How To Reinstall Motherboard Standoffs Of Phanteks P400

[Jupiter12]

Last year, I bought a Phanteks P400 case and I really liked it. Then I just wanted to spice things up a bit and use my computer without a case, so I installed everything on a wooden board. Also, in order to install the motherboard to the wood I ripped motherboard standoffs from the P400 with a pair of pliers and attached them to the wooden board. I know that it was a foolish act but I never thought about it at the time. Now, I want to rebuild the PC in the P400 but I don't know how I should reinstall the motherboard standoffs to the case. Also, I'm worried that maybe the reinstalled standoffs won't be able to hold the motherboard and physically cause it to fall or cause a shortage. In order to fully explain the situation I attached some photos of the case without standoffs. What should I do to reinstall my PC in the case safely? I would appreciate any help, thanks.

[minibois]

2 minutes ago, Jupiter12 said:

Last year, I bought a Phanteks P400 case and I really liked it. Then I just wanted to spice things up a bit and use my computer without a case, so I installed everything on a wooden board. Also, in order to install the motherboard to the wood I ripped motherboard standoffs from the P400 with a pair of pliers and attached them to the wooden board. I know that it was a foolish act but I never thought about it at the time. Now, I want to rebuild the PC in the P400 but I don't know how I should reinstall the motherboard standoffs to the case. Also, I'm worried that maybe the reinstalled standoffs won't be able to hold the motherboard and physically cause it to fall or cause a shortage. In order to fully explain the situation I attached some photos of the case without standoffs. What should I do to reinstall my PC in the case safely? I would appreciate any help, thanks.

Quote

I ripped motherboard standoffs from the P400 with a pair of pliers

Just.. What? With those pliers you could have like.. Unscrewed the standoffs?

 

If the case frame wasn't bend, you could have people fitted in the original standoffs (or bought some in bulk from Amazon or something) and installed them using some nuts on the other side. The case being bent like this would make it quite difficult to install the .. What is it, 9(?) standoffs required for an ATX motherboard.

I just hope the close-up picture you showed are the standoff positions with the worst damage, because if so you might be able to place some wood behind it and kind of 'love tap' the metal flush again.

 

This is gonna need some mechanical fixing up and then you have to hope you can install it all.

 

Good luck.

[Arttu89]

Given how those mounting points on the picture look like you won't be able to salvage that easily, if you ripped the standoffs out of the board, aside of bending the metal you most likely also damaged the threads inside, so even bending it back is unlikely to work.

 

I can't wrap my head around how you even came to the idea of ripping them out when you could have simply unscrewed every single one without damaging anything.

[Jupiter12]

20 hours ago, Arttu89 said:

I can't wrap my head around how you even came to the idea of ripping them out when you could have simply unscrewed every single one without damaging anything.

Yes, I know. I stopped questioning my mindset at the time.

The case frame itself is not bent and the case is fully functional apart from the standoffs.

 

So, I tried the extra standoff that came with the case and all the damaged holes seem to work. I was able to screw the standoff in them, the only problem is that some of them are little bent and have a curve. Even though, as mentioned above, I think I can fix them with a little 'love tap'. My concern now is that did I harmed the strength of the case frame. I don't want my motherboard and all components to suddenly fall off. Like, what would happen if I installed a bulky CPU cooler?

[Jupiter12]

Is it possible that the components might fall because of this?

@minibois

[minibois]

25 minutes ago, Jupiter12 said:

Is it possible that the components might fall because of this?

@minibois

If it's substantially damaged yes, I wouldn't exactly trust a NH-D15 class of air cooler with it for example

[trufret]

Since you can still screw the standoffs in, if you can flatten out the holes in the case you might be able to apply some loctite or epoxy to the standoffs before you screw them in to give it some extra strength.  Just make sure you line everything up with the motherboard first because, especially with epoxy, they will probably not be coming out again.

[Jupiter12]

46 minutes ago, trufret said:

Since you can still screw the standoffs in, if you can flatten out the holes in the case you might be able to apply some loctite or epoxy to the standoffs before you screw them in to give it some extra strength. 

I thought about it too, the quality glues have softening points at really high temperatures but I'm worried about the airflow. Could the constant airflow cause humidity or etc. that will soften the glue? I couldn't have find any information about this.

 

59 minutes ago, minibois said:

If it's substantially damaged yes, I wouldn't exactly trust a NH-D15 class of air cooler with it for example.

Thanks, I'm going to use the case this way with an Arctic Freezer 34 eSports Duo and hope for the best. I don't think it will cause any damage. 

[trufret]

5 minutes ago, Jupiter12 said:

I thought about it too, the quality glues have softening points at really high temperatures but I'm worried about the airflow. Could the constant airflow cause humidity or etc. that will soften the glue? I couldn't have find any information about this.

 

 

Ambient humidity isn't going to affect the loctite or epoxy but if there isn't enough thread to get a bite with the standoff I wouldn't trust either to hold the standoff in an open hole for any length of time.