would probably result in
> razor-thin profit margins and products that are pretty easy to
> track.

but selling computers with overclocked processors as faster
counterparts is still a common practise. Most come from small shops,
stickered up so you cant open the case without voiding your
guarantee. Of course nobody reasonable will buy unopenable computer
case, but we live in unreasonable world (can you spell supermarket
computer buyers ?).
And its a BIG busines, big enougth for ECS. False advertised ECS
K7SOM+/L7VMM3A overclocked durons with fixed PRO something +500-
1000MHz texts, ECS Wallmart notebooks with fixed CPU strings and so
on.

Pozdrawiam.
--
RusH //
http://randki.o2.pl/profil.php?id_r=352019
Like ninjas, true hackers are shrouded in secrecy and mystery.
You may never know -- UNTIL IT'S TOO LATE.

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware.chips (More info?)

On Mon, 10 Jan 2005 20:30:44 +0000 (UTC), RusH <logistyka1@pf.pl>
wrote:

>Tony Hill <hilla_nospam_20@yahoo.ca> wrote :
>
>> However
>> Keith was specifically talking about authorized distributors, of
>> which there are usually only a handful (or less) in any given
>> country.
>
>This is the company i was talking about :
>http://www.ab.pl/firma/dostawcy-wg-statusu.php
>
>They were 7th 5 years ago, now they'r hmm 4-5 largest distributor.
>No AMD on the list. No Intel either. We bouth processors and ram from
>small importers (very handy, you keep independent from central source
>and get competitive prices). And I mean few boxes the size of 15' CRT
>monitor every week so it were no small pickles.

I'm not sure I follow you here. Is the above company the
(non-authorized) distributor that you are buying chips from, or are
you with that company and you buy from another one?

>>>most of Polish AMD stock, I should be more specific
>>
>> What do you mean it "comes from Germany"? Is that where they are
>> assembled?
>
>No, they were imported mostly from Germany. Suposedly from authorised
>distributor (but you never know for sure when price is the main
>factor).

If a company is flying the AMD logo as an authorized distributor they
sure as hell better be one, otherwise they could quickly find
themselves in hot water. Of course, for some fly-by-night operation
this might not be a worry since they'll be gone before anyone notices,
but this is why no one in their right mind would by parts from such a
fly-by-night shop.

>> Is that where the Authorized Distributors for Poland
>> are all located? Or is that where you're gray-market parts are
>> being funneled through?
>
>Thats the second Polish source of all pc parts after 3 biggest
>distributors.


Well, here is the list of AMD Authorized Distributors in all of
Europe:

http://www.amd.com/us-en/Processors/TechnicalResources/0,,30_182_3559_710%5E773,00.html


There are 8 shops listed in Poland, though the one you mentioned above
is not one of them. Note that a lot of these places are not so much
Polish companies, but rather international companies with offices in
Poland.

>> proper distributors will only purchase direct through AMD or will
>> be VERY careful about any gray market chips they buy and clearly
>> sell them as such.
>
>'very careful' is not the phrase i'm familiar with. 'VERY cheap' -
>now that sounds about right.

If they are an authorized distributor, they will be very careful or
else their lose their authorization. If they are not an authorized
distributor than they will throw any bargain-basement trash out that
they can.

>> at least in theory. I do know that a few years back ('98 or '99 I
>> think?) there WERE some Intel PII or PIII chips that were being
>> remarked and than repackaged into proper Intel boxes. I guess
>> some rather stores were making a bit of cash on the side by
>> reselling the boxes for these processors AFTER selling the actual
>> chips to users. However that was pretty short-lived, and I suspect
>> that there just isn't any money in such a complicated setup these
>> days. Getting the processors, the boxes, the heatsinks, remarking
>> the chips and then packaging it all up would probably result in
>> razor-thin profit margins and products that are pretty easy to
>> track.
>
>but selling computers with overclocked processors as faster
>counterparts is still a common practise. Most come from small shops,
>stickered up so you cant open the case without voiding your
>guarantee. Of course nobody reasonable will buy unopenable computer
>case, but we live in unreasonable world (can you spell supermarket
>computer buyers ?).
>And its a BIG busines, big enougth for ECS. False advertised ECS
>K7SOM+/L7VMM3A overclocked durons with fixed PRO something +500-
>1000MHz texts, ECS Wallmart notebooks with fixed CPU strings and so
>on.

Sure, there are shysters and scammers everywhere in the computer
industry. That's why Intel and AMD have authorized distributors in
the first place. If they could trust every fly-by-night shop then
they wouldn't have to worry about validating their partners.

-------------
Tony Hill
hilla <underscore> 20 <at> yahoo <dot> ca

 

[rush]

Archived from groups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware.chips (More info?)

Tony Hill <hilla_nospam_20@yahoo.ca> wrote :

>>This is the company i was talking about :
>>http://www.ab.pl/firma/dostawcy-wg-statusu.php
>>
>>They were 7th 5 years ago, now they'r hmm 4-5 largest distributor.
>>No AMD on the list. No Intel either. We bouth processors and ram
>>from small importers (very handy, you keep independent from
>>central source and get competitive prices). And I mean few boxes
>>the size of 15' CRT monitor every week so it were no small
>>pickles.
>
> I'm not sure I follow you here. Is the above company the
> (non-authorized) distributor that you are buying chips from, or
> are you with that company and you buy from another one?

This is the company I was working 5 years ago. The situation havent
changed a lot since then.

> If a company is flying the AMD logo as an authorized distributor
> they sure as hell better be one

I know 3 Polish authorised AMD distributors (action.pl ntt.pl and
incom.pl), and none of them is the the company I'm talking about.

