It is always a good idea to check the computer hardware thoroughly after it has been purchased. It does not really matter if a fully manufactured PC has been purchased or a single component like a processor or video card.
A friend of mine for instance bought a new PC recently with a hard drive that had not the advertised size. While that can be easily discovered there are components that make the identification process much harder. Think of processors for instance.
The recent news that a major US online hardware store sold fake Intel cpus indicates that everyone should make sure that the hardware purchased is the hardware delivered.
The Windows device manager is usually a good starting point but the information presented there are limited. It is usually better to use a third party program to identify computer hardware.
The Intel Processor Identification Utility has been created by Intel to provide owners of Intel processors with a tool to check if their cpu is the one that they have ordered.
The tool displays the information about the Intel processor in three tabs that are called Frequency Test, CPU Technologies and CPUID Data.
The frequency test will display the reported and expected frequencies of the processor. Small variations do not necessarily mean that the processor is fake.
CPU Technologies lists the supported technologies of the CPU while the CPUID Data tab displays in depths information about the CPU.
The Intel Processor Identification Utility can be downloaded directly from Intel. A version for Microsoft Windows PCs and a bootable version are provided on the Intel website.
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