China's largest Core i9-14900K gaming cafe has suffered from instability issues since 2023 — the flagship store has 171 gaming PCs with Core i9-14900K chips

Dongyu E-Sports hosts China's largest Core i9-14900K-equipped gaming cafe. Fast Technology reports that Raptor Lake instability issues dating back to 2023 severely impacted the luxury gaming cafe.

The Core i9-14900K instability at the cafe started early in December 2023, resulting in blue screens. The BSODs were so disruptive that it noticeably affected the cafe's business. When systems were down, dissatisfied consumers were compensated with extra drinks and Internet time.

Dongyu immediately contacted Intel's after-sales support team, technical department, and product department to fix the problem. Partner technicians were also called to jointly provide on-site support to troubleshoot the instability issues occurring on crashing Core i9-14900K gaming rigs.

Troubleshooting revealed that various issues were reportedly contributing to the instability, including power supply problems, heat dissipation problems, and CPU voltage problems. Intel engineers reportedly found the main cause of the instability and reduced the cafe's instability significantly by tweaking "relevant settings."

Later, in 2024, when Intel provided its default settings guidelines, the issue was reportedly "further resolved." Cafe owner Xie Liuqiu commemorated Intel for its assistance and stated that he is determined to continue equipping his chain of internet cafes with Intel's latest Core i9 processors.

"Intel investigates product problems thoroughly, provides support for technical issues, and is reliable in warranty and after-sales service. This responsibility gives me the confidence to make money steadily and at ease and also makes me more determined to continue to equip all new stores with the latest Core i9 processors," said Xie to Fast Technology.

China's largest Core i9-14900K internet cafe is part of a chain of internet cafes owned by Dongyu E-Sports in Yueyang, Hunan. The company has set up six gaming cafes around different parts of the city for a total of 689 PCs where 68% of the gaming rigs utilize and Intel Core i9 CPU. The flagship store has the most Core i9-14900K CPUs, comprised of 171 machines. Each rig has an RTX 4090D GPU and a 540 Hz refresh rate gaming monitor. Mainstream rigs are purportedly equipped with RTX 4070 Super GPUs.

The rigs are about as high-end as it gets. Each Core i9-14900K is manually overclocked to 5.9 GHz, and the system RAM is overclocked to a blisteringly quick 8,533 MHz. The RTX 4090Ds are also overclocked, with speeds of 3.1 GHz on the GPU core and 13 GHz on the memory, respectively. 360mm AIO liquid cooling is employed to keep the CPUs cool.

The gaming cafe is about as luxurious as it gets. Each gaming system is paired with a luxurious gaming chair with high-end peripherals that can recline almost entirely flat. The cafe features a full range of services for hardcore customers, including a QR code for ordering food, toothbrushes, showers, laundry rooms, and a self-service supermarket.