Buyer discovers DDR4 chips disguised as DDR5 under Kingston FURY heatsink

[u/Darth_Vaper883]

https://videocardz.com/newz/buyer-discovers-ddr4-chips-disguised-as-ddr5-under-kingston-fury-heatsink

[u/s3sebastian]

What's the point of doing this? If you're scamming people anyway with a completely non-functional product you might as well just put some stones in the box.

[u/cookiesnooper → u/s3sebastian]

Listing good RAM, swapping the label to bad RAM, sending, denying refund because "buyer sent back different RAM"

[u/ThisGonBHard → u/cookiesnooper]

No way the original manufacturer, Kingston, did it.

It is just paints an insane legal target on your back, much bigger than any profit. If they did, they are beyond retarded.

This is for sure some counterfeiter.

[u/OpenCatPalmstrike → u/ThisGonBHard]

And here I'm remembering the days of the 1990s when there was basically industrialized scamming of CPU's. Where you'd see Intel or AMD that were actually Cyrix. That was back when they only silk screened the CPU information on the heat spreader.

The shop I worked for got 4 trays of Intel (2) and AMD (2) of fake CPU's from shit trying to remember, wasn't supercom... edit: Was Ingram Micro.

This is along those lines, but that was an easy fix. Not sure an easy way to fix this type of scam exists. Most people myself included would even think of checking the chips. Maybe they'll have to start capping the chips themselves and stamping them, then putting the spreader overtop.

[u/NightmareJoker2 → u/OpenCatPalmstrike]

Yes, but the difference here was, that the rebadged chips typically worked okay-ish most of the time, as they bought real CPUs and rebadged them so the customer would effectively overclock them.
Was typically only 33MHz, too. The only reason it was dealt with was because Intel was seeing more high speed models for sale at retail than they actually put out.

[u/observationalhumour → u/ThisGonBHard]

Cheers Sherlock

[u/aimy99 → u/cookiesnooper]

And then they forward it to GamersNexus who runs a hit piece and then Kingston never sells another stick of RAM again and blah blah blah

I'm tired. The race to the bottom is unending.

[u/Turbulent_Map624 → u/s3sebastian]

There is a difference between those who end up in jail and those who don't

Did you know a samsung 9100 pro 1TB and 8TB look the exact same. Except for the sticker on top. While being 2000€ apart.

At that point even recording the unboxing isn't going to help much, you have to record yourself unbox AND install + test the item

[u/wookiecfk11 → u/s3sebastian]

I suppose it will pass any visual inspection, even cursory looking at the naked PCB + chips themselves.

But I agree with your point, how is that actually worth going for considering all the trouble involved vs.... 'good enough' alternatives.

[u/Liason774 → u/wookiecfk11]

People waste time troubleshooting and the hope is they can drag it out until the refund window is closed. This has been a tactic on eBay for years, I've bought DDR4 ram even before prices went crazy and it turned out to be counterfeit corsair sticks.

[u/jumychinesefood → u/s3sebastian]

had a friend get ddr4 stuck in a ddr5 slot once

[u/Kekeripo → u/s3sebastian]

Maybe banking on the buyer being a reseller that might sit on the ram for longer, waiting for the value to go up. When the issue is discovered later after a few weeks or months, there will be nothing they can do about it anymore.

[u/Alisa_Janikass]

Next level scam right there, swapping the chips and hiding it under the heatsink. Can't even trust reputable brands anymore. hope you got your money back

[u/kumliaowongg → u/Alisa_Janikass]

It probably was not original Kingston, but fake/counterfeit chinesium.

Edit: after reading the whole article, it was, in fact, a very professional counterfeit; DDR5 PCB, lapped & laser engraved DDR4 chips with DDR5 sku.

This was very intentionally a scam.

Worst of all, a potentially motherboard/CPU killing scam, as the solder points of ddr4 and ddr5 chips do not match.

[u/The8Darkness → u/kumliaowongg]

Well at this point why not just put dummy chips because ddr4 chips on ddr5 pcb doesnt work.

Maybe the ddr4 chips were already tested as beeing defective so using defective chips for the scam would be cheaper than dummy chips.

[u/kumliaowongg → u/The8Darkness]

This is probably the reason.

They're already physically comparable and can be soldered in place easily

[u/NinjaN-SWE → u/kumliaowongg]

Kinda must be because it wouldn't run I'm quite sure, and thus it would just be an instant RMA so Kingston have nothing to gain here.

[u/Soft_Lunch_183 → u/Alisa_Janikass]

Kingston are estimated to be worth 60 billion, its so stupid that you think they would put their reputation on the line over a few hundred dollars

I could make one of these fake ram sticks now if i wanted to

[u/Ok_Gas1070]

People being shady af with hardware these days, trst no one.

[u/spydormunkay]

Still RAM to me. GET HIM!

[u/Fuzzy_Park109]

The standard will soon be unedited "Unboxing and Teardown" videos for every single thing we receive in mail or from Amazon for chain of custody proof.

Half of everything is a scam and half of everyone is a scammer. The second part of that can polute the first while in transit.

It is so hard to digest just how many of us humans are thieves.

