Motherboard Screws

[brentster10]

I am putting together my first PC, and everything is going relatively well.
I have one problem though. I dont know what sort of screws to use on my EP35 DS3L mobo. It didnt come with any. My case came with the brass(I think) mount screws, but i need the ones to screw the motherboard onto the mounts. Should these screws have come with something? If not, what should I buy?

 

[pcgamer12]

Buy screws that fit into your brass standoffs. Make sure they have the flat sides on bottom so they don't scratch your motherboard. Your case should have come with a bag of screws including motherboard screws. My Antec P150 came with a lot of screws, I still have about 100 I don't use.

Good Luck

 

[arson94]

Alot of motherboards come with some sort of trim or material lining the inner part of the mount holes so that screws aren't scratching circuits and what-not. But yea pcgamer12 is right, you can use basically any screw that fits into your brass standoffs. If you want to be even safer, use some cardboard washers between the board and the screws. Usually the screws that come with boards are just the little 5.25" drive screws that have built- in metal washers. But anything will work...

 

[sailer]

Seems odd that the case had the brass mounts, but no screws. Every case I've bought had lots of screws, and some motherboards came with them as well. If you buy screws, be careful to get ones that use the same thread count. Some are fine thread and others are course thread. Once I made the mistake of putting a screw with the wrong thread into a brass mount and I had a very difficult time getting it out later when I was doing some work on the motherboard. Cardboard or plastic washers are good to use, in my opinion, but not absolutely necessary.

 

[groo]

I always thought the boards were intended to be grounded to the case.

if for no other reason than ou can touch the case to disapate any static electricity before messing with the board itself.

 

[sailer]

Just the opposite. Motherboards are supposed to stay electrically isolated from the case, as they hold a lot of unshielded transistors, resistors, wiring, etc. That's why is so important to ground yourself out (touch the case) before working on the motherboard or any electrical components that plug into it.

 

[jsc]

Try contacting the case manufacturer, distributor, or seller and tell them you have missing hardware. The little brass standoffs should have come with mounting screws. Or try to find a shop that builds what we call whiteboxes. A place like that will have lots of left over hardware.

You should also be able to hardware at a place like Fry's Electronics

 

[RetiredChief]

Have to agree with goo on grounding of motherboard, BUT not for his rational. Has nothing to do with ESD. It has to do with proper grounding of the ground plane. If the holes are plated thru holes with a Small amount of metal trace around the holes then that point is intended to be tied to ground. Has to do with intertrace capacitance, ground loops and S/N ratio which is often a design concern when dealling which High Frequencies.

In general and in refernce to HF circuits:
Grounding problems are one of the most difficult problems to isolate and on several occasions equated to "Black majic" when ryme and reason do not apply.

NOTE: this is NOT to say that putting a fiber washer is going to prevent operation. In fact probably would not provide isolation, but if they wanted isolation, then a nylon stanoff and screw would be used.

Added - In the specific case of motherboards - We know they will work out side the case with none of the mounting holes grounded. This does not negate my counter point.

1/4 inch pan head screws (I think, may be wrong) 4-40 screws would work. As Sailor pointed out, VERIFY they work before installing.