Mainboard mounting

[Robert Hobson]

I've heard it never pays to advertise your stupidity but if this helps
someone else then I don't mind.
It's a while since I put a computer together so when I got my new case I was
supprised to find the mounting holes were not round but a kind of long
rectangle with like a circle in the middle:
??
( )
??
I had a look at the stuff that was supplied with the case and found a couple
of cage nuts / brackets (cage nuts are square nuts inside a metal case with
legs at both ends. You clip these into the hole, place your mainboard on top
and use a screw to secure the board to the nut). These fitted into these
slots so I thought that's what they were for. I fitted them to secure the
corners of my mainboard.
There were places my mainboard needed support which had these slots
underneath but I had no more cage nuts. I trawled the web with absolutely no
luck whatsoever. There was a place in America that sold them but only by the
thousand. After a bit of thinking, something along the lines of "surely
they wouldn't put these slots in if you couldn't find anything to put in
them", I had another look at the stuff that came with the case and found
some plastic standoffs. I hadn't seen this type before and after looking on
the web found that they were ATX standoffs and what the slots are there for.
Summary:
The nuts are to secure the mainboard and the standoff to support it. I hope
this has helped someone.

 

[Guy]

The nylon standoffs work fine, but you still need to secure your boar
with at least one screw and standoff, probably in the center. Ther
should be a total of 8-9 holes in the board, with correspondin
attach points in the case. This setup, using one screw, makes i
easy to remove the board, since you only have to remove one screw.
Mass producers love this approach because it saves a lot of instal
time.

You should have at least one point that will accept a brass standof
to secure your board. If not, what kind of case & what size boar
(ATX, Micro, etc)

 

[johns]

I've built those ... and had a lot to say to the case vendor about
it. What junk! Send it back, and buy Antec.

johns