AMD CPU from AliExpress Breakdown

I've seen others on here happy with their AliExpress cpu so I decided to pull the trigger too, but unfortunately I pulled an rng lemon.

I jumped on those recent AMD Ryzen 7 5700X3D deals from floating about and was super happy when it actually arrived, with multiple hardware monitoring software confirming the specs. I ran a few different benchmarkers on it and stability tested it just fine, but after 3 weeks my rig started crashing randomly. I stress tested my GPU and CPU again and it seemed stable but would still randomly crash.

I decided to run the entire troubleshooting gambit I could think of; check windows update, check BIOS, update chipset, update gpu driver, manually update device manager, windows memory diagnosis, 1 ram stick at a time, memtest86, sfc /scannow, chkdsk, DDU fresh install gpu, fresh windows install, reseating gpu, redoing cable management, checking if my new ali keyboard and mouse are the problem, changing power sockets, even getting glorious microsoft indian tech support to remote access fix my sh*t up.

Nothing worked, until I decided put my old cpu back in and viola. Feel so stupid not trying this earlier but I wanted to believe in the value proposition of a $230 R7 5700X3D.

Has anyone else seen their AliExpress chips fail on them or does anyone have experience going through returns on the platform? I'm currently in the process now.

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Comments

  • +3

    People have had a lot of issues changing cpus on am4. I had a problem upgrading on the am4 platform and it was the ram timings. Wouldn't run at xmp speeds but worked perfectly fine a couple of hundred mhz lower.

    • That's interesting to hear. I set my BIOS to default settings which defaulted the ram speed to 2133MHz from the 3200MHz max speed settings of my B450 board. Which in my case didn't stop the crashes.

      Other than that idk much about overclocking which also means idk how to tweak latency or timings, just speed. Not sure if it would have helped troubleshoot.

  • Who was the seller?
    Can you post your full build and specs?

    • SCPU store, only seeing good things from other comments.

      That's right my build is

      CPU: Ryzen 5 3600
      GPU: Gigabyte gaming RTX 3070ti
      RAM: 32GB 3200MHz corsair rgb pro
      PSU: corsair RM750w
      MOBO: MSI B450 tomahawk max ii
      Cooler: Noctua NH-U12S
      Storage: M.2 western digital 1TB, 2 samsung 860 evo 1TB

      • Have you updated the BIOS at all ? Your OP says you checked it but not that it was updated or changed.

        https://www.msi.com/Motherboard/B450-TOMAHAWK-MAX-II/support

        • Right I should have made that clearer, I had already flashed the current 7C02vHC BIOS before when I was still using the 3600 in order to install the 5700X3D. I checked to ensure it was up to date, which it still is currently.

          Edit previous comment: seller is SZCPU store (not SCPU store)

          • +1

            @BullishBuyer: Only other thing I could think would be fiddling with BIOS settings and disabling the automatic overclocks and boosts but you've probably done all of that too.

            I have an older i5-3570 system which started having similar issues out of the blue, but it wasnt a CPU change that caused that to happen it was a failing ram slot that eventually killed the ram stick inside it.

            • @Astrom: Tbh I didn't think about whether the mobo was automatically overclocking, but after setting BIOS to default for ram/fan curve reset I did note base speed was correct at 3.0GHz so yeah, probably fine on that front.

              Maybe if I was more knowlegeable I could underclock it for stability but at that point it's still not what I paid for.

              Yikes didn't know ram slots can ruin the ram along with it

              • +1

                @BullishBuyer: It's my best guess tbh, the ram stick stopped working in any slot and the slot it lived in for years died too.

                I'd say if you need to undervolt it to get it to work without error then it's probably faulty anyway

      • Did you make any progress?

  • +3

    I have seen some people recommend resetting the CMOS by fully discharging it, not just unplugging it for 10mins.
    https://www.reddit.com/r/ryzen/comments/1dnsifs/update_b450_…
    I think you've tried nearly everything else, except perhaps a 2-step bios upgrade rather than just the latest.
    You've probably done some checking that the chip you have is a real 5700X3D.

    • +1

      This is interesting, I never touched the CMOS but I might learn up on this. Would it make a difference at this point?

      As for the 2 step bios this is news to me as well. But I can confirm I'm on the current "E7C02AMS.HC0" BIOS just like the guy in the link. It simply worked on the first go among happily using the new cpu for about 3 whole weeks simply gaming/trading/general work. Which is why the issue eluded me for an entire week troubleshooting.

      I was about to take it into a local repair technician because I was sure it was a hardware problem (maybe PSU), I figured hey if it is the CPU I can save 90 bucks for a new cpu.

      Turns out it was just the cpu…

    • +1

      Oh yeah I checked the chip via CPUID which should interface with the hardware directly (no software spoofing), and benchmarked with userbenchmark (cringe), and cinebench for a multicore score of 723~ which falls in line with other recorded scores (I think)

  • my guess would be all these cheap deals are chips from the bottom of the binning cycle, which rng accidently passed QA tests

    • Nope. These are non-retail chips. Which are not meant to be sold this way, but China couldn't care less.

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