CPU scratch on delivery

[Duothus]

Hi,

 

So I am upgrading a desktop pc from an i7-5820k to a xeon 2660v4. I will be using this system for rendering in maya. I bought the cpu at a really good price at 73CAD from Amazon. The seller used DHL to ship the item. I was so excited to receive it but as I was unwrapping it, I noticed a cut through the bubble wrap that went deep down to the product. I unwrapped it and the cpu plastic bag had a cut on it. I prayed that it was just the bag. But when I took the cpu out, it had a nasty gash on the heat spreader. It was so disheartening. I contacted the seller on Amazon but I also wanted to check, in case there's any issue returning it, if this was significant damage or just cosmetic. This likely happened during customs check. I wish they would take more care with these packages, but I'm guessing they don't really care.

 

Please check the attached files for reference.

 

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

 

Thank you.

[Bombastinator]

How much does the cut affect the flatness of things?  Doesn’t look like a lot.  I’d mount it and see if it cools ok.  If it does, ignore it.  If it doesn’t you may have to lap it.

[RONOTHAN##]

It's towards the edge of the chip, and it doesn't look all that deep. Odds are it's not going to affect cooling performance at all, so I'd just run it as is. 

[Elijah Horner]

Theoretically you are adding more surface area so it will be cooler

 

But in all seriousness its probably fine.  Add thermal paste and test, if it seems off or weird then you for sure know you have an issue

[Bombastinator]

There’s a weird sort of outline of the chip internals on the spreader implying it was installed with a whole lot of force at one time.

[Bombastinator]

2 minutes ago, Elijah Horner said:

Theoretically you are adding more surface area so it will be cooler

 

But in all seriousness its probably fine.  Add thermal paste and test, if it seems off or weird then you for sure know you have an issue

This might actually be the case considering the indentation of the spreader.  What frequently happens is the raised part of a scratch will keep it from contacting directly but that may already be happening so the raising might actually be good.

[Godlygamer23]

It won't affect performance. The copper may corrode, but that'll be okay as well. Otherwise, I think the seller should honor any return and package things more properly. They should be assuming people will be careless whenever they're unpacking something, including taking a knife to it and quickly cutting open the package. 

[Duothus]

30 minutes ago, Bombastinator said:

How much does the cut affect the flatness of things?  Doesn’t look like a lot.  I’d mount it and see if it cools ok.  If it does, ignore it.  If it doesn’t you may have to lap it.

Thanks, I'll give it a try once i hear back from the seller. I don't really have the equipment to lap it right now.

[Duothus]

24 minutes ago, RONOTHAN## said:

It's towards the edge of the chip, and it doesn't look all that deep. Odds are it's not going to affect cooling performance at all, so I'd just run it as is. 

Thanks, I'll give it a try.

[Duothus]

23 minutes ago, Elijah Horner said:

Theoretically you are adding more surface area so it will be cooler

 

But in all seriousness its probably fine.  Add thermal paste and test, if it seems off or weird then you for sure know you have an issue

hahahaha. I found that funny and relieving. How do i know if it is off?

[Duothus]

20 minutes ago, Bombastinator said:

This might actually be the case considering the indentation of the spreader.  What frequently happens is the raised part of a scratch will keep it from contacting directly but that may already be happening so the raising might actually be good.

haha. happy little accident then.

[Duothus]

10 minutes ago, Godlygamer23 said:

It won't affect performance. The copper may corrode, but that'll be okay as well. Otherwise, I think the seller should honor any return and package things more properly. They should be assuming people will be careless whenever they're unpacking something, including taking a knife to it and quickly cutting open the package. 

I agree about packaging. And there was even a message saying that customs checks begin before the item arrives at the border. They need to do more than bubble wrap and card board for sensitive items. But I'll do some tests and check, thanks.

[Duothus]

26 minutes ago, Bombastinator said:

There’s a weird sort of outline of the chip internals on the spreader implying it was installed with a whole lot of force at one time.

Woah, I did not notice that. I'll give it another look.

[Bombastinator]

15 minutes ago, Duothus said:

Woah, I did not notice that. I'll give it another look.

Probably won’t affect much besides flatness.  So again it may or may not matter.  Still a “mount it and see if there even is a problem” thing.

[Duothus]

1 hour ago, Bombastinator said:

Probably won’t affect much besides flatness.  So again it may or may not matter.  Still a “mount it and see if there even is a problem” thing.

cool. thanks.

[r00tb33r]

Take a partial refund if they offer and use it as-is.  It doesn't affect it's functionality.

[Bombastinator]

4 minutes ago, r00tb33r said:

Take a partial refund if they offer and use it as-is.  It doesn't affect it's functionality.

True.  Asking for free money has its points.

