A simple check with a magnet was the final clue that made Thermal Grizzly realise it had been hit by a 40,000 euro metal scam

A simple check with a magnet was the final clue that made Thermal Grizzly realise it had been hit by a 40,000 euro metal scam | PC Gamer Skip to main content Open menu Close main menu PC Gamer THE GLOBAL AUTHORITY ON PC GAMES US Edition UK US Canada Australia Subscribe Sign in View Profile Sign out Search Search PC Gamer Games Hardware News Reviews Guides Video Forum More PC Gaming Show PC Gamer Clips Software Codes Coupons Movies & TV Magazine Newsletter Affiliate links Meet the team Community guidelines About PC Gamer PC Gamer Magazine SubscriptionWhy subscribe?Subscribe to the world’s #1 PC gaming magTry a single issue or save on a subscriptionIssues delivered straight to your door or device From$1Subscribe now Don’t miss these Hardware ‘I think the fact that everything is scarce is fantastic for us’ says Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang ‘…in a world of constraint, you have no choice but to choose the best’ Hardware UK games collector raided by police after purchasing £10,000 worth of hardware, including old dev kits, disposed of by Sega Graphics Cards Nvidia’s RTX 5070 leaps to top of the Steam Hardware Survey but something looks fishy in the figures Memory Explainer: The RAMpocalypse is making memory, SSDs, and even GPUs much more expensive, and it’s all down to AI Hardware YouTuber sets out to cool a CPU with infinite ice loop machine and actually achieves it Graphics Cards Users are reporting MSI’s yellow-tipped GPU power cables are sneaking out of place, putting graphics cards at increased risk Memory Yes, Chinese DRAM is fine for gaming but don’t think for one moment that any of it is a bargain SSDs Unfortunately, all of that doomsaying last year was correct and SSD prices are surging as a result of the memory crisis Hardware ‘We expect supply constraints to be the headwind to gaming in Q1 and beyond’ says Nvidia, although it claims demand and inventory levels are ‘healthy’ Gaming PCs This creator extraordinaire has built a gaming PC attached to a Victorian cast-iron radiator that is fully integrated into the cooling system, and I am in complete awe Memory ‘As DRAM prices continue to rise, protecting product authenticity has become increasingly important’: Corsair changes Vengeance DDR5 packaging in bid to deter scams Graphics Cards If I had just set a new world record for GPU overclocking, I’d surely be making a lot more fuss about it than AMD has Hardware ‘TSMC needs to work very hard this year because I need a lot of wafers’ says Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang outside a ‘trillion-dollar dinner’ for top tech manufacturers in Taiwan Processors Both Intel and AMD have warned Chinese customers of delays on server CPU shipments, report says, as AI demand begins to eat into the processor market Graphics Cards Nvidia is reportedly looking to cut gaming GPU production by up to 40% in 2026 due to VRAM supply issues, but it’s not as bad news as you might think. Not yet, at least PopularNEW: PC Gamer Clips!MarathonArc RaidersBest PC gearQuizzes Hardware A simple check with a magnet was the final clue that made Thermal Grizzly realise it had been hit by a 40,000 euro metal scam News By Nick Evanson published 9 March 2026 Copper’s great for coolers but not so great when you need to buy several tons of the stuff. When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission. Here’s how it works. Copy link Facebook X Whatsapp Reddit Pinterest Flipboard Email Share this article 0 Join the conversation Follow us Add us as a preferred source on Google Newsletter PC Gamer Get the PC Gamer Newsletter Keep up to date with the most important stories and the best deals, as picked by the PC Gamer team. Contact me with news and offers from other Future brands Receive email from us on behalf of our trusted partners or sponsors By submitting your information you agree to the Terms & Conditions and Privacy Policy and are aged 16 or over. You are now subscribed Your newsletter sign-up was successful Want to add more newsletters? Every Friday GamesRadar+ Your weekly update on everything you could ever want to know about the games you already love, games we know you’re going to love in the near future, and tales from the communities that surround them. Signup + Every Thursday GTA 6 O’clock Our special GTA 6 newsletter, with breaking news, insider info, and rumor analysis from the award-winning GTA 6 O’clock experts. Signup + Every Friday Knowledge From the creators of Edge: A weekly videogame industry newsletter with analysis from expert writers, guidance from professionals, and insight into what’s on the horizon. Signup + Every Thursday The Setup Hardware nerds unite, sign up to our free tech newsletter for a weekly digest of the hottest new tech, the latest gadgets on the test bench, and much more. 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Now he’s back again on the subject of copper, but this time highlighting a more alarming and depressing side of the current market: industrial-scale material fraud.Hartung describes the whole situation in painful detail via his YouTube channel, starting with a breakdown of why Thermal Grizzly needs several tons of copper and aluminium. These materials are milled to produce GPU water blocks, such as TG’s DeltaMate Astral. Unable to source them at a sensible cost in Europe, Hartung turned to China’s vast metal market.In the video, he goes through all the checks he went through to ensure that the products being ordered were fit for purpose, and after being satisfied with all the evidence presented, Thermal Grizzly placed their orders with two separate suppliers, one for just copper, the other for aluminium and copper. You may like Oh great, now copper prices are ‘surging’ and threatening to make PC hardware even more expensive It looks like even power supplies and CPU coolers are set to rise in price, but AI isn’t to blame this time The RAMpocalypse has developed a whole new style of scam: one unlucky gamer opened a sealed box of new DDR5 memory from Amazon only to find two sticks of DDR2 Several weeks later, multiple pallets of metal arrived in Germany, upon which the company’s usual quality control checks began.