Trusted sources for buying older CPUs

[kidnoc]

I am zeroing in a motherboard in the X11SCH series for a new build.

While I found sources I trust for the motherboard and ECC RAM, I am finding a lot of "from Hong Kong" sellers for the 8th Gen Core i3 or a Xeon E-2100 CPU.

I know I am not going to score a new one, so I am looking for some trusted retail sources or eBay sellers people have used recently. I've been burned by Hong Kong sellers a few times and really want to avoid them.

Thanks in advance and thank you all for the deep well of knowledge on this forum.

 

[jgreco]

Hardware Buying Guide - some tips for not getting ripped off

I've been giving this information out piecemeal for years, and should maybe have it summarized in one place. There's been a lot of people who are wary of secondary market sources for hardware, such as eBay, due to bad experiences with other...

www.truenas.com

I wouldn't trust too much used from Hong Kong. There are not major data centers or major business recyclers there that I am aware of, so you probably multiply your chances of getting something fake by an order of magnitude. There is convenient access to the black markets of Shenzhen (maybe 20 miles away?) so it is more readily believable that stuff could be knockoff.

 

[kidnoc]

Fully agree with you and I do not trust anything used from Hong Kong. I read your buying guide and I understand and appreciate the guidance there.

What I am looking for is any named sellers/resellers people like for used equipment.

 

[jgreco]

You might luck out, I don't know. The problem I've found is that a lot of recyclers seem to have a user account for each of their sales reps, and it isn't that unusual to find half a dozen different users all selling some subsegment of a recycler's inventory. This is why I usually focus less on a "whitelist" of known good resellers but instead just look at what else they're selling and try to figure out where the stuff came from.

 

[artlessknave]

i've gotten a few (older) CPUs from china sellers. haven't noticed any problems. they report as the correct CPUs, work in boards they are supposed to and with ram they should. no DOA's either.
of the ones ive tried they dont seem to be faked much.