[Beerzerker]

13 hours ago, Duothus said:

Thanks, I'll give it a try once i hear back from the seller. I don't really have the equipment to lap it right now.

All you really need is a piece of fine sandpaper to be sure there isn't a ridge from the cut holding the cooler/block off from making good contact across it's surface.
Once you get that leveled off, if a ridge is there and you get this level to the rest it will be OK.

Many will lap the entire lid anyway to create a flatter surface for better cooler/block surface contact anyway, but in this case just going along the line of the slice with a small piece of sandpaper and smoothing that out will be sufficient, letting TIM fill in the groove and do it's thing.
Also helps it's not at or close to the center of the chip which is a good thing here.

[Elijah Horner]

17 hours ago, Duothus said:

hahahaha. I found that funny and relieving. How do i know if it is off?

You'd know its off by crazy high temps, like way more than you would expect.  If its off by a handful its probably fine, but if you are idle at like 70C then yeah something may be wrong.

To be fair it may also just be wrong because the chip is bad and the scratch had nothing to do with it.  But yeah test and test and you'll be able to tell

[Godlygamer23]

1 hour ago, Elijah Horner said:

You'd know its off by crazy high temps, like way more than you would expect.  If its off by a handful its probably fine, but if you are idle at like 70C then yeah something may be wrong.

To be fair it may also just be wrong because the chip is bad and the scratch had nothing to do with it.  But yeah test and test and you'll be able to tell

I don't think the scratch itself would affect temperatures like that anyway. Something else would have to be wrong for that to occur. 

[Bombastinator]

4 minutes ago, Godlygamer23 said:

I don't think the scratch itself would affect temperatures like that anyway. Something else would have to be wrong for that to occur. 

It could but probably won’t.  If there is a curl fo example that makes only that point connect there will be a problem. I don’t see one though.  It’s a shallow scratch on the edge of where the silicon is.  This is why “mount it and see if it even matters” is step one.

[Godlygamer23]

2 minutes ago, Bombastinator said:

It could but probably won’t.  If there is a curl fo example that makes only that point connect there will be a problem. I don’t see one though.  It’s a shallow scratch on the edge of where the silicon is.  This is why “mount it and see if it even matters” is step one.

I'm not seeing any evidence of there being a curl. The knife went across and removed some of the nickel, and probably copper. The die itself wasn't affected by that, and that area can be filled with thermal material - not a perfect situation, but doubtful the CPU temperatures will be affected that much. Maybe a few degrees at most. 

 

If it's thermal throttling, it's probably caused by what's going on under the heatspreader, or how the cooler was mounted. 

 

That said, I am of the opinion that the OP should return the part and if nothing else, at least get some money back. The packaging was insufficient. You should always assume people will be sloppy with handling, including when cutting open the package. 

[Bombastinator]

3 hours ago, Godlygamer23 said:

I'm not seeing any evidence of there being a curl. The knife went across and removed some of the nickel, and probably copper. The die itself wasn't affected by that, and that area can be filled with thermal material - not a perfect situation, but doubtful the CPU temperatures will be affected that much. Maybe a few degrees at most. 

 

If it's thermal throttling, it's probably caused by what's going on under the heatspreader, or how the cooler was mounted. 

 

That said, I am of the opinion that the OP should return the part and if nothing else, at least get some money back. The packaging was insufficient. You should always assume people will be sloppy with handling, including when cutting open the package. 

I personally would only be accepting of a completely full refund where I returned the part, or a partial one where I didn’t.  I think the thing is most probably still usable and I wouldn’t take a partial refund and then return the thing.  This includes shipping btw.  Not a penny.

[Godlygamer23]

4 hours ago, Bombastinator said:

I think the thing is most probably still usable and I wouldn’t take a partial refund and then return the thing.  This includes shipping btw.  Not a penny.

Taking a partial refund was just that. A partial refund. I was not including returning the product. 

[Duothus]

Thanks everyone,

 

All they offered was either a full refund and return or a 50% refund. There was no exchange involved and honestly even if I asked for an exchange who's to say they wouldn't make the same packing mistake again. I decided to keep it and take the partial refund. At least I got my shipping costs back which means at 46CAD, this guy was a steal to begin with. I'm going to pop it in and see how it goes. I will try and smoothen out the edge. It is shallow and on the surface. This processor will be in a old side desktop which is more a gaming system than my main work horse. The idea was to convert it into a render engine since I have it lying around and the motherboard accepts xeons. The renders I do will be more for personal projects, my little mad scientist's lab if you will. All my student and commercial work happens through my studio laptop. If the desktop runs well, I'll make the switch .

 

Again, thank you to all who responded, you guys got me through this without a scratch (pun intended). I'll update this thread to let you know how it goes.

 

Stay frosty.