If you build or work on a lot of computers you need one of these

TexTex Dallas/Ft. Worth
edited May 2005 in Hardware
I have a setup I mount all new MB's on for testing. Its a square piece of particle board ... actually two pieces screwed together so its like 1.5 inches thick. I have those plastic connectors for MB's epoxied into place so I can just slap a MB onto it and it locks down. No chance of anything shorting out with wood and plastic connectors.

EVERY motherboard I buy or test goes onto this rig first. It also means the cpu AND THE HSF get mounted outside the case and I can't tell ya how many cpu's that has saved me as it's easy to mount one slightly cocked where its not making good contact. I used to just hit the power with a screwdriver but broke down and actually mounted a switch on the board for the power connector on the motherboard header a couple months ago.

If you do this twice a year you don't need a setup like this but if you do this all the time like me it's really a nice setup on my test bench to help sort problems before they happen.

I use it to not only verify the MB/CPU/RAM/TEMPS are sound but also chunk on a floppy drive, get the bios flashed etc.. Easier to see any jumpers or anything else you have to muck around with outside the case and keeps the potential probs with multiple cards or switchs hooked up wrong etc to a minimum for troubleshooting. Just keep it clean and simple!

I hate bolting all the crap up inside a case first and then having probs. And ripping it apart again.

Cheers

Tex

Comments

  • qparadoxqparadox Vancouver, BC
    edited May 2005
    I definitely second this idea. I have the same thing on an old mobo box with the popups cut into the box and epoxied in place (this took waaaay too much work for how sketchy it is). You've inspired to go anti-ghetto and do it on something more solid. Weekend project time. :D
  • Mt_GoatMt_Goat Head Cheezy Knob Pflugerville (north of Austin) Icrontian
    edited May 2005
    I use a 1" thick piece of plywood with a piece of 1/4" thick rubber mat on top. Works great.
  • TexTex Dallas/Ft. Worth
    edited May 2005
    The whole thing won't take 15 minutes to complete with fast drying epoxy. I bought a huge bag of like 100 of the plastic MB mounting thingys on ebay for a couple bucks. Eventually they wear out and I glue new ones on. The thing isnt pretty at this point but its worth its weight in gold.

    Tex
  • beregidberegid
    edited May 2005
    take some pics of your rig you have setup for mobo's. would love to see what you got to give me some ideas.
  • SoLoSoLo DirtySouth, USA
    edited May 2005
    yes i agree lets see it tex, i would love to see youre setup.!! :)
  • TexTex Dallas/Ft. Worth
    edited May 2005
    sure I'll post some. Its butt ugly. Wasnt meant to be pretty just functional. Picture a square piece of wood bigger then a large MB and 1.5 inches thick. With those plastic MB mounting gizmoes epoxied into place where the standard ATX mounting screws are on a case.

    This isnt something space age or pretty.

    If I was doing it again I would cut a bigger piece of wood where I could leave a place to lay a cdrom and hard drive right on the wooden board. So you would alwasy have a known good HD, cdrom and cables ready and in place. As it is I lay them on the table next to the wooden MB mounting thing. Just keeping a spare HD and cdrom mounted on it would be nice for testing.

    Tex
  • SoLoSoLo DirtySouth, USA
    edited May 2005
    i understand tex, i have never built a pc but my best friend does and ive watched him build several of these home built MB contraptions,ive watch him burn up cpu's for the hell of it..and what better way to test youre new or old stuff and not to have to be in a tight spot..!!!!
  • TexTex Dallas/Ft. Worth
    edited May 2005
    Gee if I had thought I was gonna have to post pics I would of made the damn thing look nicer. This is sorta embarrassing as this hunk of wood has been around a few years and the plastic gizmos replaced several times so the piles of epoxy make it look like donkey doodoo at this point but it works fine.

    The MB in the pic is a micro atx. Thats why it looks so small.

    Tex
  • SoLoSoLo DirtySouth, USA
    edited May 2005
    thats exactly what i thought it would look like..lol
    the main point to building a MB mount is to test youre hardware from a safe and managable point.....looks like it does exactly that..!!!
  • FormFactorFormFactor At the core of forgotten
    edited May 2005
    Great idea Tex. Does the MB just snap on there? or do you just kind of lightly set it on there? Have you ever had a problem with the plastic thingys coming unglued when removing the mb?
  • TexTex Dallas/Ft. Worth
    edited May 2005
    Its just all wood and plastic. so you can't short anything out like you can in a case. Makes it easy to see and test everything quickly and eliminate many variables when testing.

    Yes it snaps onto the plastic thingy's They hardy ever come unglued but its missing one actually in the picture. You wear out the plastic thingys and I just epoxy another on eventualy. Thats why it looks like crap now. They hold it on firmly though so the MB can't move around. Thats the advantage over this rig over just setting it on a box.

