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Which Screw Goes Where?
Anonymous Coward writes "I saw this link over at HardOCP. Finally, a definitive (well, they hedge a bit at the end) guide that explains
where to use each one of those little screws that come packed with new PC cases. All that and a 'test your knowledge' quiz in the bargain. Definitely bookmark-worthy."
CyberGuys sells both every type of screw conceivable and a bin with a screw assortment (just in case you need a particular kind).
The best part of the article is the link in the sidebar to Fastener Hut
-3Suns
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The Revolution will be Slashdotted
The M3 always seem to come in the same length and get used for 3.5" floppy drives, DVD-ROM, CDROM, Burner (ie anything that goes into the 5 1/4" bays). They usually get used to attach the motherboard by screwing into the brass standoffs that the mobo sits on (more on that later).
The 6-32 get used to secure PCI/AGP cards onto the case, for securing the case side panels, and sometimes also fit the standoffs used to secure a motherboard (Enlight cases are an example of this). If you try to put an M3 screw into a standoff that wants a 6-32, it will probably work going in but not out, which pretty much sucks but we've all done it. It's pretty hard to differentiate a 6-32 brass standoff from a M3 one just by looking at it.
Hard drives also use 6-32 screws, but they have to be shorter than what ordinarily gets used elsewhere. The hard drive manufacturers aren't obvious about what length is recommended, but 1/4" or 4mm is about right. For some cases with removable drive bays (like Antec), the hex head screws stick out too far and won't work, so you'll need a flat head. This is usually where the bag of screws you get with the case comes in useful, so I try to use those first. You don't want to use an ordinary 6-32 length screws (not sure how long they are), since they could damage the drive.
Other than screws, I suggest buying some paper washers that go between the screw and the motherboard. Not really necessary, but they insure that there's no electrical short and prevent damage of the motherboard. Well worth the $0.10 each or whatever.
Since you never seem to get directions with a case (or they're totally incomprehensible), I suggest separating all the hardware into groups to figure out what you've got. It's easiest just to buy the screws and washers in bulk and not mess with all the different weird screws you'll ordinarily get though.
CyberGuys (Small Hardware)
Probably cheaper to go troll the dumpsters, if you can find an old 286/386/486 being tossed you can probably scavange a dozen of each size. Anytime I toss an old system, I take the 15 minutes to strip it of any screws / connectors / etc.
The small screws (usually for mounting CD-ROMs to the side-brackets) are 4mm fine, the 6mm (6x32) screws are for the case / slot covers / hard drive mounting. Don't forget to either get small snack-pack rubbermaid containers (about 2" round, 1.5" deep) to hold the screws/bits, or those yellow plastic stopper tubes (1/2" x 5").
(I really don't understand the fuss about the issue at all... there's pretty much just the 2 types of screws, 4mm fine and 6x32.)
Wolde you bothe eate your cake, and have your cake?
Then after I suspend the site thinking it's being DDOS'd I come refresh slashdot and what do I see?
Folks that site is on a small shared server, their hosting plan is like a 3 gig per MONTH plan (and they've never used much over 2.5 gigs in a month) so that server croaked FAST.
Now that I know it isn't a DDOS I'll see if I can get them on something that can handle it.
(I host this site and just suspended it due to the traffic killing the server).
They're on an empty server and DNS is updated, with some redirects going on, hopefully that'll help now.
--- www.f-theocean.com
Suspended sites NORMALLY redirect to the control panel but suspending this site didn't help the server recover so I removed the control panel redirect which resulted into a redirect to www.8-95.com (still not sure where I managed to set that at) which then resulted in www.8-95.com getting hammered.
Now that I know this isn't a ddos (which is what I thought it was at first) I've put the content on a new server that should be able to handle this traffic.
DNS is also pointing to the new server.
In case you didn't figure it out I host this web site and have spent the last 30 minutes fighting what I THOUGHT was a DDOS and now that I check slashdot and see the link to this customer's site right on the top of the page, I KNOW what's happening and have done what I can to relieve the load.
--- www.f-theocean.com
To save you some bandwidth, I can try to help. Mirror
They moved it to a new server and the DNS hasn't caught up. Here is a direct link:
http://216.180.233.175/~bunker/
About the floppy / CDROM / hard drive screws and why are they mixed. When I was working for Olivetti back in the early 80's, we saw some of the first 3-1/2 inch floppy drives from ALPS and Sony. Since these came from Japan, and Japan uses metric sizes, they designed them with metric screws. The original 5-1/4 floppy drives came from the USA from Shugart (the original designers). The first Winchester hard drives originally came from IBM, IIRC, and since IBM is a US company, they used #6 screws. When Shugart and others (mostly US companies) started to build 5 1/4 hard drives, which are the same size as the 5 1/4 floppy drives, they used the same screws and mounting pattern as the Shugart "standard." They also used the same power connector so things would connect together with a minimum of odd connectors. So when manufactures started to build 3 1/2 sized hard drives, they used the same screw as the 5 1/4 hard drives. CDROM drives first came from Japanese / European manufactures (IIRC - Sony / Phillips), so they used "proper" screws - metric, not the holdout, oddball USA, still using the now outdated English sizing. One note about CDROM screws - IIRC, Floppy screws and CDROM screws both come in the short M5 4mm length. It seems that some of the early CDROM drives could get ruined if long (greater that 4mm) were used. The electronics were packed right up to the edges, and one could short out things inside if one used long screws. This problem has gone away, since the shrinking of the electronics, and dumb people who used the long M5 (greater than 5mm length) screws ruined the drives.