Intel i9-12900K Engineering Samples are Already Being Sold in China!

Based on the number of benchmarks we’ve seen over the last week, it seems pretty evident that a significant number of Intel Core i9-12900K engineering samples are currently out in the wild. Moreso that the leaked information is seemingly mostly coming from Chinese sources. It seems that, at least in China, there are a lot of these new i9-12900K processors currently in the hands of what we can only determine to be ‘private citizens’. In other words, not anyone professionally associated with Intel.

Just how big is this problem though? Well, following a report via Videocardz, possibly quite large as a significant number of these i9-12900K processor engineering samples are currently available to buy!

Intel Core i9-12900K Engineering Samples For Sale?!

Again, we should note that Intel has not yet officially announced the launch of their new Alder Lake-S processors. In fact, they’re not expected to do so until October 28th, and even then, the i9-12900K is not anticipated to be available to general consumers until November 4th. However, eagle-eyed people have spotted that several of these CPUs are available to buy on a Chinese black market website.

Now, while a few samples being available to buy early is never uncommon (because Intel and AMD usually issue thousands of them to various partners), it is definitely unusual to see so many available here. Albeit, given that they are effective unbranded engineering samples, it is entirely possible that they are fake, or (and perhaps more likely) legitimate, but not representative of the ‘final design’ to be issued by Intel.

In other words, caveat emptor!

A Moderately Attractive Price

Listed for 4500 yuan, this roughly translates to around $699.99. A price which, on the surface, isn’t too bad for the Intel Core i9-12900K. At least, not in the terms that it’s very similar to the likely MSRP. With this though, you can potentially get hold of one 2 months (largely) before anyone else. However, we would caution anyone about buying these. I mean, yes, you can try a $700 punt, and you might get lucky. Consider though, exactly where you are going to source your LGA1700 motherboard?…

Yes, Alder Lake-S is on a new chipset. So even if this was legitimate, it’s doubtful you’d be able to do much with it until release day anyway! So, curious for sure, but we’d advise you probably steer well clear of ‘bargains’ such as this.

What do you think? – Let us know in the comments!