How do you mount your ASUS motherboard?

Computer Hardware
#1

The P5K PRO I had until recently, had big fat (relative) solder bumps at the back side. On the up side, but, as said, also on the back(!) side. Well, on the upside it’s no problem, you simply don’t use screws with uneven structures on the underside of the screw head plus you simply don’t turn the screws in tightly, but almost completely loose. Then those bumps will not come off.

But how about the back side? The brass stand-offs crush those bumps into pieces even from positioning and the necessity of pressing the board into that “Q-Shield” with tons of power. Let alone from screwing the board onto them. In ASUS systems, aren’t maybe shorts caused by the crushed solder pieces the number one cause for hardware defects? Just wondering.

Now you could use those non-metallic washers that some people use. But how to know, if the board has or not has to be grounded with the underside of the mounting holes as well?? And does it have to be grounded with the upside of the mounting holes anyway?? Luckily the manual does not say anything about that ;). But you know even if you use those washers, you will never be sure if all backside solder bumps remained in a good condition because of the pressing of the board into that Q-Shield. Is it really normal by the way that you need to push the board into that “Q-Shield” with that much power to be finally above the brass stand-offs with the mounting-holes??? (Link to another thread started by me)

I simply can’t imagine, what ASUSes imagination is about mounting that board without crushing the backside solder bumps. Solder is a relatively soft material. What were they thinking, when they designed solder BUMPS for the backside??? Show me just one motherboard that doesn’t have (a) flat or (b) very hard solder that in addition extends widely over the contact area with the brass stand-offs.

#2

Take a picture, use “macro mode”.

#3

[quote=georgekellerman;2074229]The P5K PRO I had until recently, had big fat (relative) solder bumps at the back side. On the up side, but, as said, also on the back(!) side. Well, on the upside it’s no problem, you simply don’t use screws with uneven structures on the underside of the screw head plus you simply don’t turn the screws in tightly, but almost completely loose. Then those bumps will not come off.

But how about the back side? The brass stand-offs crush those bumps into pieces even from positioning and the necessity of pressing the board into that “Q-Shield” with tons of power. Let alone from screwing the board onto them. [/quote]
I’d return the board as defective. This is not normal IMO.

#4

[B]eric93se[/B], [B]mciahel[/B], I don’t have the board anymore, but here’s a link to a great madshrimps.be photo post reviewing the P5K PRO board: http://www.madshrimps.be/vbulletin/f10/asus-p5k-pro-oc-review-42048/#post164472. Scrolling down, you can see good pics of the mounting holes. Now, on the back side you have exactly, 100% the same mounting hole design!! How in the world does solder BUMPS fit to an installation on the typical brass standoffs?? You definitely have to use non-metallic washers on the underside! But then the board is not grounded through those 9 positions. Which solder would make you think that it’s necessary, wouldn’t it.

#5

If your talking about the bumps around the holes…those are like washers the keep the screws from coming loose.

#6

Yes, you’re right. That’s correct. And it even works great on the up side. You don’t turn the screw in very tightly and that’s it.

But on the back side it looks exactly the same! And, as said, how in the world does BUMPS fit to an installation on the typical - really, everybody uses those - brass standoffs?? Unlike on the up side and the big and even underside of the screw-heads, on the back side the Solder bumps won’t ever sit on something even, because the footprint of the brass standoffs is (a) too small and (b) has six sharp edges exactly where the solder bumps are! So it can wonderfully cut into them or cut them off the board completely.

It’s totally idiotic in my personal opininon. :a

#7

[QUOTE=georgekellerman;2074699]Yes, you’re right. That’s correct. And it even works great on the up side. But the back side looks exactly the same. And, as said, how in the world does BUMPS fit to an installation on the typical - really, everybody uses those - brass standoffs. Those standoffs immediately crush those reatively soft bumps into dangerous metallic pieces. They also can come off as a whole from the copper they are soldered on. It’s totally idiotic in my personal opininon. :a[/QUOTE]:bigsmile: yeah i don’t know why on the back side. You don’t want to torque the screws down to tight. A little more than finger tight is fine. Well that works for me anyway. Use as many stand offs as you can. Especially around where your RAM goes and PCI/e slots. I use all the screw holes when installing a mobo.

#8

yeah, I don’t see what the problem is. Those bumps either are acting as ground points or to help prevent the mounting screws from coming loose. If they get crushed its fine, because they aren’t connected to any cicuits that could short out or anything.

#9

That’s not fine at all, but a HUGE PROBLEM, because then you have zillions of metallic pieces in your system and all your components can die any moment! The backside you can’t even clean, and that’s exactly where they crush and/or break off.

#10

Try using a can of compressed air and blow the inside of your case as good as you can. That’s about all i can think of.

#11

I just recently built a system for a friend with a gigabyte 780g board and a coolermaster case, the case screws for securing the MB didn’t even come close to the solder bumps on the MB. So maybe head over to your local hardware store and bring one of the screws with you and get the same thread with a different head size.

#12

[QUOTE=eric93se;2074770]I just recently built a system for a friend with a gigabyte 780g board and a coolermaster case, the case screws for securing the MB didn’t even come close to the solder bumps on the MB. So maybe head over to your local hardware store and bring one of the screws with you and get the same thread with a different head size.[/QUOTE]yeah that’s a good idea. Take one of the stand offs and screws with you.

#13

Nothing to worry about, I highly doubt you’ll get it declared as faulty anyway by the retailer :wink:
These “blobs” are on pretty much any motherboard…
//Danne

#14

Nothing to worry about, I highly doubt you’ll get it declared as faulty anyway by the retailer :wink:
These “blobs” are on pretty much any motherboard…
//Danne

#15

The blobs are supposed to be there, they act as grounding points for the board. When installing the board you should use screws with flat undersides and not the serated ones that are used for holding HDD’s and PCI cards in place as. Serated screws will eat into the board and cause little bits of solder to come loose if overtightened, flat underside screws will just crush the solder pads as they are meant to.

I have installed loads of motherboards into lots of cases using both sorts of screw. I have not yet had or seen a problem with bits of the solder falling off unless they have overtightened the screws to the point of almost causing motherboard damage.