Today, two renowned retailers in Pakistan surprisingly have a few of these unannounced CPUs already listed and available for purchase.
The First Raptor Lake-S Non-K Shipment
Over at Junaid Tech and Computer Zone, the i5-13400, i7-13700, and i7-13700F are up for sale openly. Junaid Tech lists the i5-13400 as “In Stock” while the latter two are listed as “On Order Only“. Currently, only the following three SKUs are present from the full Raptor Lake lineup. The interesting part is that both retailers have pinpoint specifications for these CPUs.
Core i7-13700 & i7-13700F
These listings have also given us an idea regarding Intel’s possible pricing strategy. Although, one should note that due to political and economic instabilities in Pakistan, the USD to PKR conversion rate fluctuates everyday. In addition, the strict import restrictions have also caused the prices of various tech products, such as monitors, to skyrocket. Therefore, these numbers will not correspond to global launch prices. Update 2: Junaid Tech listings are back up but the one Computer Zone listing is down.
i5-13400 | Rs. 71,999 or $313 USDi7-13700 | Rs. 116,999 or $508 USDi7-13700F | Rs. 102,999 or $447 USD
(The prices in USD were calculated by using a conversion rate of $1 = 230 PKR)
Further Shenanigans
One source told us that the stock is already available with a key distributor in the country. Basically, this major unnamed distributor is the source behind these CPUs making Junaid Tech and Computer Zone resellers. This means that Pakistan is the first country in the world to not just have the Raptor Lake Non-K CPUs listed but in stock and available for purchase. For the record, Spectra are the official distributors of Intel in Pakistan but it doesn’t seem like they are the ones supplying these CPUs from the back-end. Another source told us that Spectra doesn’t even deal in latest products, and that their after sales service is unsatisfactory. This could explain why they lack control over the local market, enough to let gray channels thrive. There’s still a good month left before Intel will showcase the remaining Raptor Lake lineup along with the B760/H770 motherboards. Apart from these three CPUs, no other upcoming product has been listed online, anywhere. All things considered, the budget-oriented 13th-generation SKUs will be a major hurdle for AMD’s Non-X Ryzen 7000 CPUs. Currently, we have not come across any benchmark of the Non-K Raptor Lake CPUs. As for the entire lineup, we’re looking at a total of 16 unannounced CPUs spreading across the i3/i5 and i7 families. Stay tuned at Appuals for more exclusives like this.