Question For Motherboard and Case Standoff Compatibility

[Negan of the Vegan Saviors]

Hello Tom's Hardware!

I had a question on a PC Build and the motherboard I have is a Gigabyte H270M DS3H Micro ATX Motherboard and I plan to put it in a Corsair 300R case. There are 7 Holes for the standoffs on the Motherboard, but one of the holes in the Case has it in a different place, all 6 Holes can be connected but one of them is in a different place in the case. Also installing the motherboard, the prongs on the I/O Shield seem to be blocking the ports from going in, would there be any solution to this? Any info will be awesome! Just wanted to know your guy's info on this question. I will provide more details from the comments.

Thank You!

Negan

 

[Calvin7]

You wrote, "the prongs on the I/O Shield seem to be blocking the ports from going in". That is often the way the shield comes from the factory. You need to bend the ports inward prior to installing the motherboard. The prongs provide some grounding. If you have already tried installing the motherboard then you need to remove the motherboard and bend the prongs in.

 

[Negan of the Vegan Saviors]

Thank you for the reply man! I will have that in mind. What about the motherboard? 6 of the 7 standoffs are able to connect but on the motherboard, the 7th one is very close to the 6th one. Is this case compatible with this motherboard or should there be a different case for this motherboard?

 

[Paperdoc]

Your have asked an important question that many have NOT asked and suffered for!

Ideally, there ought to be an stand-off screwed into the case's back plane under every mobo mounting hole to provide good support. The mobo is designed to be grounded to the case at those points ONLY. But MOST importantly, there must NEVER be a stand-off under the mobo in a location that does NOT align with a mobo hole. A stand-off in the wrong location can short out a trace on the mobo bottom side.

Cases often come with stand-offs pre-installed for the locations used by many common mobo designs. But it is ALWAYS necessary that you compare your mobo to the locations of those stand-offs, and make any changes necessary. Try to get one under each mobo hole. Make SURE you remove any located anywhere else. Each metal stand-off is just screwed into a threaded hole in the case's back panel.

I have seen a few cases that came with one special stand-off. It is metal, but is different because its top is not the usual threaded hole. It has, instead, an insulating rubber or plastic top. It can be placed under a mobo where there is NOT a mounting holes because of this head cover, providing mechanical support without the danger of a short to ground. Some mobos don't have a mounting hole in the middle, and that's where this kind of special stand-off is useful.

Regarding the I/O panel fingers, I had exactly that problem once. The new system would not turn on. Inspection disclosed one finger on the I/O panel sticking into its connector socket and touching one of the pins. I had to remove the mobo from the case, then re-install it. In doing so, I made sure to push any wayward I/O panel fingers to the side so that they ALL were touching the OUTSIDE of their respective connector shells.

 

[Paperdoc]

Thanks for Best Solution.