Consumer Watch: Faked CPUs on the market

Consumer Watch: Faked CPUs on the market

JAKARTA (JP): A friend of mine, the owner of a computer store
in Orion Plaza, Glodok, Jakarta, once showed me an Intel 486 CPU
chip that he said was "second grade." Unfortunately, I forgot to
note what the CPU speed was. However, as far as I know, there's
no such a thing as a "second grade" CPU, particularly from Intel.
So I did not take his statement very seriously.

Then I got to use a 486 PC that had a CPU from AMD --
AM80486DX2 50 MHz -- in it. I had a problem with this machine
when I was running PageMaker 5.0. The program constantly crashed,
giving me the message "Floating Point Overflow." When I discussed
this with my friend who had supplied all the hardware, he said
the problem was caused by the CPU. So we replaced the AMD chip
with an Intel Overdrive 33 MHz. The problem stopped.

It was then that I asked the man, who was a dealer of more
than a dozen of brand name hardware components, what he knew
about "second grade" CPU chips. He told me that, in the market
where unscrupulous sellers meet with uninformed and often
careless buyers, the very AMD chip that we had used would be
repainted and an Intel logo would be sprayed on to make it look
like a true Intel chip with a higher clock speed!

Unfortunately, as I have already said, Intel has released too
many types of 80486 CPU to keep track of. In a market full of
counterfeited products, the only safeguarding step that you can
take is to buy your system from highly reliable sources. If
you're in doubt, buy your CPU directly from the handful
authorized Intel dealers in town. You'll probably have to pay
more, but you'll get true Intel CPUs with their one-year
warranty.

I'm not saying that AMD's chips are not as good as Intel's.
Although I had the problem with one AM80486DX2 50 MHz, June's
Windows Magazine says that they have found AMD's 80486DX2-66
chips to be 100 percent compatible with Intel's. They did find
one faulty AMD 80486DX2-66 chip, though; I have no idea whether
their faulty chip and the one I had were just a coincidence or
not. At any rate, my experience showed that the AMD chip ran
virtually as fast as the Intel Overdrive 33 MHz (which is
actually a clock-doubling chip that has an internal speed of 66
MHz). The point is, let's call a spade a spade. Let's call an AMD
chip an AMD chip. And let computer buyers know exactly what
they're getting under the hood.

In the meantime, if you still insist on acquiring a new PC, or
even just a CPU, from other than an authorized dealer, you can
use your fingernails to lightly scratch the face of the CPU chip.
If the paint peels, then you'll be able to determine its real
brand.

-- Zatni Arbi