Two days ago, preorders went live for Intel's newest cutting edge mainstream microprocessor, the Core i9-10900K CPU. Pre-orders opening led to many PC enthusiasts speculating that the chip's release date might be approaching quickly. Though that would be silly, considering the lack of availability for the i9-10900K's required motherboards. Nevertheless, enthusiasts' jaws dropped when, to the surprise of everyone, the CPUs started shipping out from retailers.
Several threads across Reddit and other PC enthusiast forums plot the progress of their CPU being shipped. "But why?" asks one thread maker in the Tech Power Up forums. "I'm going to assume it was accidentally shipped," they write, before adding a screenshot showing that Newegg Business had indeed apparently shipped the 10900K CPU. Most of those replying to the thread would go onto say that it was just a shipping label being created and nothing would come of it. The thread was then closed before an update could be provided.
Another Reddit thread would go on to show that this was not just an instance of a shipping label being created early. mbob43 on Reddit shared that their 10900K CPU was also shipped by Newegg Business. It even left the warehouse and was tracking showed it was on the move. Unfortunately, the last update mbob43 received was that UPS had received a request from the vendor to return the package.
10900K Has Arrived from intel
mbob43 proved to be unlucky, though. That's because at least two other Reddit users have confirmed that their orders have actually been delivered. Users Zen2isWut and woodoouomo both confirmed that their 10900K orders were not only shipped but received. A photo was provided as evidence by Zen2isWut.
Clearly, someone made a serious mistake at Newegg Business. These CPUs were definitely not supposed to be shipped. Luckily, it seems like relatively few were actually delivered. And it's not like the CPUs can be used without access to z490 motherboards, which are currently unavailable.
The entire matter is likely to be moot in just a matter of weeks. Both the Core 19-10900K CPU and z490 motherboards are likely to launch soon. An exact date isn't certain, but the evidence is clear that retailers are itching to get this hardware out of their warehouses. As for whether there will be enough Intel CPUs in stock to meet demand, that's another matter entirely.