*&#£$ backplate!

strumpusplunket · 5 Feb 2012 at 17:52

Just finished putting together a PC for my dad (i52500k, Gigabyte Z68AP-D3 system). Using what seems to be a decent case (Silverstone PS05), and I had a recurrence of an old problem with builds I'd almost forgotten about: the damned difficulty of getting the motherboard correctly positioned when the backplate seems to want to push it off the standoffs and away from being aligned with the screw threads. :mad:

Perhaps the reason I'd forgotten was because my Asus P8Z68 board came with a nice backplate with soft foam on the inside rather than those horrible springy metal protrusions. For a change the board just slotted in comfortably. Gave me good vibes about this board from the start, tbh.

This time around with my dad's PC, I remembered what a bloody pain it can be to force the board against the backplate and fumble to get the first screw in to hold it in place.

No matter how hard I tried I couldn't get the board aligned with the standoff screw-threads with the backplate in place. With it removed, it slotted in quite nicely and very easily.

I tried half a dozen times, using more force that seemed sensible at times, but in the end gave up an installed the board without the damned backplate.

So, okay this was a cheapish board, but it's 2012 for God's sake! Isn't it about time we banished this horrendous piece of design to the dustbin of tech history?!

Ok, my point is:
1. VENT!
2. Am I just incompetent, or do other people have this problem?
3. Is there some easy solution I'm missing?

panyan · 5 Feb 2012 at 17:55

yes, they are rubbish and they should all have foam instead of those silly pokey out metal bits that just annoy and infuriate

kilohawk · 5 Feb 2012 at 18:08

i had the opposite experience with the 'foily foam' backing, i had to push quite hard to line the stand-offs up on my p8z68 :/

pc_monkey · 5 Feb 2012 at 18:45

maybe they are not al;igned properly that is why you are having diffculty. I had it with my p8z68-V LX, and after checking the alignment, the mobo went in with ease.

strumpusplunket · 5 Feb 2012 at 19:21

panyan said:
yes, they are rubbish and they should all have foam instead of those silly pokey out metal bits that just annoy and infuriate

Well, I'm glad it's not just me!

kilohawk said:
i had the opposite experience with the 'foily foam' backing, i had to push quite hard to line the stand-offs up on my p8z68 :/

Ok, that's interesting. Did you find you had no issues with the older style backplates then? Or just that the new foam one wasn't well implemented in your experience?

pc_monkey said:
maybe they are not al;igned properly that is why you are having diffculty. I had it with my p8z68-V LX, and after checking the alignment, the mobo went in with ease.

Oh man, believe me I checked and double-checked. I tried affixing the plate to the board's output socket area before putting in the case as well as fitting it in the case first. I grabbed a torch and looked closely at how the sockets were aligning and how the backplate was aligned with the case.

I even tried pushing all the metal protrusions back so they didn't act as springs pushing the board away from the backplate area. No joy with any of it. I honestly can't think of anything else I could have done.

That was one of my motivations starting this thread. I can only think of one previous build (out of easily two dozen) where I felt I had to abandon the backplate completely. However, I do always this issue being a major annoyance.