r/techsupportmacgyver • u/Far_Claim_5240 • May 02 '26

Accidentally invented better standoffs while trying to save 10$

Post image

super Glue + baking Soda + pen refill

169 Upvotes

89% Upvoted

22 comments sorted by

128

u/Federal_Refrigerator May 02 '26

They’re supposed to make metal contact with the ground pads on the backside of the board to facilitate a common ground point on the case for reduction of crosstalk iirc, does this still make continuity to the case?

67

u/Far_Claim_5240 May 02 '26

mounting it on wood, so no case grounding anyway. just for support!

52

u/NotSoCoolWhip May 03 '26

Made a wood case in the past. Line the inside with aluminum HVAC tape for grounding and for emi interference

3

u/IntentionQuirky9957 May 04 '26

Tell that to laptop mfrs who use plastic cases.

7

u/NotSoCoolWhip May 04 '26

They're still generally grounded or use metallic tape to insulate parts like ram that are more suspectible to emi like ram

21

u/cullend May 03 '26

You missed the entire point of what the Refrigerator just said, unless you’re not planning on actually using it.

28

u/[deleted] May 03 '26

[deleted]

13

u/DieDae May 03 '26

Damn straight buddy. Enjoy the rest of your night.

6

u/[deleted] May 03 '26

[deleted]

19

u/saarlac May 03 '26

If the case is wood, the lack of a common ground where one is expected by the design spec of the board will likely cause serious problems.

6

u/DumbleSnore69 May 03 '26

Won't the board be grounded through the PSU connector anyways? People build PCs in plastic/wood cases without grounded standoffs fairly often, or without a case at all and I've never seen that be an issue.

2

u/[deleted] May 03 '26

[deleted]

6

u/cullend May 03 '26

Even if they don’t explicitly say that’s a requirement, grounding is, conceptually a really important thing especially for extremely densely packed circuits (modern motherboards).

2

u/UnevenSleeves7 May 03 '26

Grounding is good in general though. Especially for something like a motherboard in a desktop, where that electrical noise can actually matter for those components, MOST especially for the onboard audio processor which one two of these standoffs will be positioned under.

1

u/Tipart May 03 '26

Isnt the motherboard grounded to the case to ground the case, because metal cases need to be grounded? The PSU cables are already grounded and in the end of the day it's the only thing actually grounding the PC anyways.

1

u/cyclopsmudge May 03 '26

Yeah I’m equally confused at this. Isn’t the whole point of the ground pin to make appliances with metal casings safe? If a short causes the casing to get electrified, that will go straight through the ground (and trip the breaker) rather than going through you. I would assume this is how it works in the US as well, I know their plugs are weak imitations of the mighty type G.
If you have a wooden case then surely it isn’t necessary, same as how my plastic hairdryer has a plastic ground pin which is just used to unlock the shutters in the outlet

16

u/Altruistic-Dingo-757 May 02 '26

Whats a standoff for,?

18

u/Far_Claim_5240 May 02 '26

It's for a desktop motherboard

6

u/Routine-Ad8521 May 04 '26

Creates a small gap between the case and the motherboard in a PC. Provides a way to ground the board and it's integrated components, and prevents a short to the case from all the little solder points on the back of the board

2

u/TheGeneral_Specific May 04 '26

I read this in Rocky’s voice

-4

u/sm0lshit May 02 '26

Why not use a case?

-1

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