What to look for when buying a used motherboard

[lmeneses]

So, I have recently started to explore the used parts spectrum of pc components, and I am just wondering what are the key things to look for when buying

[Enderman]

That it works.

[lmeneses]

1 minute ago, Enderman said:

That it works.

Oh, huh, makes sense

[Fasauceome]

whether or not it includes an I/O shield

[lmeneses]

1 minute ago, fasauceome said:

whether or not it includes an I/O shield

That is actually something I never thought about 

[aezakmi]

Ignore the joke comments

 

Look for scratches, damaged or missing capacitors, low quality repairs like big pools of solder in a certain point (typical DIY repair done following a youtube tutorial video), socket status, slots, headers and connectors

if a connector seems burnt or slightly deformed then the board has been put through a lot of stress and probably (usually tbh) some of the VRMs are faulty or dead

 

[Imbellis]

You should keep an eye out for torn off resistors and bent pins (depending on the motherboard).

[lmeneses]

6 minutes ago, Imbellis said:

You should keep an eye out for torn off resistors and bent pins (depending on the motherboard).

Ok, if I'm not mistaken, I wouldn't have to worry about bent pins for a AMD mobo right?

[Imbellis]

3 minutes ago, lmeneses said:

Ok, if I'm not mistaken, I wouldn't have to worry about bent pins for a AMD mobo right?

On all AMD cpu/mobos that I know of, the pins are on the CPU; however, there are other pins (from fan and front-IO headers) that can be bent.

[lmeneses]

1 minute ago, Imbellis said:

On all AMD cpu/mobos that I know of, the pins are on the CPU; however, there are other pins (from fan and front-IO headers) that can be bent.

Yea, as far as I can tell on a board I'm looking at, all the pins and capacitors look good, and it comes with all the original accessories, box, and anti-static wrap.

[Enderman]

12 hours ago, aezakmi said:

Ignore the joke comments

It's not a joke.

Literally the best way to know you're not getting scammed is to actually test the component and see that it works before buying it.

[Fasauceome]

2 hours ago, Enderman said:

It's not a joke.

Literally the best way to know you're not getting scammed is to actually test the component and see that it works before buying it.

Yeah sometimes people will list something as "used" and then outline that it doesn't work In the description, easy to miss.

[Enderman]

1 hour ago, fasauceome said:

Yeah sometimes people will list something as "used" and then outline that it doesn't work In the description, easy to miss.

People list used parts that are actually dead all the time.

Especially places like ebay.

[Lord Letto]

19 hours ago, fasauceome said:

whether or not it includes an I/O shield

Also if it's something like a AMD socket AM4 board, Make sure it got a CPU retention bracket so you can use a CPU cooler to prevent the CPU from cooking without one.