OK, this is beginning to drive me crazy. How long should I expect My Dual Xenon to smell? (It smells exactly like skunk).
You know, my system never did smell.
You can see my specs below my post in my signature.
But, perhaps I can offer a bit of a reason why some may smell and others don't.
First, my Mac Pro was assembled and built in the California facility in the United States. It was then shipped to me (also in the United States). So, that is my initial guess as to why it may not smell.
Now, that may initially sound a bit prejudiced. But, it's actually based on an observation going over many, many, many years.
I spent a good portion of my working life as a licensed OEM and System Builder. And, as such, I handled a lot of individual computer components. And, I found that each originating country came with it's own unique smell.
For example, upon opening the factory packaging of a main board from Taiwan, I would get hit with an extremely strong odor. But, opening a main board from a company here in the United States (of which there were only a few left at the time) would have little or no smell. Parts from China carried a different smell yet, as did stuff from Hong Kong, and other countries of origin.
I actually used to try and guess the origin of a part based on it's smell when I opened the box. After making a prediction, I'd look at the label on the component to see if I'd guess right.
I usually put the systems through a week long burn-in and testing process before I would deliver them to the end-users.
And, usually by the second day of their burn-in testing, they would no longer smell.
The components which usually carried the strongest smell were usually main boards and power supplies. The main boards I used rarely came with CPU's. I ordered my stuff direct and separate. So, Main boards, CPU's, heat sinks, and so on were all delivered in separate boxes. So, the smell was obviously not the heat-sink compound (as non was present yet).
As for why the parts from different countries smelled differently, well that's anyone's guess. I wouldn't suggest that it was due to the people building them, that'd just be wrong
But, a few ideas come to mind. One, since I'm in the United States, perhaps I'm more accustomed to the general smell of our environment and don't notice similar smells as much. Perhaps the packaging traps a bit of the environmental air / smell into the package and it remains for a few days after opening. That's not entirely unreasonable in industrialized areas. There's a larger town 50 miles away from me, and any time we visit there my daughter asks what's that smell. I tell her it's just the way that town smells. It's environmental.
Perhaps if someone in Taiwan received a package from us, it would smell different to them as well. They're going to be more accustomed to the smell of their environment. So, our scent would seem different.
The other thought, is perhaps it's just due to the unique chemicals used in their manufacturing process. Perhaps they use a chemical more common in their area to do the final "wash" of the components after they are manufactured. And, perhaps China and Taiwan and the United States, and other countries all have slightly different chemicals that we use to do our final "wash" before packaging. So, that could account for a difference in smell.
Almost any new item you could purchase will have a smell though. Wood products, electronics, cars, homes, etc.
In a car, it's all the hazardous chemicals bleeding off that produces that new car smell. It's glues, rubber compounds, and other adhesives and chemicals bleeding off that produces that smell. And, actually makes the cars a health hazard for a few weeks or months until it finishes bleeding off. Fortunately, I've never heard of anyone dying of new car smell
I looked at a new manufactured home once, and remember seeing the warning label cautioning that it will bleed off ammonia into the air. And, cautioning of the health hazard that it would pose.
*** EDIT ***
I just remembered, it wasn't ammonia that it was warning about. It was that it would produce Formaldehyde in the air within the home. Yikes.
*** end edit ***
New lumber shipping to the United States from China contains a glue chemical that is banned in China for their own use. But, it's permitted for exports. So, that produces an aroma.
In the end, I think the smells all just depend on what the item is, and where it was made.
Of course, there are some smells that are going to be due to a defect such as melting plastic, and so on. Obviously, those should be dealt with.