Thanks for the comments. In answer to the questions:
- It was bought from OcUK
- Yes it is OEM. OEM are generally items bought in bulk, split up, then supplied individually in non-retail packaging. To me at least, it should not mean inferior product, just no shiny packaging.
So I spoke to Overclockers and they said that they do bin some chips, when a customer asks for some particularly good chips. But that this is not common and so the vast majority of OEM chips that they supply are not pre-binned. But given that my chip has some marks on it that you guys do not have on your retail chips, I am going to assume that my chip DID go through the rare binning process and that it did not make the grade - if this is the case then my chip has no chance of being a great OC'er. I asked to RMA the chip, and OcUK said yes without any quibble. So I am just posting here, to kind of finish off the thread.
Thank you everyone for your comments that helped me come to this decision. I'll get a retail chip instead. My eyes are now open!
Steve
Imagine if you bought a brand new car, only to find out it had been taken for a ride at high speed by the dealer's employees, to see how fast it could go.
That's similar to what is going on here.
Binned chips that aren't good clockers should be advertised as such, with a suitable discount, but of course, that's never going to happen.
I still remember the hassle I had from another etailer, funnily enough, one of the one's that Gibbo worked for on his hiatus from OCUK.
I only found out after I bought a supposedly brand new monitor from them, that they offered a pixel check policy on monitors for a cost.
Guess what happened to the monitors that had dead pixels?
You guessed it, taped up and sold as new.
Guess what monitor I received?
You're right! A pre-checked for dead pixels one, that had failed and had a couple of them.
Have never bought from that company again.
