Where to get ATX motherboard cover plates?

[Skaven]

I got an open box motherboard at Newegg thinking that I'd be saving myself a hunk of change (saved ~$30 including shipping!) but didn't think about the fact that my current ATX cover plate won't work!

Does anybody know where I can go to get a cover plate?

The motherboard in question is the ASRock 939 Dual

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16813157081

Any advice would be appreciated!

 

[raanemaan]

Contact Asrock They can supply the i/o plate.

 

[Zap]

There are almost no motherboards on the market at this time that works with the stock plate which cases come with. Motherboards always comes with the plate, unless you buy the "open box" ones. If you had looked at the pictures you would have seen the plate that the new boards come with, and text that basically states that you are seeing what the new product comes with, but that the "open box" products may not come with any of that.

You can make your own I/O plate if you can't get one from the manufacturer by using thin aluminum and cutting out the openings. I use aluminum flashing, sold in various sized rolls at almost all hardware stores for a couple of bucks.

 

[Lord Evermore]

There are lots of e-bay sales for i/o shields, maybe one of those could be a matching one.

Of course I suppose some of those might be people who pulled them out of the open box items.

You could maybe also adapt a shield from another board, to get close enough, just leaving some small openings. If you had some super-perfect cooling system where that might result in a loss of pressure or something, that'd be an issue.

 

[Skaven]

Yea, I know that the one that comes with the case doesn't work, but I assumed that the one for my old motherboard would be interchangeable. D'OH! Live and learn, I guess. I'll see what ASRock comes back with.

 

[Lord Evermore]

They should just come up with a slight modification to the ATX standard, so that the case doesn't have any I/O shield at all, and mainboards have it just built right in. Just to save the hassle of popping them in and out, or losing them, or like this where you get a board without the shield. Just make it so the design of the case lets the shield slip right in, without any bending of the board.

I suppose that's pretty much impossible, given the low quality of some cases, and alignment issues. I/O shields already have the little spring contacts in order to assume contact with the ports.

 

[Skaven]

Yea... that would be nice wouldn't it!?

AsRock wants $5 for the shield shipped. So I still saved $25 on the board!

 

[Lord Evermore]

Heck that's cheaper than ebayers want for the shields (with "free" driver CD included). Order 50 and make profit!