Possible scam?

[Guest]

Trying to buy a 3090 on kijiji (canadian ebay) and asked them to send photos. After a while I get sent these:

 

 

This is for an HP omen 3090 that was pulled from a prebuilt... I compared it to video footage and it seemed correct. Even the (what I thought was) scratching on the memory was similar to the residue left by the thermal pads in various videos.

 

So it seemed fine, originally, but looking on the back there seems to be some issues. On the left and right it's a bit too shiny, and I'm no GPU expert but it seems to be water damage or flux or something? I was wondering if you guys knew what it was, and knew if this was a damaged card.

[Guest]

Update: They replied saying that it was "oil" from the thermal pads. Unsure if that is true...

[RONOTHAN##]

It could be a very oily thermal pad, it doesn't look super out of the ordinary. It's more than I'd expect but it doesn't look like it should prevent the card from working

 

That said, I'd avoid HP cards. They are known for putting the worst VRMs on a GPU you can find and thus they power throttle like crazy. It's worth the extra $50-100 to get a card from an actual AIB rather than this card. 

[An0maly_76]

+1 on RONOTHAN -- After my experience with a prebuilt, I would never buy another, nor touch components that came from one.

[Guest]

1 hour ago, RONOTHAN## said:

It could be a very oily thermal pad, it doesn't look super out of the ordinary. It's more than I'd expect but it doesn't look like it should prevent the card from working

 

That said, I'd avoid HP cards. They are known for putting the worst VRMs on a GPU you can find and thus they power throttle like crazy. It's worth the extra $50-100 to get a card from an actual AIB rather than this card. 

I know its not ideal, but its a good price (used), so it's worth it for me. I still need to figure out a thermal solution though, like I said in my last post lmao

[RONOTHAN##]

4 hours ago, Noahew12 said:

I know its not ideal, but its a good price (used), so it's worth it for me. I still need to figure out a thermal solution though, like I said in my last post lmao

How good of a price? Odds are this will perform worse than most 3080s, so it better be a hell of a deal unless you absolutely need the VRAM. Plus if it's just the PCB, you'll have to jury rig a custom cooler on it, which aren't something you really want to be running unless absolutely necessary.

[TexasBulldog74]

6 hours ago, Noahew12 said:

Update: They replied saying that it was "oil" from the thermal pads. Unsure if that is true...

Could very well be.  I had a similar experience with GPU pads that scared the ever living crap out of me when i pulled my old GPU apart.  I was the original owner and knew i never spilled anything in my system.  Its a very thin greasy feel to it.

[Guest]

15 hours ago, RONOTHAN## said:

How good of a price? Odds are this will perform worse than most 3080s, so it better be a hell of a deal unless you absolutely need the VRAM. Plus if it's just the PCB, you'll have to jury rig a custom cooler on it, which aren't something you really want to be running unless absolutely necessary.

900 CAD. Seems too good to be true, which is why I'm taking these precautions.

[RONOTHAN##]

2 minutes ago, Noahew12 said:

900 CAD. Seems too good to be true, which is why I'm taking these precautions.

For $200 more CAD you can get a brand new 3080 10GB that will likely perform just as well as that 3090 (since again, it'll likely power throttle like crazy) but you won't have to deal with getting a universal heatsink on there and cooling it (which with how power hungry 3090s are, is genuinely a problem keeping the VRM and memory cool). You'll probably spend $100-150 getting a heatsink to work on that card, so basically for an extra $50-100 you could get a card that you won't have to deal with all the headache of. 

 

Plus you can look at used 3080s, odds are you'll find one in pretty similar shape for about the same price, and you won't have to worry about getting a heatsink attached to it. 

[xmanrigger]

$900 is a decent deal if is a full-fledged 3090 and works proper. You would likely have to put a waterblock on it anyways. Kinda looks like that is what the former owner did. If there is a block available from Heatkiller or EK, go for it. If not, I would pass on it.

 

As others said, that very well could be just remnants of greasy thermal padding. Or TIM from the memory chips smeared all over. I use TIM on memory, so maybe that person did too.