Is Amazon selling open box R6EE MB as new

[rosefire]

After exchanging the first, I have now received a second R6EE board sold by Amazon.com Services LLC in an unsealed box with no static bag around the board inside the box. Given that the successful performance of these boards with high speed memories depends, in part, on the chipset lottery, I don't want to accept an open box board. Would someone please confirm that ASUS MB ship in factory sealed boxes and that the boards in unopened boxes have a protective static bag.

If someone could post a photo of a box seal, it would be awesome.

-Rose

[Hopper64]

My R6EE did not come with either a seal or a bag. I think it allows for the manufacturer to change bios versions before distribution although I’m not entirely sure about that.

[cekeu]

I bought my card from a computer hardware specialist and the box was not sealed and the card was not in an anti static bag. It is asus which thus conditions its boxes from the factory. My card works very well and smelled like new when I opened it.
However, the problem with the unsealed box is that someone with bad intentions can resell a defective card (after overcloaking tests for example) without anyone noticing. Hence the interest in buying its equipment from specialist sellers who offer a reliable commercial guarantee.

[Int8bldr]

You are right to be suspicious! Buying the original R6E, I went through 2 so called "new" (that were open box) boards before I got a real new one. The give away in my case was that the covering plastic films on the various board parts was removed. If that is the case, it is open box.

Worse, as have been mentioned, someone likely tested the board and found it not to be a good OC, found it to be defect or (worse brok it OC-ing) and then just simply returned it using Amazon's return policy.

But, no, the R6EE does not come in a antistatic bag and the box is not sealed so it is not easy to see if someone has used it.
This is a terrible ASUS policy that I do not like! the box should be sealed so you can tell if it is open box or not. the only thing they achieve with this is to make people suspicious...

Anyway, a few other things to look out for that can indicate it is open box.
- generally just first look can give away if someone has used it, e.g. sloppy packaging back in the box, e.g. things are in the wrong compartment etc.
- use gloves to handle the board and look out for finger prints or smearing evidence that someone was trying to wipe away prints. If you find any => open box
- missing foil over the part with the OLED display should cover the whole triangle => open box
- missing foil on the IO shield => open box
- missing foil on the "Republic of Gamers" printed cover over the X299 chip set => open box
- see that all items are neatly packed and stored away in antistatic bags (like the DIMM.2 slot, antennas etc) they should all be in sealed antistatic bags
- manual and all other items are also untouched and unopened etc.

buying my R6EE, I got a brand new one from the start and you feel it immediately when you open it:
- things are in the right place neatly packed.
- no prints
- foils are all where they should be
- there is also some "new feel to it" hard to quantify lol - just by opening the box you feel you are the first...

and if you find any indication that it is open box, do not hesitate but go ahead and return it immediately.
The R6EE board is just too expensive and the risk is simply too high with open boxes!

R6EE is a great board so be sure to get new one.

[rosefire]

Int8bldr wrote:

- missing foil over the part with the OLED display should cover the whole triangle => open box

I'm confused. In my professional vernacular, OLED means "Organic Light Emitting Diode", but I see no LED display on the board and the manual doesn't identify a location for one, but it does identify the location of an OLED header. There isn't a description of how the header is used. Searching the ASUS site I find references to LiveDash software, but hardware that would use the header doesn't seem to be required by the software.

Could you please clarify?

Thanks in advance,

Rose

[Int8bldr]

rosefire wrote:

Int8bldr wrote:

- missing foil over the part with the OLED display should cover the whole triangle => open box

I'm confused. In my professional vernacular, OLED means "Organic Light Emitting Diode", but I see no LED display on the board and the manual doesn't identify a location for one, but it does identify the location of an OLED header. There isn't a description of how the header is used. Searching the ASUS site I find references to LiveDash software, but hardware that would use the header doesn't seem to be required by the software.

Could you please clarify?

Thanks in advance,

Rose

see here: https://www.asus.com/us/Motherboards/ROG-Rampage-VI-Extreme-Encore/

see the OLED display (shows ROG in the picture) that sits on the part next to the IO shield with the
"Rampage VI" text on it. Not quite triangular though more like trapezoid 🙂
This whole part should be covered by a plastic foil sheet on a new board.

