The warehouse and laboratory is in Costa Rica and is known as the Long-Term Retention Lab. Access to the building is strictly controlled and approved by senior managers, while surveillance cameras watch the equipment at all times. Even its location is secret -- Intel representatives declined to say where exactly it is.

General manager of Intel's product assurance and security unit Mohsen Fazlian said the lab brings commercial value to Intel citing company research that shows customers are more likely to buy technology from manufacturers that proactively test their products.

The lab has changed Intel's product development. All new technology is now built with the facility in mind, with technical documentation created to allow engineers to support it for up to 10 years, and units are sent to the lab before they are released, Fazlian said.

This means that Fazlian does not  search eBay for Intel hardware.