Question Scratched my new motherboard, what should I do?

[weztmarch]

This is my second Gigabyte Z390 Aorus Pro WiFi from Amazon. The first one had a few bent fan headers, so I exchanged it. This time around I managed to damage it all by myself while installing a defective ("refurbished" by authorized partner on eBay) ASUS RTX 2080 graphics card. I didn't realize soon enough that the I/O shield was bent (and many other things wrong with it I soon learned), and it scratched the ---- out of the Audio cover(?) plus another scratch on my brand new board. One scratch exposed a tiny sliver of copper on the board's surface. What is the prognosis? Should I RMA the board now for a refund or does it look safe to boot? I have all new components besides that crappy GPU and I have not tested it yet with anything. I would have to get a full refund now if it's unsafe because they won't exchange it again. Please see photos and share advice. Thanks

https://imgur.com/95GvIEz

View: https://imgur.com/95GvIEz

https://imgur.com/P232Pk0

View: https://imgur.com/P232Pk0

 

[MrN1ce9uy]

If it boots then it's likely fine. It doesn't look "unsafe".
Start buying motherboards with shields over that area like the Z390 Aorus Ultra or the Asus Prime Z390-A. Or, just be more careful.

 

[drea.drechsler]

Can't be sure...but that looks like a painted metal shield covering the audio section, possibly to attenuate electrical noise and distortion. The scratches are cosmetic. Just ignore it.

Or cover it up with a DeadHead sticker:

 

[weztmarch]

Everything booted fine. 20 Minutes of Prime95 revealed no errors as of yet. I will do some memtest and other stuff when I get home tonight.

Thanks for everyone who responded. Also, that scratch is much smaller than it may appear in the photograph.

Edit: Will test with OCCT LinPack & RealBench, too. So glad the board is working. Also, a sticker is a really good idea thanks!