Newegg Allegedly Ships Alder Lake CPUs Early, Asks Owners Not to Post Online

News
By Andrew E. Freedman
published

But those people are still posting pics.

Intel Alder Lake CPUs
(Image credit: Tom's Hardware)

Some lucky people may have received their 12th Gen Intel "Alder Lake" processors early from Newegg. Are they some of the new best CPUs? We don't know — the customers allege the company has asked them for a code of silence.

On Reddit's r/intel forum, several people say that they bought the new chips from Newegg and either received them or expect to receive them early. Then they claim they got phone calls from the retailer asking them not to post anything until November 4, the day the processor's release.

"Just got a phone call from Newegg and the lady said I can't post anything until 11/4?" u/Hyphnx posted. Several others reported similar experiences.

Another user, u/NoveltyNetwork, wrote that they "[j]ust got the same call, and mine just came in about an hour ago." This person followed up by posting images of boxes for the Core i9-12900K and the Core i7-12700K.

"Have mine in-hand, got the same call, asked why they aren't shipping motherboards early because why not try :)," wrote u/chrismog2 "'Sorry but they aren't released until Nov. 4th [, they said.]' well that didn't stop you guys so far..."

Just because they may have received processors, however, doesn't mean they can use them. The Alder Lake processors require new motherboards to use them, and those also aren't meant to ship until the release date.

"My 12900K also just got delivered," u/coffeeblowout wrote. "Not like can do any testing without our boards or memory though. It's an awesome box though." 

Tom's Hardware reached out to Newegg for comment but did not receive a response in time for publication.

These wouldn't be the first 12th Gen Intel CPUs to hit early. There have been a handful of Alder Lake processors getting into hands earlier than Intel intended. For instance, earlier this month, China-based sellers on Taobao were selling black market engineering samples of the Core i9-12900K for as high as $700.

Earlier this week, Intel announced pricing and specs for Alder Lake, going up to $589 for the flagship Core i9-12900K with 16 cores.

Andrew E. Freedman

Andrew E. Freedman is a senior editor at Tom's Hardware focusing on laptops, desktops and gaming. He also keeps up with the latest news. A lover of all things gaming and tech, his previous work has shown up in Tom's Guide, Laptop Mag, Kotaku, PCMag and Complex, among others. Follow him on Twitter: @FreedmanAE

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10 Comments Comment from the forums
  • hotaru251
    they legally bought em and got them.

    what they do with it is their choice.


    if yuo can;t have leaks...dont ship it to begin with.
    Reply
  • mcgge1360
    hotaru251 said:
    they legally bought em and got them.

    what they do with it is their choice.
    Ya no that's not how this works. Retailers sign deals that allows them to get the product early so that on launch they have them, and in exchange they can't sell until launch day. There's a LOT of negotiation and deals between retailers and suppliers, it ain't just a "buy and sell" situation as you seem to understand.
    Reply
  • NightHawkRMX
    mcgge1360 said:
    Ya no that's not how this works. Retailers sign deals that allows them to get the product early so that on launch they have them, and in exchange they can't sell until launch day. There's a LOT of negotiation and deals between retailers and suppliers, it ain't just a "buy and sell" situation as you seem to understand.
    I think they are referring to the end user. In that case, the end user is not under under any sort of NDA and therefore Intel has no leverage to stop users posting information on the products they legally bought.

    As for Newegg, they certainly are under some sort of contract and could face repercussions, if it turns out to be true.
    Reply
  • hotaru251
    mcgge1360 said:
    Ya no that's not how this works. Retailers sign deals that allows them to get the product early so that on launch they have them, and in exchange they can't sell until launch day. There's a LOT of negotiation and deals between retailers and suppliers, it ain't just a "buy and sell" situation as you seem to understand.
    i mean the ppl who buy them FROM newegg...aka end user who they (newegg) is trying tell em not to post about em.

    they have no power over what ppl do when they sell them to ppl early.

    thats like buying a car early and dealer saying "yo you cant drive it until "
    they can say all they want but owner doesnt have any legal reason to listen.

    unlike ppl like who sign do not disclose to get early samples average joe who bough those on newegg never signed a thing.


    Newegg likely broke something to sell em early. Thats on them thoguh not buyers.
    Reply
  • spongiemaster
    hotaru251 said:
    what they do with it is their choice.
    Well, not really. If their choice is to use it and post benchmarks, they're going to find that difficult unless they can find someone to ship them a motherboard (and probably ddr5) before Nov 4th.

    We saw the same early leak with rocket lake in Europe, and many review sites buying them and posting reviews before the NDA. Problem this time is that there aren't compatible motherboards on the market already like there were with Rocket Lake.
    Reply
  • NightHawkRMX
    spongiemaster said:
    Well, not really. If their choice is to use it and post benchmarks, they're going to find that difficult unless they can find someone to ship them a motherboard (and probably ddr5) before Nov 4th.

    We saw the same early leak with rocket lake in Europe, and many review sites buying them and posting reviews before the NDA. Problem this time is that there aren't compatible motherboards on the market already like there were with Rocket Lake.
    Getting ddr5 isn't that difficult and you can use ddr4. I wouldn't be surprised if Newegg wasn't selling boards as well..
    Reply
  • spongiemaster
    NightHawkRMX said:
    Getting ddr5 isn't that difficult and you can use ddr4. I wouldn't be surprised if Newegg wasn't selling boards as well..

    Did you bother to read the article? Newegg didn't ship boards early.
    Reply
  • NightHawkRMX
    They didn't admit to shipping them early, that doesn't mean they didn't.
    Reply
  • spongiemaster
    NightHawkRMX said:
    They didn't admit to shipping them early, that doesn't mean they didn't.
    No, but the people who got CPU's said they didn't get motherboards. I don't think they would lie on Newegg's behalf.
    Reply
  • USAFRet
    hotaru251 said:
    thats like buying a car early and dealer saying "yo you cant drive it until "
    No...
    "You can use it, but we ask you not to post pics and info online just yet."
    Reply