Fake it till they make it: 'Improved' AMD Wraith Prism coolers with extra heatpipes are counterfeits

Bombastinator · January 27, 2020

11 minutes ago, TVwazhere said:

I'll admit. If the fake only had 4 heat pipes and had a fake QR cod sticker on the one side, I literally would not be able to tells these apart.

It's so good, it makes me think someone either is a really good engineer of coolers who re-created it, they,re sourcing a lot of their components from the same place AMD gets theirs, or managed to get specs and outline drawings for the original AMD coolers and made changes (the more likely outcome given the extreme accuracy).

My memory is sometimes counterfeit stuff is it’s done with factory reject parts on the company machines after hours. I did notice there was a difference in the heat shroud.

Kisai · January 28, 2020

On 1/24/2020 at 3:25 PM, Bombastinator said:

Idiots. If they can make a low profile top down cooler with better performance for the same price they should put their own name on it and sell it. I’ve been recommending arctic cooling 33s instead of the AMD stock cooler lately because the wraith is too expensive lately even when packaged with the CPU. If they can make a cooler even AS good they could sell it without that kind of garbage. As it is all they’ve done is kneecap themselves.

They can't, because it's a counterfeit. Simply changing the name doesn't absolve one of stealing the design.

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My memory is sometimes counterfeit stuff is it’s done with factory reject parts on the company machines after hours. I did notice there was a difference in the heat shroud.

The theory, or "sob story" for a lot of counterfeits is that they are factory rejects that aren't recycled. I sincerely doubt that to be the case since metal is absolutely recycled, especially the copper parts.

The other theory to counterfeits is that (product) is so profitable that they just need to make something that looks like the original and sneak it into the logistics pipeline so that companies like Aliexpress, Amazon and Newegg don't realize it's a fake until customers start demanding refunds, and the counterfeiter ghosts them, leaving them with losses.

Makeup counterfeits are actually the worst, because they're often made with the cheapest and most toxic materials that can be obtained, and then they just duplicate the packaging and off it goes to street markets where people think they're getting a good deal.

The only counterfeit products that tend not to be "actually harmful" are things that are supposed to be made from genuine leather, but the counterfeit is basically just cheaper leather over cardboard or PVC, and the person buying it cares more about wearing the brand than paying for it.

Jewelry counterfeits are often made of toxic metals, but are also readily identified since they almost never resemble the product they're supposed to be.