Iam always look on ebay for it if there is one available for the motherboard iam going to use.. I dont like to fabricate a backplate, because its a waste of your time, and it wouldnt look that as a orginal one does.. Mostly there are more kinds of boards that using the same I/O shield.

So you need to compare with other board of they using the same kind of I/O shield.

ratfink wrote:

Contemplating another purchase but as often is the case, seller doesn't have the backplate and none of my spares remotely look like what's needed.

Any tips for an easy way to fabricate something suitable?

Maybe cardboard? I thought of this myself but never actually tried to fabricate a backplate

Alot of motherboards, especially older ones, had similar backplate designs, so finding a similar backplate isn't hard. Or you could poke holes in some cardboard from a motherboard box, but I don't like doing that since it isn't as sturdy and the metal acts as a ground in some cases. What I do when I don't get the proper backplate is I try to find one similar that fits most of the ports and use tin snips to cut out the rest.

EDIT: Here's a look at one I made years ago for my Asrock K8NF4G-SATA2. I think I used a Dremel to cut it out and smooth the edges.

Thanks, neat looking job. Yeah it's not old boards that are the problem. I seem to have enough backplates with a variety of hole patterns to suit things I have from athlon days and earlier - in fact one cheap case I bought a few of some 5-10 years ago, came with a set of backplates even including one with just a one hole for a big din plug. They were all heavy bits of steel though, rather than the thin stuff that often comes with mobos which would be easier to cut.

The problem board for me is a newer MSI one that has different ports/layout from anything I have. I've contacted MSI to see what they say.