Geekish Wisdom: Nylon is your friend.

[Tandalayo_Scheisskopf]

Recently, I built a computer for a customer, using Asus Motherboards. More on why I said "motherboards" and did not use the singular will be revealed below.

The first motherboard was one based upon the Via KM400 chipset. Bleh. The integrated video don't work with Linux(This was a dual-boot XP/Mandrake machine) and besides, the damn thing went tits-up within days. Back goes the motherboard and I do what I should have done in the first place: Ordered an Asus motherboard based upon the NForce2 chipset. In this case, and A7N8X-VM/400. Well I get it and mount it up the way they tell me to: Brass standoffs, redpaper washers, metal screws.

Well, a month later, I get a call from the customer: The machine has stopped working again. So, she brings it over and yes, it is tits-up again. I send the motherboard into the place I bought it, they send back, tell me it is fine. Guess what: It ain't.

So I haggle and fuss and fume and wrangle. I finally get them to send me a new, new, new motherboard. While I am waiting, I ponder that in my communications with Asus, they made much of isolating the motherboard from the rest of the case, due to the fact that with the higher bus speeds these things have these days, they are very ginchy about that sort of thing. Not a lot of tolerance for error and stray groundings.

So I grabbed a spare standoff and went to the local Mom&Pop hardware store and headed for the screws, nuts, bolts and cool stuff section. Back there, they have tons of stuff from Midwest, a great hardware manufacturer, and Jandorf, who makes even cooler stuff.

I found a great nylon screw that fit the standoff exactly, as far as thread and circumferance, but it was too long. But hey, I have a pair of Dykes Cutters and no fear. So I trimmed the screws and they worked perfectly.

Moral? Screw the metal screws. Stop using them, period. Get nylon and add one more level of correct assembly and proper electronic insulation to your new high-speed-bus boxen. Unlike me, you won't lose hair by the bushel basket.

It really does work fine.

The box is running like a champ. Thanks for asking. ;-)