> otherwise they could quickly find
> themselves in hot water. Of course, for some fly-by-night
> operation this might not be a worry since they'll be gone before
> anyone notices, but this is why no one in their right mind would
> by parts from such a fly-by-night shop.

In my experience nobody gives a flying rats ass about company being or
not being authorised. Price and the level of service counts, not the
logo. For example authorised AMD distributor (action.pl) likes to screw
even its big customers when it comes to servicing parts. AMD processors
have almost no guarantee (even BOX ones). There is virtually no benefit
from buyind AMD there, and others have better prices (if you want <100
processors a week).

> Well, here is the list of AMD Authorized Distributors in all of
> Europe:
>
> http://www.amd.com/us-en/Processors/TechnicalResources/0,,30_182_35
> 59_710%5E773,00.html

ok, want to hear a funny thing ? I'm >5 years in PC busines, live in
Warsaw (WARSZAWA) ... and NEVER EVER heard about first 5 firms from
that list. EVER.
Now that I checked 1 of them is a Germany company contact sales office,
one is an international company contact sales office, and the rest are
some kind of multicompany contact sales offices (selling
AGD/RTV/PC/electronics stuff). Maybe one of them even has a storage so
you can actually buy instead of waiting 1-2 days for delivery + you get
to talk with someone when RMAing, but I wouldnt count on that.

> Note that a lot of these places are not
> so much Polish companies, but rather international companies with
> offices in Poland.

Yust remember that those offices are 2 sales people + a nice woman. No
stock on the site, no service, no nothing. I can do the same buing from
Germany distributor.

> If they are an authorized distributor, they will be very careful
> or else their lose their authorization

yes, 'very careful' means denying guarantee, because AMD processors
dont die on their own (thats action.pl policy wright there), they die
becaus you brake them intentionally

>>but selling computers with overclocked processors as faster
>>counterparts is still a common practise. Most come from small
>>shops, stickered up so you cant open the case without voiding your
>>guarantee. Of course nobody reasonable will buy unopenable
>>computer case, but we live in unreasonable world (can you spell
>>supermarket computer buyers ?).
>>And its a BIG busines, big enougth for ECS. False advertised ECS
>>K7SOM+/L7VMM3A overclocked durons with fixed PRO something +500-
>>1000MHz texts, ECS Wallmart notebooks with fixed CPU strings and
>>so on.
>
> Sure, there are shysters and scammers everywhere in the computer
> industry. That's why Intel and AMD have authorized distributors
> in the first place. If they could trust every fly-by-night shop
> then they wouldn't have to worry about validating their partners.

Maybe I will repeat - ECS, Wallmart. Do those names sound fly-by-night
to you ?

Pozdrawiam.
--
RusH //
http://randki.o2.pl/profil.php?id_r=352019
Like ninjas, true hackers are shrouded in secrecy and mystery.
You may never know -- UNTIL IT'S TOO LATE.

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware.chips (More info?)

On Tue, 11 Jan 2005 10:11:56 +0000 (UTC), RusH <logistyka1@pf.pl>
wrote:

>In my experience nobody gives a flying rats ass about company being or
>not being authorised. Price and the level of service counts, not the
>logo. For example authorised AMD distributor (action.pl) likes to screw
>even its big customers when it comes to servicing parts. AMD processors
>have almost no guarantee (even BOX ones). There is virtually no benefit
>from buyind AMD there, and others have better prices (if you want <100
>processors a week).

I'll second RusH on this one. The friends I know who work in
retail/reseller outfits almost never buy from the distributors listed
at AMD. They told me that the unlisted distributors almost always give
better pricing and the time it takes to RMA an AMD processor is the
same indeterminable long wait either way.


--
L.Angel: I'm looking for web design work.
If you need basic to med complexity webpages at affordable rates, email me
Standard HTML, SHTML, MySQL + PHP or ASP, Javascript.
If you really want, FrontPage & DreamWeaver too.
But keep in mind you pay extra bandwidth for their bloated code

 

[keith]

Archived from groups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware.chips (More info?)

On Tue, 11 Jan 2005 20:21:01 +0000, The little lost angel wrote:

> On Tue, 11 Jan 2005 10:11:56 +0000 (UTC), RusH <logistyka1@pf.pl>
> wrote:
>
>>In my experience nobody gives a flying rats ass about company being or
>>not being authorised. Price and the level of service counts, not the
>>logo. For example authorised AMD distributor (action.pl) likes to screw
>>even its big customers when it comes to servicing parts. AMD processors
>>have almost no guarantee (even BOX ones). There is virtually no benefit
>>from buyind AMD there, and others have better prices (if you want <100
>>processors a week).
>
> I'll second RusH on this one. The friends I know who work in
> retail/reseller outfits almost never buy from the distributors listed
> at AMD. They told me that the unlisted distributors almost always give
> better pricing and the time it takes to RMA an AMD processor is the
> same indeterminable long wait either way.

If you deal with the devil, you takes your chances. That's the bottom
line here. Even though I like a good deal, I *never* buy OEM or "gray"
processors. OTOH, I have bought gray sound cards, and the like (no choice).

--
Keith

 

[rush]

Archived from groups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware.chips (More info?)

keith <krw@att.bizzzz> wrote :

> If you deal with the devil, you takes your chances. That's the
> bottom line here. Even though I like a good deal, I *never* buy
> OEM or "gray" processors. OTOH, I have bought gray sound cards,
> and the like (no choice).

Do you really think that fifth national parts distributor is 'gray'?
Especially when they have beter service than the others (instant
exchange of broken ram etc).

Pozdrawiam.
--
RusH //
http://randki.o2.pl/profil.php?id_r=352019
Like ninjas, true hackers are shrouded in secrecy and mystery.
You may never know -- UNTIL IT'S TOO LATE.