question on building new system

[zjava]

Hi All,

I was wondering if anyone uses the washers that come with the motherboard/case and if so where? Not sure if these are crucial or not? do they go between the brass standoffs maybe?? Can someone help.

James

[Reid]

The insulating washers should be used between the brass standoffs and the bottom of the board. This PC Guide (http://www.pcguide.com/proc/physinst/mb-c.html) article adds a lot of detail about motherboard installation, and also recommends insulating washers under screw heads if circuit traces run under the screw head.

[Whyzman]

On my ECS K7S5a the screw holes had metal grommets to protect the traces from being contacted or compressed. I opted out of installing washers after careful examination of the board. Many of the newer boards are designed to alleviate this particular problem.

However, all that said, I would err on the side of caution if there is any question whatsoever and follow Reid's direction to the PC GUIDE information.

[Reid]

Whyzman,

How do you like that ECS K7S5A? Just built one myself with an 1800 XP. No surprises or headaches. I used the washers, even though as you note, traces close to the holes are not a problem on it and other boards.

The K7S5A is a big board. It blocks two of the four 5.25" bays, but I don't need them right now. Guess I got too accustomed to small boards.

[Whyzman]

Reid,

Built a system for my Father using it after iisbob's glowing reports. Build went smooth and it's running smoothly. Both my Father and I picked up a CD-RW I mentioned in a recent post (http://www.pcguide.com/vb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=15776) from OfficeMax for $19.95 but haven't installed it yet...could be a problem you say? :(

Or, is it just the box size you're using? The Enlight I used should have enough clearance...:rolleyes:

I went into using the board with a bit of trepidation not knowing if there was going to be PCI slot conflicts as I experienced with my ASUS A7V133. His system is pretty basic though with just a CD and HDD that I set up on separate IDEs. Video AGP and PCI Modem...sound of course being on board.

He's not an audiophile and is content with the sound. I picked up an Altec AVS500 5 speaker system for him from CompUSA when they were on sale for $19.95 and he's in his glory listening to his favorite Gospel Music while doing bookwork!

[Reid]

My problem was lack of planning. I ordered the board, but did not look at the dimensions of it, then bought the only mid-tower the local computer shop had. A full tower should be fine. I was pressed for time because I had a chance to do an upgrade while my wife was away for a while. The guys here might know what reaction can be received if the better half was here to see three computer is various stage of disassembly and then the lengthy OS and app reloading.

Anyway, she got my AMD T-bird 850 to replace her K6-III/450 that started having problems, and my daughter got the 450 CPU and extra memory.

I also bought my second copy of Windows XP to install in the 850.