    Tex
  • csimoncsimon Acadiana Icrontian
    edited May 2005
    that's an interesting board you have on the bench there tex. do you still have it and will it oc well?
  • TexTex Dallas/Ft. Worth
    edited May 2005
    I don't even try to OC. So no idea basicaly. But yes I still have it as I took the pics after someone posted and asked for pics in this thread. Those pics are an hour or so old.

    It's a MSI s754 with a 3000+ amd64 in it.

    Tex
  • GobblesGobbles Ventura California
    edited May 2005
    I just have a large piece of 1/8th inch anti-static non conductive rubber mat.
  • drasnordrasnor Starship Operator Hawthorne, CA Icrontian
    edited May 2005
    I drilled out the rivets holding in the motherboard tray on a busted up old ATX case. There's a few pics floating around the forums of various motherboards I own mounted on it.

    -drasnor :fold:
  • TexTex Dallas/Ft. Worth
    edited May 2005
    How do you get cards into it if the mat is 1/8 inch?

    I like this setup as the motherboard is firmly mounted.
  • Mt_GoatMt_Goat Head Cheezy Knob Pflugerville (north of Austin) Icrontian
    edited May 2005
    Tex,

    Nice, ugh, hardware in the top of those pics! :cool:

    I think I see trebble hooks. :eek:
  • TexTex Dallas/Ft. Worth
    edited May 2005
    Yep it's trout fishing time here. I was respooling some spinning reels down in the office and I moved stuff off the other desk to take the pics.

    Tex
  • csimoncsimon Acadiana Icrontian
    edited May 2005
    Tex wrote:
    Yep it's trout fishing time here. I was respooling some spinning reels down in the office and I moved stuff off the other desk to take the pics.

    Tex

    Where do you go to get trout the gulf?
    You mean specs right?
  • madmatmadmat
    edited May 2005
    We used a setup similar to that but instead of plastic standoffs it just had a couple layers of anti-static foam to set the mobo on and it had a kvm (it was a 4 mobo station) plus each station had a cd-rom and floppy drive.

    When you're building 35-40 pc's a day it makes things nice that's for sure.
  • TexTex Dallas/Ft. Worth
    edited May 2005
    Dude I live in Colorado. In a little town called Monument just N. of Colorado Springs.

    Look below my avatar.

    Tex
  • SoLoSoLo DirtySouth, USA
    edited May 2005
    lol, mississippi here.!!! and i havent seen that much trout.lol
    :)
  • rykoryko new york
    edited May 2005
    Nice board there Tex.... I really like the plastic stand-off idea. :)

    I have a very similar setup but i am using standard brass stand-offs mounted in the board. The board i have is a regular old shelve from Home Depot. Perfect size for an atx mobo, psu, cdrom, hdd, floppy. I am using old pci slot covers to bind the cdrom, hdd, and floppy together. Also used these to mount the psu, and cdrom to the board.

    Funny thing is that the rig currently on my board was found in the trash! When i moved a few weeks ago, i was looking for boxes in alleys behind a few businesses. I opened up a dumpster to find a slightly smashed pc case with the side panel bent to hell. I peeked inside and the whole system seemed to be intact except for a missing hdd. It looked like they used a crowbar to pry off the side panel (instead of removing the screws!) and yanked the hdd out before they tossed it.

    Got it home and tossed it on my trusty test bench.....low and behold a perfectly fine slot1 supermicro board with a pII 400mhz, 256mb pc100, and a 56k ISA modem! Plus a 235w crappy psu that i gutted for an 80mm fan. All in all it was an excellent find in the trash! :mullet::D
  • TexTex Dallas/Ft. Worth
    edited May 2005
    Nice setup dude.

    Yeah I like the plastic thingy's cause I do so many boards that are weird as far as screw placement as witha big EATX dual opteron I have just for example cliped the top off a platic thing and don't have to worry aboit it shoting anything out.

    But if you were careful the standard metal standoff's would work fine also.

    tex
  • beregidberegid
    edited May 2005
    cool, that's what i was imaging. I am thinking about using a piece of wood, with a piece of plexi-glass mounted maybe an inch off the top to get a little air underneath.
  • TexTex Dallas/Ft. Worth
    edited May 2005
    Why the plexi with air underneath?
  • GrayFoxGrayFox /dev/urandom Member
    edited May 2005
    Tex wrote:
    Why the plexi with air underneath?
    For he he decided to run it for long periods of time when overclocked.
  • TexTex Dallas/Ft. Worth
    edited May 2005
    that still doesnt explain why the layer of plexi to me?

    Why is plexi better then other non conductive surfaces
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