Thursday, September 12th 2024
Hong Kong Distributor Runs Out of Replacement Core i9-14900K, Offers Refunds
Synnex Technology International is a major Hong Kong-based distributor of PC components, which also retails directly. PC enthusiasts in Hong Kong have been trying to avail replacements for their Intel Core i9-14900K processors under Intel's laid down procedure, including extended warranties for the processor, which has been hit by the notorious physical degradation issue. A customer sent in their i9-14900K to find that they are not getting a replacement chip, because Synnex ran out of chips to send customers as replacements.
The retailer sent in a template response that the chip sent by the customer cannot be repaired or replaced, but the customer can avail a cash refund of HKD $4,200 (around $540), which is close to the street price of the processor. The processor itself has been running out of stock in many places, partly because inventory in the channel is being directed toward honoring warranty claims. The only practical way to honor a processor warranty claim is replacement, since there is very little that can be repaired by a distributor (except maybe the stock cooler). HKEPC reports that the user took Synnex up on its offer for refund, sold everything in their machine except the SSD, and is now planning to build a new machine based on the Ryzen 9 9950X.
Sources:
HKEPC, VideoCardz
The retailer sent in a template response that the chip sent by the customer cannot be repaired or replaced, but the customer can avail a cash refund of HKD $4,200 (around $540), which is close to the street price of the processor. The processor itself has been running out of stock in many places, partly because inventory in the channel is being directed toward honoring warranty claims. The only practical way to honor a processor warranty claim is replacement, since there is very little that can be repaired by a distributor (except maybe the stock cooler). HKEPC reports that the user took Synnex up on its offer for refund, sold everything in their machine except the SSD, and is now planning to build a new machine based on the Ryzen 9 9950X.
46 Comments on Hong Kong Distributor Runs Out of Replacement Core i9-14900K, Offers Refunds
We don't have more CPUs to give you, CPUs that we might have to replace again in 6-12 months, so here, take some money, sell your motherboard and jump to the next platform. Don't worry the next platform is perfect.
Lunar Lake and Arrow Lake looks to be good, even very good. Intel beats both AMD and Qualcomm in mobile battery tests and is very competitive in performance (Intels APU beats AMDs APU in gaming tests). Leaks shows good perf at much lower power usage. They are using TSMC 3N aka 3nm - for Arrow Lake at least - and has node-advantage over AMD again. Intel 18A has good yields and should be ready for 2025 + Intel is soon granted 8.5 billion dollars too (Chip act - Thank you Joe Biden)
Things are turning pretty fast considering how bad AMD handled Zen 5 launch, with windows bugs, no guidelines for testing, powerlimited chips (9700X especially), delayed motherboards and no mention of 9000X3D. Zen 5 was a brand new arch that delivered close to no gain for regular people. AMD cheaped out on process-node as well, going with TSMC 4N which is 5nm instead of 3N/3nm which was ready (but more expensive) - Intels timing is perfect. They will be hitting the market like 3 months before Ryzen 9000X3D is revealed (CES 2025), lets hope 3D cache can fix Zen 5 for gamers especially.
Zen 5 / Ryzen 9000 is called the worst Ryzen launch by Tech Spot (go watch their video if in doubt) - Hardware Unboxed on youtube.
AMD still can't manage do to a full proper CPU release after all those years, meaning new chips and boards on day one, which is very sad. 800 series chipsets are pure rebrands but 600 series boards needs firmware update to work with 9000 series. Simply a terrible decision. Ryzen 9000 sales numbers are not bad, THEY ARE TERRIBLE.
AMD also struggle with dual CCD issues still, latency even increased on Zen 5, which means dual CCD chips are kinda crap for most regular people and especially gamers. This is why 7800X3D beats 7950X3D in gaming for example. 7900X3D is pretty terrible due to only 6 cores with 3D cache (hence the price, close to 7800X3D) - Sadly with AMD, you have to choose between 3D and non-3D. No chip does it all. Another issue AMD has. Gamers want SINGLE CCD chips, and 3D cache.
7800X3D is the best gaming chip today, I own one, but outside of gaming, its pretty meh. I could easily see myself going Intel 285K in a few weeks if they deliver. If not, I will probably replace it with a 9800X3D if clockspeeds are higher and they are unclocked for OC like rumours claim.
Intel raised warranty by 2 years on affected models, I bet return rate is like sub 2% - I know plenty of people with 13th and 14th gen i7s and i9s and they don't have any issues at all. You can be 100% sure that many people are trying to abuse this too. Hence the lack of chips possibly.
It is not like AMD is doing too well, their GPU business is a money-sink with little income. Their CPUs are good but their GPUs are pretty meh and they spend tons of CPU earnings on GPUs (mostly AI tho, gaming GPUs is a dead-end for AMD and they left high-end market officially here)
So yeah, instead of a full great Zen 5 release using TSMC 3N, AMD fcked up bigtime, in pretty much all areas and now Intel is ready to launch their true next gen platform and chips using a superior process. I'd say things are looking very good for Intel right now actually.
Intel has been throwing money into their fabs for years and years, first now its beginning to pay off, with 18A and beyond. However, they can also just use TSMC like everyone else for some of the chips (K/KF series)
I was 100% ready to ditch my degraded i9-13900K in favor of a Zen 5 + X870E system but AMD botched this so hard that I feel forced to go with Arrow Lake in spite of really not wanting to stick with Intel.
AMD fucked this up completely with their stupid USB 4.0 requirement. All of the X870(E) boards have lane sharing to hell and back. I want to be able to install three M.2 drives in reasonable locations on the board (i.e. especially NOT in the M2_1 hot spot between GPU and CPU).
