Newegg sold counterfeit Intel Core i7 CPUs

According to Tom Merrit of CNET &#38; Buzz out Loud, the complete package was fake - foam fan, plastic heatsink, plastic processor, misspelled packaging, etc... It seems like a case or two (nearly 300 processors) of i7 processors were switched for fakes somewhere down the line, before making it to Newegg.<p>EDIT - Apparently, the processors were pieces of scrap metal.

How on earth do you counterfeit a CPU of that grade without a trail a mile wide ?<p>I'm sure plenty of consumers would never notice if you swapped an i5 for an i7 but to counterfeit an entire CPU is next to unbelievable.<p>My guess is that if they follow these to the source they'll end up at an intel fab where they were discarded as rejects for some reason or other.

Video of a pseudo unboxing of the fake i7 box / demo unit: <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=54tDqM5-6RU" rel="nofollow">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=54tDqM5-6RU</a><p>...and a little bit of commentary from another customer who received a fake/demo i7: <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tmEgSg9m89U" rel="nofollow">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tmEgSg9m89U</a>

More (full-res) pictures: <a href="http://www.hardforum.com/showpost.php?p=1035412736&#38;postcount=39" rel="nofollow">http://www.hardforum.com/showpost.php?p=1035412736&#38;postc...</a>

the news is that newegg is aware of a shipping error that occurred with certain recent orders of the Intel Core i7-920 CPU. After investigating the issue internally it appears one of our long term partners mistakenly shipped a small number of demo boxes instead of functional units.