Scratch marks at the rear of motherboard-cause for concern??

Today as i was cleaning the interiors of my pc,i observed that there were a couple of fine scratch like curvy lines at the rear side of the motherboard.

This was a new motherboard that was purchased only last year-and during installation i had handled it very carefully,so i know that in all likelihood those scratches were pre-existing and i didn't cause them.

Is it normal for motherboards to have such scuff marks or scratches?The mainboard in question is a gigabyte b460 m d3h.

The front side housing various components look completely ok though and has no scratches at all.

Are those scratches likely to cause any problems in the long run?I feel bad for not checking the motherboard thoroughly after purchase and making sure that its free from any defects.And its not possible to obtain a replacement now as it was purchased nearly 6 months ago.

The pc works well,but occasionally exhibits problems while starting up (such as power cycling etc).Could it be the result of those scratches?

Please see the photos and let me know whether i need to be worried about the scratches or not.

these type of scratches form when soldered pcbs are stacked on each other. It seems that someone had stacked it over backside of another mobo. after stacking it was probably moved causing these long scratches.

from pictures, i dont think any trace has been damaged rather it has only scratched solder mask. But you need to be carefull To not get it scratched further as it may be prone to it.

It seems the quality control measures taken by Gigabyte have become quite sub-par these days.A while ago i was talking to someone who said that he bought a new GB motherboard,only to find during installation that it had bent pins in the cpu socket .Luckily the place where he bought it from was known to him and so he talked them into replacing the board.

This is something one does not expect from a well known brand like theirs-i have seen cheaper boards made by zebronics etc which seem to have much better overall build quality and no sratches/scuff marks at all,yet a nearly 10k board from GB has such nasty scratches at its rear!

I think i will avoid GB from now on.

I was wondering something-even though these scratches are not causing any issues now,should i replace this board anyway?I could sell it off and replace it with a new b560 or b460 board from another brand. It would be very irksome to replace it later on if it develops any other serious issues.

quicky008 said:
I was wondering something-even though these scratches are not causing any issues now,should i replace this board anyway?I could sell it off and replace it with a new b560 or b460 board from another brand. It would be very irksome to replace it later on if it develops any other serious issues.

Best to do that as soon as possible.

Although the scratches are very thin to cause major damage, but the area has become prone and any further minor scratch can cause issues.

So better to replace it.

all right,so i think as a replacement it would be better to go for a 11th gen ready ie b560 motherboard instead of my old b460,right?

If you have the budget and your config supports it, yes, go for new B560.

i have read hat certain b560 motherboards enforce the 65W tdp limit,thereby causing some cpus to run at a lower clock frequency.

Does this problem affect only 11th gen cpus or older 10th gen models as well?

UPDATE:

m.2 disabled with 10th gen cpu on B560

Found the above article on MSI's website-Does M.2 not work on a b560 motherboard when 10th gen intel cpu is installed?

Although i am not using any m.2 drives at the moment,its still quite annoying to think that these mobos lose one of their major functionalities when an older 10th gen cpu is used.

MSI claims that they have developed a workaround to resolve this problem on some of their mobos,but i was thinking of getting an Asus motherboard,and i am not sure whether
Asus supports m.2 with 10th gen cpus on their motherboards.Can anyone shed any light on this issue?