This is not even remotely possible. Just check the footnotes or fine print of any X870(E) board. You slash your GPU bandwidth from 16x to 8x lanes as soon as you plug your SSD into one of the "nice" (cooler) M.2 slots. You can only install a SSD in M2_2 OR M2_3 but not both... yada... yada... yada... you need a frickin' degree to figure out which M.2 slots are actually usable on a X870(E) board.
There is no way that I will build a platform around all those crappy compromises. AMD failed hard here. They really should have put in more work to either provide more CPU lanes with Zen 5 or give us an all new chipset (X870 has the same old Promontory 21 chips as X670). They also should have left USB 4.0 optional, of course, or, IF they have to make it mandatory then put it in the X870(E) chipset, of course. No need at all to steal away four CPU lanes for USB 4.0. What a ludicrously dumb decision...
Honestly, as much as it pains me to say this but Z890 + ARL will be the MUCH better platform since Intel will actually be offering more lanes than Z790 + RPL. There will probably be a nice variety of boards to choose from with regard to M.2 setup and as an added bonus, board makers will probably be offering up advanced features like backside connectivity from the start (haven't seen a single AMD X870(E) board with such features so far).
Really sad... I was ready to go with Zen 5 and the successor of the awesome looking white/silverish ASUS ROG STRIX X670E-A but then came AMD and fucked it all up. Oh well, since ARL is 100% built on TSMC N3B, it should be safe from Intel's clumsy af paws at least.
The news here are music to my ears. I 'd much rather receive money for my degraded 13900K than a replacement. Intel have announced that they will provide another update on the Vmin shift instability issue by the end of the month. I definitely kinda sorta smell an upgrade offer coming up. Send in degraded RPL, receive juicy ARL discount. I'm in if that should be the case...
They added 2 years longer warranty, even on chips not really affected (i5 and i7) seems fine to me
5 years of CPU warranty is pretty good yeah, would gladly take a refund after x years too if I was offered one = New shiny stuff instead
totally off topic: System instability i see the fastest with the gnu toolchain while compiling software. Not in windows 11 pro while gaming.
5 year of warranty is nothing. A bad joke - that extended warranty.
2nd Generation of Intel Core Processors should be around 2011. Many still use these processors. See en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intel_CoreThis applies for mostly any INTEL and AMD based mainboard. This is not only an AMD only issue. The homepages and manuals could be written more "do it yourself" friendly and easier to read.
I also dislike boards where not every peripherals can not be used together always. Or mechanical PCIE 16 slots with PCIE 3.0 connections with only one or two lanes.
I read several online available mainboard manuals regardless if it's intel or AMD processor based. The information is always only in the handbook. Not on the product page.
The flaws can be only found in the manual.
AMD blamed mobo makers as well. Because it was their fault, also true for Intels situation. The chips are not the culprit. New AGESAs were put out and new firmwares, AMD did not make a recall at all, they worked with board partners, just like Intel.
No chips are degrading if you update motherboard firmware, its all about voltages, this is also why the "fix" won't work on CPUs already affected. Pretty simple really. The worst binned chips will likely see issues eventually, but 95% will likely never see any issue.
Intel 13th and 14th gen is old news. Lunar Lake and Arrow Lake is dropping in a few weeks. Obviously stock is very low for last gen stuff at this point. Plenty of stock here in germany tho. This news is based on a single retailer in Asia...
intel has been crapping on their customers for years, lying, releasing broken cpus and yet, these people keep giving them money and blind support.
If i was affected by this, luckily getting a refund, how the heck would I even consider buying anything from them again?
I could easily see myself going Intel 285K in a few weeks, because it will deliver much better all-round performance. If 285K performs like 7800X3D in games but beats it massively outside of games, its just a better all-round product. After all my 7800X3D don't even perform like a 7700X in applications. Beat by i5-13600K even.
Intel threated me fine, so did Nvidia. Had plenty of issues with AMD products thru the years tho. Lately a 6800XT with 110C hotspot temps that AMD says is within the acceptable range, meanwhile my 4090 hits 85C hotspot.
A cpu is the last thing anyone should have to worry about failing, I wouldn't trust a microcode fix since most cpu's people are already using would likely be affected depending on usage, if I had a 13th/14th gen CPU I'd RMA it and sell the return avoiding Intel completely for a while as their response to the whole issue has been a mess.
The issue with Intel chips were also motherboard makers fault. Voltages were too high which led to degradation on the worst binned chips.
You would sell it because you are an AMD fanboy. It is as simple as that. AMD had more fuckups than Intel ever did thru the years.
Lets see if Intel gets hit with a class action lawsuit, like when AMD paid up for marketing FX 8000 and 9000 series as 8 core chips, even tho they were not.
Of course not everyone is like that or thinks like that, but many do and many will make it completely clear that considering Intel or Nvidia inferior to AMD, will NEVER be acceptable.
Beyond that, let's not feed the obvious troll because somehow this Intel topic is now about AMD.
Funny how most talking trash about Intel here, uses AMD CPU and GPU :laugh: :laugh:
Meanwhile I am being called an Intel fanboy, while using AMD + Nvidia ... LMAO :roll:
Everyone here is buying various systems from various companies, Intel, AMD, Nvidia...
You keep talking about fanboys... but these very same people tend to also acknowledge all of the issues you speak of when it comes to AMD ;) I'd take a long look in the mirror if I were you, you've lost the plot. There is no need to keep throwing out bait. We're one big happy familyIts an Intel topic. What you define as trash is irrelevant, and that's exactly what set you off.
And then you say you're the neutral arbiter. Do you even logic
If I was in the used market i'm not touching any of it.