What could have been happened to this mainboard?

[framebuffer]

I have this ASUS X99-A since a while (it's second hand) but only recently I noticed that the board is missing two PCIe slots

I don't understand, my first guess was that it could be some low end version of the board but as you can see in the picture of the box the slots are present (and the serial numbers on the board and on the box are matching, so it's the original box)
If you look closely the slots seem to have been ripped off, but I wonder if this would even be possible without damaging the PCB

Any idea? BTW the board works just fine

 

[TheoneandonlyMrK]

I have this ASUS X99-A since a while (it's second hand) but only recently I noticed that the board is missing two PCIe slots

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I don't understand, my first guess was that it could be some low end version of the board but as you can see in the picture of the box the slots are present (and the serial numbers on the board and on the box are matching, so it's the original box)
If you look closely the slots seem to have been ripped off, but I wonder if this would even be possible without damaging the PCB

Any idea? BTW the board works just fine

Wow, it looks exactly what you think to be honest, owned by Thor bjornson as a mining rig and taken apart after he lost a million in the dip, would be my guess , that's savage, and lucky, if some of those pins short it could kill the board.

 

[Ruru]

My bet would be that the previous owner has damaged the pins of those slots, so (s)he just took them off. It's not that hard to do that, I have one AM2+ board where I managed to damage a slot so I spent some time and took it off. Though it was only a x1 slot, but the same process probably works with the longer slots. Just take the slot plastic up and bend the connector pins until they snap off.

 

[framebuffer]

Wow, it looks exactly what you think to be honest, owned by Thor bjornson as a mining rig and taken apart after he lost a million in the dip, would be my guess , that's savage, and lucky, if some of those pins short it could kill the board.

hahah
maybe I'll put some tape to isolate the pins...

My bet would be that the previous owner has damaged the pins of those slots, so (s)he just took them off. It's not that hard to do that, I have one AM2+ board where I managed to damage a slot so I spent some time and took it off. Though it was only a x1 slot, but the same process probably works with the longer slots. Just take the slot plastic up and bend the connector pins until they snap off.

OK but I don't see how ripped off slots are better (and safer) than damaged slots

 

[micropage7]

looks like the previous user got bended contact area on that slot that might risk "short circuit" it so he removed it for safety reason

 

[Tetras]

I have this ASUS X99-A since a while (it's second hand) but only recently I noticed that the board is missing two PCIe slots

I don't understand, my first guess was that it could be some low end version of the board but as you can see in the picture of the box the slots are present (and the serial numbers on the board and on the box are matching, so it's the original box)
If you look closely the slots seem to have been ripped off, but I wonder if this would even be possible without damaging the PCB

Any idea? BTW the board works just fine

When the slots are missing (I mean, on purpose) they don't look like that. Missing slots have little tiny pads that are flush to the board, whereas this board still has pins.

 

[Ruru]

OK but I don't see how ripped off slots are better (and safer) than damaged slots

When the pins are taken off (and made sure they don't short) I guess that's better than a damaged slot. Also it would be possible to desolder the remains off and put a new connector there.

looks like the previous user got bended contact area on that slot that might risk "short circuit" it so he removed it for safety reason

That's my guess as well.

 

[ThrashZone]

Hi,
Why not ask the prior owner.