[SOLVED] New motherboard has a few light scratches out of the box - acceptable?

[ut0pia]

I just finished my new build and am quite happy because everything worked out well and seems to be running fine. The only thing thats worrying me a little are some light scratches on the backside of the motherboard I used (MSI Tomahawk Max). I detected them when I installed an SSD. I can't guarantee but I'm quite sure that those have been there out of the box because A I was extremely cautios when I installed the board and other components and B those scratches actually can not be caused by the standoffs in my case as how they are positioned.

As I said evertything seems to be working and I also checked the scratches with a little jewelers magnifier where I couldn't see any copper. But it was a little difficult to check because the board was already installed and to be honest I didn't want to take it out again.

What do you think? Is it okay?

 

[COLGeek]

Looks completely harmless/cosmetic. I would not worry about those at all.

 

[Chris David]

Depends on who you are, its cosmetic as the previous post states, but if I were you, I'd get it replaced, because you are paying money for it and when you do, you should always expect the best, by best, getting what you paid for without any scratches, bumps or other stuff.

 

[Zerk2012]

Looks like nothing to me and sending it back would probably end up with you receiving it right back again since you already installed everything. Installation error is the first thing they will say if it was still in the sealed package it might be different.

 

[falcon291]

Depends on who you are, its cosmetic as the previous post states, but if I were you, I'd get it replaced, because you are paying money for it and when you do, you should always expect the best, by best, getting what you paid for without any scratches, bumps or other stuff.

They would check the mainboard and see everything works fine, and then return the mainboard back, and even if there is something wrong with the mainboard, it is easy to tell for them to say that you did it. If you checked it before installing the CPU it is of course another story. But even then, I would install the CPU, and after seeing it works fine, I would not bother to send it for a replacement.

I would not bother to send it for a replacement.

 

[Zerk2012]

They would check the mainboard and see everything works fine, and then return the mainboard back, and even if there is something wrong with the mainboard, it is easy to tell for them to say that you did it. If you checked it before installing the CPU it is of course another story. But even then, I would install the CPU, and after seeing it works fine, I would not bother to send it for a replacement.

I would not bother to send it for a replacement.

He has everything installed and the PC is working fine.

 

[ut0pia]

Thanks for the response guys. Just wanted to ease my mind a little bit. Returning this board is not an option for me because as you said everything is already installed. A lesson I learned is that almost no products come in perfect condition because this is only a matter of how high your standards are concerning manufacturing tolerances and quality control. This actually holds true for smartphones, computer components etc.

In this case those are really small marks and I posted this to make sure you can confirm this is only superficial and can safely be ignored. Otherwise I would have thought about RMA but those scratches are hidden away in the case and don't bother me at all. As I couldn't make out any performance problems, knew that the board probably came from the factory like this and by confirmation from you I can now fully enjoy the board. Thanks again!