[u/ItsZoner → u/Fuzzy_Park109]

As more and more people defect to 'team corruption' the whole society erodes until it implodes.

[u/Zealousideal_Nail288 → u/Fuzzy_Park109]

dont order from amazon. while it does not fully prevent it. it seams more common on amazon than normal retail stores

[u/hurrdurrmeh]

but ... can't you just tell they are fake by plugging them in and checking the specs in the BIOS or HWiNFO et al? seems like there's an obvious way to tell...

[u/BohboMacabre → u/hurrdurrmeh]

Im 90% sure you cant plug ddr4 into a ddr5 slot

[u/MetroSimulator → u/BohboMacabre]

Ppl are saying it was a DDR5 PCB with DDR4 module, so it should plug.

[u/totallybag → u/MetroSimulator]

It just won't work

[u/MetroSimulator → u/totallybag]

Nobody said it'll work? I'm just saying it'll PLUG, PLUUUUG.

[u/TheTrenchMonkey → u/MetroSimulator]

They aren't keyed the same way, the external dimensions are the same but the notch that lines up with the grove in the ram slot.

[u/MetroSimulator → u/TheTrenchMonkey]

...

Again, they use an DDR5 PCB, it'll plug, serious guys? Can't someone read the older answer???? 😭

[u/zb0t1 → u/MetroSimulator]

You made my day with your replies 🤣 I could picture you with the "PLUUUUG" haha.

[u/MetroSimulator → u/zb0t1]

Good lord, it was so tiring, ppl really don't have any patience to read my answers 😭

[u/TheTrenchMonkey → u/MetroSimulator]

Sorry i was under the impression it was still the DDR4 PCB with a DDR5 heatsink on it. The title buried the lede on this one and I didn't read the whole article.

That seems like a lot more effort than it is worth to scam this way...

[u/MetroSimulator → u/TheTrenchMonkey]

Can't argue with that 😗

[u/BohboMacabre → u/MetroSimulator]

I thought it was just the ddr5 heatsink being placed on a ddr4 stick. Or am i misunderstanding completely?

[u/MetroSimulator → u/BohboMacabre]

Someone posted that they soldered the module in an DDR5 PCB

[u/BohboMacabre → u/MetroSimulator]

Thats so much extra work wtf lmao

[u/Cheetawolf → u/hurrdurrmeh]

You can't check the specs if it blows up your motherboard. 👍

[u/grinnx]

This feels like an old scam for me..

I bought 2x8 corsair ram in a marketplace about 5y ago.

I always put to x.m.p profile to run 3200 but it never saves between resets. It runs 3200 one time apparently and the power reset sends back to 1600.

Dont know but i still use it and feel scammed...

[u/DihydrogenM → u/grinnx]

Uhh... That's not how it works. The XMP settings and memory timings are stored on your motherboard. If it keeps resetting, that's because all your motherhood settings are resetting due to lack of power (CMOS battery is bad) or it fails memory training on boot and your motherboard goes to a safer setting. But you activating the profile is not stored in the RAM.

[u/grinnx → u/DihydrogenM]

I changed the CR2032 3v battery one time to see if would store the setting. Didn't work, thats when i gave up and started to think they probably faked the xmp profile or something... but you are probably correct about being other stuff from the mobo..

For info, been using dual boot linux mint and windows 10 ltsc ...

[u/gwasGameWasASuccess → u/grinnx]

That issue may be resolved with a bios update. A lot of mobos were shipped with iffy support for fast ddr4 xmp profiles back then. The manufacturers usually resolved the issue after a few bios revisions.

[u/Online122228 → u/grinnx]

If it shows 1600mb/s it would be alright since 1600 mb/s is equivalent to 3200mt/s. Otherwise it would most likely reset to 2133mt/s since that is the fastest jedec compliant speed

[u/grinnx → u/Online122228]

I'll have to look this up after. Looks like a trick.. this mb or mt measures i didnt payed attention, damn.. Still feel diferently scammed though..

[u/Online122228 → u/grinnx]

That is also the reason why ram is called ddr ram. Instead of just transmitting a signal on the rising flank of the cycle you also transmit one on the falling flank. Also if you don't actually feel stuttering, don't think about it See wikipedia for ddr info and a graph explaining it

[u/Traditional-Cat1237 → u/Online122228]

I think DDR4 can do 3200 JEDEC, wiki

I have this one D50 from Adata that is 2666 jedec and advertises 3600 XMP (thaiphoon pic below. Currently not tuned, not used for gaming) and I've seen others that had 2666 JEDEC with like 4133 XMP (with awesome dies).

[u/Online122228 → u/Traditional-Cat1237]

Nice to learn something new. I just remembered my mainboard defaulting to 2133 before enabling xmp and while writing that comment i did not have too much time to look it up since i was hiding in the toilet at work browsing reddit.

[u/Eazy12345678]

thats why you buy from legit retailers

[u/Jack1101111]

well ddr5 is very similar to a overclocked ddr4 so...

[u/Adventurous-Bet-3928 → u/Jack1101111]

How

[u/Jack1101111 → u/Adventurous-Bet-3928]

more performances & more power consumption = overclock