Intel collectors who haven’t gotten their hands on some of the company’s fancier packaging yet may want to hit up their favorite stores sooner rather than later.
As detailed in a pair of new Product Change Notification (PCN) forms uploaded yesterday, Intel has decided that it’ll be discontinuing the premium/larger packaging designs for two of its processors, the 12th Gen Intel Core i9-i2900K and Intel Core i9-10980XE Extreme Edition, by early September. Both of these chips launched in special boxes to celebrate their greater performance, with the Alder Lake chip coming in a case that resembles a gold wafer.
Photos in the PCN can confirm that they will be replaced with new packaging that is considerably slimmer, particularly in the case of the 12th Gen Intel Core i9-i2900K.
Here’s an explainer from Intel as to why it’s dropping its premium packaging for these two CPUs, with clarification that there won’t be any changes to the products themselves:
This packaging change will affect the appearance of the shipping container for distributers and the internal packaging components. This change results in standardized palletization. There is no change to the form, fit or function of the product contained therein, therefore no action is needed by customers.
It’s unclear what the packaging for Intel’s upcoming 13th Gen Core “Raptor Lake” processors might look like, but the company has already experimented with various designs, including hexagonal and dodecahedral packaging.
The first 13th Gen Intel Core processors are expected to surface in October.
Source: Intel PCN Database
Discussion (19 replies)
Join Discussion →Good, it's a complete waste of materials anyway.
I admit some of the packaging looks cool, and I've kept some packaging that I thought was neat to keep on a shelf to display.
But I've never bought a CPU or other component just because it has good packaging. I just appreciate it when it happens to exist.
I expect premium packaging on some collectible item, or memorabilia, not something that will be obsolete in 2 years.
Yeah but if I had a first edition Threadripper or the i7-8086 or something along those lines - those represent a bit more than just a run-of-the-mill CPU
Couldn't agree more. Complete waste of money and materials.
Mostly agree, but CPU's last way longer than 2 years these days. It's not 2001 anymore. :P
My i7-3930k lasted me from 2011 to 2019.
My Threadripper 3960x is close to 3 years old and feels like it is only just getting broken in.
Still have the thing my 9900K came in... that's staying on the display stand :D
Mine is still my daily driver, but it will be getting replaced ... soon ...
Around 2001 they lasted me less than a year :p
But yeah, after 2010 things slowed down significantly on the CPU front. Still I don't view my CPUs as some cherished collectibles. I have more emotional attachment to my toaster than my CPU. The only CPU I regret selling and wish that I had kept it as a relic was my Celeron 600, that I could get as far as 1136 on basic aircoolers of the time. I think with proper cooling it could've gotten the holy grail of 100% OC.
I still have my 9900K box as well and now the 12900K box. Yes they are overkill, but they do display nicely.
I keep boxes until my system is built. Then all important information from them all gets put in the motherboard box which I keep, the rest get tossed. Pointless waste of space to keep all those boxes.
I do the same thing for the most part, except I keep the boxes until the warranties on the individual parts run out.
I got some fond memories of some of my CPUs, and the ones that get retired are put on display, like my Athlon Thunderbird and my Opteron 165 (which could 1,000 MHz overclock using the stock cooler it comes with). But the boxes/packaging for most CPUs I've owned are long gone.
My friend kept the neat little container that Zen 2 Threadrippers come in when he bought his.
That's what I do for most nearly everything on a computer.
But I am a sucker for neat containers. Small dollar items - like food - I will absolutely buy because I think the container is neat, and I think I can reuse or display the container.
My wife thinks I'm crazy. But I always have a container for my loose screws.
But a hundred dollar plus item? If it comes in a neat container, then neat. But not paying extra for it.
Who thinks they will reduce price because the boxes are less fancy? Anyone? No? Yea this is a pure extraction of profit maneuver.
Last quarter's financials hitting home.