I am new to the Serve the Home forum, but I have been reading off and on for a while. The last time I bought used NIC's was in the Smoothwall Pentium II days. I received my DELL INTEL I350-T4 THGMP 4-PORT GIGABIT SERVER ADAPTER LOW PROFILE a few days ago via a seller on a popular auction site. I planned to use it in a non-critical HP T730 pfsense build in the next week or so. Crossed my fingers and prayed I would get a genuine used NIC on the cheap. However, it looks like some of the telltale signs of not-genuine are apparent. The NIC was supposed to have been pulled from a server, multiple NIC's were sold from the one listing. The auction pictures seem to indicate the NIC would be used and genuine.
Here are my observations:
1) Photo "nic - 09.jpg" ---> TXC crystal doesn't seem to match the one in the original post back in 2015
2) Photo "nic - 13.jpg" ---> terminals have minimal witness marks & the NIC looks brand new to me.
3) Photo "nic - 15.jpg" +++> heat sink height (size) looks OK
4) Photo "nic - 03.jpg" ---> low profile bracket was added on after "pull"?
5) Photo "nic - 08.jpg" ---> large inductor at the corner seems to be placed on the board slanted, perhaps reworked. Should have been a QC reject? It also doesn't match any I have seen.
6) Photo "nic - 11.jpg" ---> twin inductors seem different from ones in the original post back in 2015.
7) Photo "nic - 12.jpg" +++> word Delta seems to be molded into the ethernet transformers.
8) Photo "INTEL I350-T4 THGMP 4-PORT GIGABIT SERVER ADAPTER LP auction1.png" and "INTEL I350-T4 THGMP 4-PORT GIGABIT SERVER ADAPTER LP auction2".png ==> are screenshots - these are a lower resolution version of what I had to reference before buying. They seem to show a NIC that they was used, which is what I hoped to receive.
Looking forward to the forum's comments. Has anyone successfully returned a suspect Intel NIC ? Hopefully, this will inform others about buying a "used" Intel i350-T4. My education, as is the norm, comes after it was needed.
Look for posts of my HP T730 pfsense build.
Here are my observations:
1) Photo "nic - 09.jpg" ---> TXC crystal doesn't seem to match the one in the original post back in 2015
2) Photo "nic - 13.jpg" ---> terminals have minimal witness marks & the NIC looks brand new to me.
3) Photo "nic - 15.jpg" +++> heat sink height (size) looks OK
4) Photo "nic - 03.jpg" ---> low profile bracket was added on after "pull"?
5) Photo "nic - 08.jpg" ---> large inductor at the corner seems to be placed on the board slanted, perhaps reworked. Should have been a QC reject? It also doesn't match any I have seen.
6) Photo "nic - 11.jpg" ---> twin inductors seem different from ones in the original post back in 2015.
7) Photo "nic - 12.jpg" +++> word Delta seems to be molded into the ethernet transformers.
8) Photo "INTEL I350-T4 THGMP 4-PORT GIGABIT SERVER ADAPTER LP auction1.png" and "INTEL I350-T4 THGMP 4-PORT GIGABIT SERVER ADAPTER LP auction2".png ==> are screenshots - these are a lower resolution version of what I had to reference before buying. They seem to show a NIC that they was used, which is what I hoped to receive.
Looking forward to the forum's comments. Has anyone successfully returned a suspect Intel NIC ? Hopefully, this will inform others about buying a "used" Intel i350-T4. My education, as is the norm, comes after it was needed.
Look for posts of my HP T730 pfsense build.
Attachments
-
633.6 KB Views: 149
-
976.7 KB Views: 146
-
346 KB Views: 127
-
493.6 KB Views: 124
-
473.4 KB Views: 119
-
342.6 KB Views: 121
-
460 KB Views: 117
-
370.7 KB Views: 121
-
707.1 KB Views: 122
-
379.9 KB Views: 126
-
369.7 KB Views: 116