[rosefire]

Int8bldr wrote:

rosefire wrote:


see here: https://www.asus.com/us/Motherboards/ROG-Rampage-VI-Extreme-Encore/

see the OLED display (shows ROG in the picture) that sits on the part next to the IO shield ...

Thanks, that explains it. Any idea what's the OLED header on the MB for? There's no corresponding cable or an indication of its purpose

I wish ASUS would put more effort into their manuals. Many of the settings, especially overclocking configuration and fan settings, are not described in my R4BE 's manual.

As for the board being used, all the films are in place , the bags are not wrinkled from handling, there are no fingerprints on anything, The only thing that is suspicious is that the films have steaks, but the same streaks were present on all three boards I've received. It is possible that Amazon wipes them off replacing fingerprints with steaks in the soft plastic films.

My worry about buying a return is a board returned for poor performance or flakiness. I have until May 31 to return the board, which gives me a lot of time to evaluate. I'm hoping to overclock a i9-10940x to 5GHz or more with a custom water loop, and clock four sticks/32GB of G.SKILL TridentZ RGB Series DDR4 4266 at the rated speed. I'm suspecting that a 2133 clock rate will be hard for the CPU's memory controller to achieve, but I was successful at getting quad 2666 to run 24/7 on my R4BE with a '4930.

The hard part is knowing what a good CPU or memory overclock is.

[rosefire]

If I can stop swearing long enough to type this out...

It is very irresponsible for ASUS to sell expensive static-sensitive electronics without a static bag and a seal to assure customers receive new product. There is no way to know if this board was used, refurbished, a performance screening reject, or was returned by a customer for poor performance or intermittent failures. I've been an ASUS fan from the start, but this board is going back. Boom!

I wish I knew the products. What other company's Intel 10th gen boards X299 MB are likely to be good for 5GHz+ overclocking?

[Int8bldr]

In my view te R6EE is still the right board to get. Just need to be careful with what you get and source it from a reputable retailer. Or if you want to buy from Amazon play the return game until you get a board you are 100% conviced is brand new not open box.
I think most it not all ASUS boards these days comes in a unseald card board box and and uses no antistatic bag for the main board (instead they use the rigid PET plastic insert to hold the board in place). So if you want a boad in a seald atistatic bag you need to go to another brand...

I only use ASUS boards for years - honestly - been burned with other brands too many times...

[rosefire]

I've purchased nothing but ASUS motherboards ever since installing Windows 3 on,IIRC, it was '486 motherboard. I'm replacing a Rampage IV Black Edition I bought at release, and which has been running reliably at 4.5GHz with 32GB 2666MHz memory for many years. The only times it's failed me has been a couple occasions when Microsoft released new bugs, and recently when fan died, I'm replacing the R4BE only because my Corsair AIO is suffering from poor circulation, forcing me to back off the overclock to prevent throttling.

I'm surrounded by new hardware, most still in the box, as I'm building my first full custom water loop (D355 pump & Swiftech SKF Heiriloom Series block) using the R6EE and the I9-10940 (I chose it as a compromise between higher core count and a maybe 2-6% faster single core performance at stock speeds vs. the i9-10900, i9-10920x, and i9-10980xe. I wanted the high core count hoping future software will make use of them all. Ironically, Media Monkey is the only program I've seen use all six cores at near 100% on my R4BE with the I7-4930K. None of my PC board electrical design, simulation, or layout programs do.

At any rate, I've now looked at the alternative MB by Gigabit, ASrock , MSI, EVGA, Biostar, and Intel MB (I used to design server motherboards for Intel), and can't bring myself to spend a lot of money buying second rate. I've got until May 31st to return this R6EE, and if it performs poorly it will be exchanged again (4th board). The hard part is likely to be determining what 'poorly' means. I'm going to OC the R6EE using the 4-stick Trident Z F4-4266C17Q-32GTZR memory. Anyone know what clock rate I should expect to achieve?

I should, perhaps, start a new thread for this sort of question.