If you been in the overclocking or high-performance game for the last half-decade or so, you might’ve heard of this specialist store called Silicon Lottery. Named after the random nature of CPUs to have higher potential than others, the Silicon Lottery store built its name on offering CPUs that are above average to what are known as “golden samples”.
Sadly, the store is now announcing their closure by October 31st. They will fulfill orders up to end of November but no further orders can be made past the 31st of October.
The company has posted a closure notice in the site denoting the reason for their closure with increasing potentials from current-gen CPU as well as Intel’s decision to return to soldered TIM which prior to Coffee Lake CPUs, where using loose thermal paste post-Sandy Bridge. COVID19 was also a nail in the coffin as it hurt the business as well.
The full store notice is below:
Our online store will be closing on October 31, 2021. Any orders placed for our delidding service will need to be delivered to us by November 30, 2021 for completion. For warranty or other assistance after we close the store, contact us at the email listed on your packing slip.
We have had a fantastic time these past seven years at Silicon Lottery. This business has grown and made an impact on so many people, more than I ever imagined was possible. I personally appreciate all of you that I’ve been able to talk with over these years, from troubleshooting to general questions to speculation. It’s been so easy to connect with so many of you through this hobby we share.
We’re shutting down not for just one reason, but for a combination of many. As you may be aware, overclocking headroom has been dwindling these past several years with manufacturers offering higher frequencies at stock, better boosting algorithms, and tighter bins between models which reduces overclock frequency variation (the 11900K is essentially a binned 11700K, so with the 11900K we’re binning what has already been fairly heavily binned). This type of product segmentation is nothing new, but having such minor differences between two models is a more recent shift. Intel has also switched from a polymer TIM back to a solder TIM starting with their 9th generation CPUs, which has reduced the thermal benefits achieved from delidding. In addition, supply issues have taken a major toll on us, even before the pandemic started. Our orders with distributors for the last few releases have been nightmares of delays upon delays.
With all of this in mind, sales have fallen below the point where it makes sense for us to keep the store open. We know many of you are eagerly wanting Alder Lake CPUs, and we’re sorry that we won’t be able to fulfill your needs this time. We have seen your emails rolling in these past couple of weeks, and we’re sorry for not getting back to you guys earlier as we’ve been busy juggling this decision.
While we will be closed for the foreseeable future, it’s not necessarily goodbye forever. If things change in the market, in particular if overclocking headroom and variation increases for whatever reason, it’s possible we will get things rolling again.
We wish all of you the best, and to keep having fun tweaking hardware!
– Silicon Lottery
