When people look to score a good deal on powerful PC hardware, there will always be people selling fake products. Reports are coming in that fake AMD Ryzen 7 9800X3D chips are hitting the market in China, so if you’re looking to pick up a cheap chip, be sure you’re buying from a legitimate seller.
How to Avoid Buying a Fake AMD Ryzen 7 9800X3D
As spotted by the Chinese website Uniko’s Hardware, reports are coming in that bad actors are buying legitimate AMD CPUs, repackaging them with fake chips, and then selling them for full price on the second-hand market. If you buy and install one of these fake chips, your PC will fail to boot.
So far, it seems that reports are only coming in for fake Ryzen 7 9800X3D chips. It’s uncertain if any of AMD’s other chips are experiencing the same levels of fakes entering the market; however, it’s unlikely that scammers will target the less powerful variants, as these sell for cheaper and give less of a return per sale.
Fortunately, there are ways to spot these fake chips. As Uniko’s Hardware explains (with machine translation applied):
The PCB number of AMD 9000 series R7 9800X3D is 33050. The fake PCB is 32546, which comes from the Ryzen 7000 R7 or R9. In addition, the patch next to the PCB does not match the Ryzen 9000 series. The color of the PCB should be blue, not dark green.
If you really don’t feel like inspecting chips or asking for photos from a third-party seller, Uniko’s Hardware recommends avoiding the secondary market entirely and purchasing chips from trusted and verified sellers. If you still want to buy second-hand, make sure you shop smart so you don’t fall foul of this scam. Be sure to check out these common scams on eBay and how to spot a trustworthy seller for some tips on how to do that.