Bought OEM SSD With Scratches and Fingerprints On It

[idata]

Just purchased the 320 120GB SSD OEM from a computer store. I specifically asked if it was open box or used in any way and was told it was 100% new.

It was packaged in a brown cardboard box; within that brown cardboard box, the drive itself was inside a sealed plastic envelope. I cut the envelope open and the first thing I noticed was how scuffed up the drive looked and two fingerprints on the front of the drive.

Is this normal for an OEM SSD? To me, it looks like some used drive that was found in a dumpster somewhere. Performance is fine as far as I can tell.

Any help would be appreciated.

[idata]

The unpolished metal is standard for Intel SSDs. Intel concentrates on the quality of the drives, not the visual appearance of the metal. You will need to find a non-Intel SSD if you like your products to be visually perfect.

As for the fingerprint, it's not unusual on high-end electronics. I would have expected staff to wear gloves, but it's not a big deal if they don't, which could cause fingerprints.

Don't worry about it. Check the powered-on hours value with a SMART application if you're still worried that it has been used for a while.

[idata]

Would you be able to post pictures of the drive in question?

Also, would you also post a screenshot of the SMART values? There should be a value for the number of times it powered on and how many GBs have been written to it. Non-zero values for these is normal but a very high value indicates prior use.