Supermicro Board - Issues on arrival

[racielrod]

Hi guys,
Today I received the X9SRL-F board I bought used in ebay.
Everything was fine until I noticed some bent pins on the cpu socket and what seems to be a little bit of thermal compound - pictures attached.
I contacted the seller to let them know about this issue.
Is this common? Normal?
Should I send this back right away?

Please advise.

Thanks!

 

[Danielx]

I would. You could try fixing it. But you risk damaging your cpu, motherboard and or power supply if there is a short in the cpu socket.
Start a return request immediately.

 

[racielrod]

Thanks for your feedback.

I have put together some PCs in the past but always with new hardware and I have never dealt with bent pins in the past.
I thought it was useful to reach out to more experienced guys here which seems to deal with used hardware on a frequently basis.
I searched online and it looks like restoring these pins is not a big deal, but I wanted to sense whether this is something that is "expected" (aka "come on dude, this is ok... just fix those pins and move on") from old hardware or a good reason to send this back.

 

[Chris Moore]

Is this common? Normal?
Should I send this back right away?

Sorry I didn't see this sooner. Where are you with this?
The thermal compound is a total non-issue. It wouldn't make any difference at all unless it was on the pins.
The bent pins all look like they could easily (from my perspective) be straightened out, but you are probably better off returning it. Before you initiate a return through eBay, you should contact the vendor. They may be perfectly happy to do an exchange with you. Any resistance on that and the next step wold be eBay because they have very strong buyer protections.
Sorry this didn't go perfectly.

 

[racielrod]

Sorry I didn't see this sooner. Where are you with this?
The thermal compound is a total non-issue. It wouldn't make any difference at all unless it was on the pins.
The bent pins all look like they could easily (from my perspective) be straightened out, but you are probably better off returning it. Before you initiate a return through eBay, you should contact the vendor. They may be perfectly happy to do an exchange with you. Any resistance on that and the next step wold be eBay because they have very strong buyer protections.
Sorry this didn't go perfectly.

Hi Chris!

I contacted the vendor and we coordinated a replacement very quickly. I sent the original back and they put a replacement on the mail which they carefully checked for bent pins.
Overall a great experience. I will report back but it looks like everything should be fine and I will be getting the other board this week.

Thanks,
R. Rod

 

[racielrod]

Status Update:
Replacement board arrived. Socket pins were perfect this time - the vendor promised they will double check this time.
Just tested the board and it posted, and it seems to be working as expected.

I have to say I have nothing but great things to say about this vendor on ebay: https://www.ebay.com/usr/ocean-tech?ul_noapp=true

Thanks,
R. Rod.