News Intel Kills Off Exotic Packaging For Core i9-12900K, Core i9-10980XE

[Admin]

Intel has killed off its exotic packaging for the Core i9-12900K and Core i9-10980XE, replacing them with smaller boxes found in its non-flagship models.

Intel Kills Off Exotic Packaging For Core i9-12900K, Core i9-10980XE : Read more

 

[bit_user]

Such a trivial thing, but since I'd never seen the packaging so I had to search out an unboxing video. Kinda cool, I suppose. I certainly wouldn't pay any extra, for such a box.

IMO, Intel had the germ of a good idea with polyhedral packages that they used for Coffee Lake. I just wish they'd used polyhedrons where the number of sides matched the number of cores. That could have worked up until about Comet Lake, but I think it would have started to get a bit ridiculous with Alder Lake i9. And yes, I realize that the most obvious 6-sided polyhedron is just a boring cube, but they could've made it a little more exotic by making it a parallelogram.

BTW, the article title made me think they were talking about like the lid of the CPU. Heh, I was right to be skeptical of that.

 

[10tacle]

I've always thought this was a pompous pretentious idea. I mean what are you going to do with the empty box after your build? Display it in an enclosed case or proudly on a bookshelf? That might work well for you if you work in tech and use all your empty hardware build boxes as a Team or Zoom meeting wall backdrop. How many millions did Intel spend on this packaging that winds up in a landfill?

 

[Lorien Silmaril]

gotta cut some costs in lieu of the earnings report!

 

[spongiemaster]

What's so special about the 10980XE box? Looks like they took a nondescript black rectangular box and made a smaller nondescript black rectangular box.

 

[TerryLaze]

gotta cut some costs in lieu of the earnings report!

Oh yeah cardboard, that's the real money sink...
Every time a CPU gets replaced as the best they lose their special packaging, with the 13900k being released soon there is nothing new here.
https://www.tomshardware.com/news/intel-kills-off-core-i9-9900k-speciality-dodecahedron-packaging

 

[bit_user]

Oh yeah cardboard, that's the real money sink...

I think the main cost point is the gold-colored, molded plastic "wafer" case, with the foam inserts. Not that I have any clue about these things, but I could believe it adds like $0.25 over their standard packaging. Not earth-shattering, but also not nothing.

It really would've helped if they'd at least included a pic in the article.

 

[spongiemaster]

I think the main cost point is the gold-colored, molded plastic "wafer" case, with the foam inserts. Not that I have any clue about these things, but I could believe it adds like $0.25 over their standard packaging. Not earth-shattering, but also not nothing.

It really would've helped if they'd at least included a pic in the article.

https://cdn.videocardz.com/1/2022/08/Core-10980XE-packaging-1-768x511.jpg

https://cdn.videocardz.com/1/2022/08/Core-i912900-box-768x529.jpg

 

[bit_user]

https://cdn.videocardz.com/1/2022/08/Core-i912900-box-768x529.jpg

Yeah, and I saw that image but I really had to watch an unboxing to appreciate the gold wafer thing. From that image, it wasn't obvious to me that it's a plastic container which holds the actual CPU.

P.S. I've been away for a while. Glad to see you're still here!
: )

 

[Chung Leong]

I've always thought this was a pompous pretentious idea. I mean what are you going to do with the empty box after your build? Display it in an enclosed case or proudly on a bookshelf?

I imagine buyers in the enthusiast segment would definitely keep the box, in order to maximize resale value when time comes to upgrade to the next best thing.

 

[InvalidError]

I've always thought this was a pompous pretentious idea. I mean what are you going to do with the empty box after your build?

Some geeks actually do decorate their space with their expensive hardware boxes. If there is a remote chance you are selling parts when you are done with a system, you should also save the boxes for re-packaging. At the very least, you really should keep boxes for the duration of the warranty in case of RMA.

 

[watzupken]

For collectors, I think they will want the box. For most people, the box is just going to take up precious space. You don't need fanciful box designs to sell your chip/

 

[cyrusfox]

Its a pretty nice fake gold silicon wafer on the 12900k but it is a fingerprint magnet(Like real wafers). Its a nice novelty but must drive up logistics cost.
As these are a CPU without a heatsink, they could make the boxes so much smaller. I would guess final size is a balance between shelf space presentation factor(Putting it in the bestbuy's/ Micro centers) vs volume taken up/logistic cost and packaging.

 

[InvalidError]

I would guess final size is a balance between shelf space presentation factor

The absolute minimum size would be dictated by how much crush the package needs to accommodate for the CPU to reliably survive shipping. Such boxes wouldn't have much space for marketing material on the front nor much depth to keep those boxes standing in shelf displays.

 

[bit_user]

I imagine buyers in the enthusiast segment would definitely keep the box, in order to maximize resale value when time comes to upgrade to the next best thing.

Used CPUs depreciate incredibly fast. What buyers of used CPUs tend to care about is original packaging, not whether it's collectible packaging. Retail packaging is important, because it means the product will be better protected during shipping, and the types of people who keep their retail boxes tend to take better care of their stuff, in general. Also, it often suggests the item is for sale by original owner and that it's not stolen from somebody's home or pulled out of a PC they had access, to somewhere else.

The gold wafer box might get you a couple more $'s on ebay, but probably less than random week-by-week variation in sales price for that CPU.

Last year, I sold a GPU on ebay that I had never opened. You would think that the new-in-box price for that exact GPU would be incredibly consistent, but I'm telling you it would swing by easily 10% or more from one sale to the next, for reasons not at all obvious to me.

 

[bit_user]

Its a pretty nice fake gold silicon wafer on the 12900k but it is a fingerprint magnet(Like real wafers).

Heh, real collectors don't let people touch their stuff. And they don't touch it, except with clean hands.

As these are a CPU without a heatsink, they could make the boxes so much smaller.

I'm guessing you never bought an OEM CPU? You often get a square of anti-static foam, just larger than the CPU, maybe a bit of plastic, or maybe a cardboard box. I think I once got one in a plastic box, but that might've simply been shipped in a padded envelope.

Indeed, Intel could make these boxes much, much smaller!