Intel OEM system

Imagine you are tough on money but would like to buy computer. And you see relatively cheap OEM system with say Intel Core i5-4690, 8GB DDR3-1600 memory. You think that i5 has specific specs and should work with same speed everywhere. But after you bought it you will be unpleasantly surprised.

Check out this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6ESkYHzT8LU

As you can see in this video, after they moved CPU and memory to different motherboard and power supply, performance of system increases a lot. Basically, Intel allow to fine tune power package and while it will be same Core i5-4690 it will work much slower in such OEM system with tuned down power package.

Firstly, I blame Intel for this situation. The same processor should work the same everywhere, so consumer should not think about where this processor is installed. And consumer would trust Intel and knowing that he will get the same quality for his money. In our situation Intel got some quick money but reputation suffers a lot. Keep in mind that HP were used Intel tools to reduce power package. It is not only creation of HP to get some quick money. Intel allows this and HP used Intel tools and Intel reputation to build cheap and slow computer to trick consumer to buy it.

Secondly, I blame HP. Obviously consumer will see specs and will believe that he is getting relatively fast processor but actually for his money consumer will get performance of cheaper processor. So, at the end consumer will not get what he expects.

Imagine that some respectable store selling McDonalds’ Big Macs. You as consumer know what Big Mac is and happily buy it, trusting in McDonalds’ brand. But what you don’t know that patty in this Big Mac will be 30% smaller. So effectively you were tricked using reputation of store and McDonalds. Moreover, McDonalds are totally fine with that store selling that out of specs Big Macs. And actually, Big Mac provide you tools to customize Big Mac in any way.

So, while store is probably is guilty here, but it is actually McDonalds to blame here because they allow this strange practice.

I think it is relatively new practice by Intel (see my post here https://www.mirabulus.com/it/blog/2018/12/15/i9-9900k-problems-re-release). But it looks Intel was doing it for quite some time.

And as recommendation here. I really strongly advice you not to buy most OEM systems. I even created post about it.