MB Form Factor Screw Positions

[Crimsonnaire]

Hey, guys.

I've been shopping around for a microATX motherboard to put in my old HP tower and noticed that the motherboard screw positions of this form doesn't always match. My question is simply whether motherboards that don't have every screw position matching my tower can still be used?

My stock motherboard has the screw positions exactly as shown on this motherboard:

From the looks of it, the screw positions on the rear port side of the square shaped microATX form factor all match, but the other screw positions vary. Am I correct in assuming that I could still mount the other motherboards even if some screws positions can't be used?

Thanks very much.

 

[Agent Smith]

I suppose you could use a MOBO that has some screw hole positions and not all, but if you have none once so ever you are SOL. You need stand offs. Not sure if each hole needs to be grounded though. Each hole has solder to make contact with the screw to ground.

 

[beers]

ATX and MicroATX differ slightly as the bottom screw on the middle/right side of the board is offset on MicroATX as compared to a full ATX board.

Otherwise they should all be compatible, it's part of the standard.

Are you taking into account the mounting holes for the cooler around the CPU as screw positions?

 

[Intel_man]

The only thing to check for is if your OEM tower uses the ATX or mATX standard. I've seen cases from OEM manufacturers not use that standard.

 

[Crimsonnaire]

Thank you all for your responses.

Beers,
The screw positions I'm focused on are only the ones that mount the board to the tower. This is the actual motherboard I currently have:



And this the board I'm considering getting to accommodate my casual gaming needs:

As you see, 6 of the screw hole positions match up on the Gigabyte, but 7th (on the RAM side) doesn't and the 8th hole is absent altogether. Comparing the proportions, it appears that the board is slightly shorter on the RAM side, hence the mismatch. But as long as I can mount the board by the 6 screw positions, I should be able to use it, right?