Maybe, maybe not. The point is, I can't definitively say who manufactured those cards nor can I be certain of their origin.
Why risk it? I think it's safer to make an informed decision than to just put up with it and hope for the best. That's just my personal way of thinking.
At the end of the day, I didn't get the product I ordered. I was willing to accept the negligible risk of a used, genuine card but I was absolutely not going to accept the risk by using one of dubious origin or authenticity. I think that's fair?
Safer in what way? Are you using these in some kind of mission critical medical or aerospace application? What's the worst that could happen if one fails? How do you know one with an Intel logo on it won't fail? How do you know if one with a logo on it is genuine?
IMO these look totally legit to me, they're *way* too nicely made to be cheap knockoffs. They're OEM cards of a different revision than you're familiar with. At the last hardware company I worked we typically made 4 or 5 different revisions of a product throughout the lifecycle. Same model number, same front panel but we'd use a different RAM chip, a different WiFi chipset, a different power supply, etc. The PCB layout was different, often smaller, the solder mask color was sometimes slightly different, logos were moved around or changed. They were all genuine of course but you could have several different devices that all looked noticeably different inside.
The seller should have used a picture of the exact cards being sold, that's the only thing I can fault them for. You don't seem interested in trying to definitively prove the cards to be fake or defective in some way, you've already decided you don't trust them. The only honest thing to do if you got a refund is return them to the seller.
No, as already stated I was using them at home. You took the word "safer" too literally. I questioned the authenticity of the cards and I made an assessment based on what I had in front of me, my experience and what I knew of this particular model card.
What's the worst that could happen? I lose hundreds of dollars and end up with a bunch of dead cards.
How do I know the fake card wouldn't fail? I don't. I never used them.
How do I know the ones I have are genuine? Because they came from a reputable company that I trust with a tax invoice and all of the concerns I had with the previous cards were not evident on my current lot.
I will admit that they fake cards don't look bad. I've seen far worse and I spent quite a while second-guessing myself and doing some research. And yep, maybe you are right, they could be a different revision. But even if that was true, the heatsink assembly on my current cards is much more solid and fixed to the PCB with better push clips. No to mention the complete lack of any OEM part numbers anywhere, which is unlike Dell, IBM or Lenovo.
It also doesn't negate the sellers suspect responses and behavior. Even now, they have cards listed where they have deliberately blurred out the Intel logo in the photos, why? As I said right from the start before people jumped down my throat, it wasn't just one or two things I suspected, it was a number of different things which didn't sit right with me. Why would I take the risk?
None of the suspicious I have raised would be enough to be concerned about by themselves, but together they start to paint a fairly negative picture. You guys are basing your opinion off one photo, I had the cards in my hand and I had serious doubts.
Yes, you're right, I'm not interested in proving that the cards are fake. I no longer possess them, they were returned to the seller. What more do you want me to do?
I would have loved them to be genuine, it would have saved me the hassle of a return and seeking a refund.