never cared about that stuff tbh... and I don't use washers with the stands, AFAIK you need to ground the case with the mobo, that's why the screw holes on mobos have exposed ground plane around them.

Washers are for motherboards, if a screw for some reason makes a shortening/grounded. Good to have in the toolbox.
(good grounding are mandetory, bad grounding that makes the computer not turn on is a bad grounding)

Srews are well.... Screws are acrews. Not much to say other than I usually use screws with the same look in each computers.
I use as many standoff's that can possibly be used in each machine, to make shure the board is not bending.
Plastic standoff's are used, if I cant use a cobber-standoff in various places.

Just make shure that you use as much as possible, in order to do a decent build.

I was using plastic washers for motherboards in the past, but not anymore. I prefer metal (brass?) standoffs for ATX and plastic ones for AT cases (actually this is mostly a mandatory choice dictated by the case architecture). I try to use same kind of screws and jumpers for a given computer, and use them as much as necessary (no short cuts; no ignored screws, standoffs, clips, etc.). And I love thumb screws, so almost all of my case and card/bracket screws are thumb type.

TELEPACMAN wrote:

Hello everyone, do you have special concerns about these?
For instance, do you use washers at all? Do you prefer the screws without the flange aroud the head? Use plastic vs metal standoffs? What's your say?

Not particularly....... I just use whatever came with the case; if something's missing, I dig into one of my bag of spares (I keep several on hand). And if there are any leftovers I keep them inside the original plastic bag, marked to match the case they belong to.

My only concern is with standoffs. Plastic ones get cut down to size if they're too tall; metal ones are screwed in by hand only - stripped one too many by using hex screwdrivers.

JayCeeBee64 wrote:

...bag of spares...

Might find this solution usefull then 😉

It's my box of screws and small parts. Love this kind of solution as it can be placed in a closet and have stuff thrown on top.

That box looks very useful indeed brostenen. I know two local hardware stores that have them in several sizes, will give them a visit when I have some free time 😊 . Thanks!

JayCeeBee64 wrote:

That box looks very useful indeed brostenen. I know two local hardware stores that have them in several sizes, will give them a visit when I have some free time 😊 . Thanks!

No problemo. Have had this for the last 10 years or more. 😀

For some reason I really like the Torx screws that Compaq used in the '90s.

Least favorite are the black IBM screws that are slotted hex head.

That being said, I would use anything that holds it together in the end.

Hate those IBM black screws too, gave me nothing but trouble.
The compaq ones are the best!

The felt washers are only needed when you use screws for a mobo that have serrated (saw tooth) heads on the underside.
It is to keep the screws from gouging out the solder circle around the holes in the motherboard.

It is/was a bad solution to the problem of using the wrong kind of screws in the first place.

Motherboard screws should be smooth on the underside and used with no insulating washers as the purpose of those solder circles is to ground the motherboard's ground plane to the case.
If you use a felt washer - no ground point.
If you use a serrated screw with no washer - solder gouges out - possibly no ground point or a poor ground.
Using nylon stand-offs for every hole is also a bad idea.

The screws with serrated heads are meant to be used against steel as with mounting a PSU, hard drive, add-in cards (to the back slots) or holding the case together.
Back in the day case companies got cheap and did not want to supply two kinds of screws so they threw in some cheap felt washers.
At this point people are so used to seeing them used that no one thinks about it.
.

ok thanks 😀 I don't have any doubt, it was very clear and makes sense.

tayyare wrote:

... I was using plastic washers for motherboards in the past ...

You should always use metal standoffs to properly ground the mobo.

I like thumb screws, quick & easy and no screwdriver required.