Intel has announced that it is switching out the massive boxes it uses for the Core i9 10900K for more modest packaging (via PC Watch). The large plastic and cardboard boxes it currently uses will be replaced on February 28, although it may take a while for the new packaging to filter through, and you can expect to see both types for a while.
The reason for this is simple—it means it can fit more than three times as many chips on to a pallet as it does currently. It's all about shipping, you see, and moving around a lot of mostly empty boxes is not quite as efficient as Intel would have hoped. Currently, it can only get 480 of the oversized boxes on a pallet, while the switch to the normal packaging will allow it to 1,620 units on the same pallet. That's 3.375 times as many.
This can only be seen as good news, and hopefully could mean we see an end to some of the ridiculous packaging used for high-end chips. While I understand the need to make the halo product in its chip line up feel special, it feels like Intel has left reason behind.
It had to pull a similar move with the dodecahedron packaging used with the 9th generation top-end chip, the Core i9 9900K.
