Asrock Z170 Pro 4 Question

Hello guys, I'm currently doing my first build. I'm reusing my old HAF 932 case with a Asrock Z170 motherboard, I just have a question about the motherboard standoffs. My case says for ATX boards I should be using 9 stand offs then putting the board onto the 9 stand offs then using the screws to screw through the motherboard holes and into the stand offs.

The alignment is fine in my case, but I have to use slightly different numbers to what is recommended to make it fit and have the IO shield flush. It seems the ASrock Z170 Pro 4 only has 7 holes to put on the stand offs? I can see 2 extra holes in each corner (top right and bottom right) but they don't have the metal like the other holes and look different, they also don't align with my case..

I've asked a couple of mates, and posted on a separate forum and they say 7 is fine, and some motherboards only come with 5-8. I just want to be 100% sure, since it seems this is one of the worst things you could muck up with a computer build and its my first build

Here is a picture,

I'm screwing the gold standoffs into the case then placing the motherboard onto them and screwing it into place. The holes I am using/can find are 4 on the left side of the board, 3 of the 4 under the IS shield and the 4th on the top left corner next to the IS shield. Then 3 between the middle of the board and the right side for a total of 7.

The other question while I'm here, Obviously I can't SLI on the board. I want to connect my graphics card to the bottom PCie slot since it's more space. I've read on many forums that the primary slot is the slot closest to the CPU and if you use the second slot you may get express x8 speed instead of x16 speed? Depending on the motherboard. I just want to know if both PCie 16x slots will be the speed and if I use the bottom slot I won't get slower speeds? otherwise ill just use the slot closest to the CPU.

Many thanks!


Edited by Jed1990 - 17 Jan 2016 at 11:26pm

The only important thing to remember with standoffs is to never have any in places where the board does not. If you have standoffs everywhere case and board both support you will be fine. If you are really concerned and want to have every available standoff attached you can pick up something like this and clip off the knob at "C" on the diagram. That will give the board extra support at those points.

Edited by Xaltar - 17 Jan 2016 at 11:40pm

I just looked at mine, confirmed, there are 7 screws plus you could use two standoffs in the corners as explained by Xaltar.

Edited by peroni - 17 Jan 2016 at 11:55pm

Jed1990 wrote: I'm probably going to be a little frustrating but you guys just confused me Wardog you said  PCIe slot two is for all intenets an purposes the only one that is PCIe x16 but Xaltar just said the GPU bottom x16 slot is limited to x4 bandwidth? I'm assuming the slot under the CPU is the slot to use? Sorry for being a little slow to pick it up..

peroni wrote: I just looked at mine, confirmed, there are 7 screws plus you could use two standoffs in the corners as explained by Xaltar. p.s: I noticed my board is revision 1.01, never seen that before. I wonder if there are older/newer revisions?

Yeah, It seemed weird. Everyone I knew was telling me to make sure i had the 9 standoff screws in place , which is why I just wanted to ask haha. Thought it was the case and was going to buy my mates Fractal Design but it had the same issue, now the only issue i have left with this case is the dam front USB 2.0 headers!

Where did you find the revision 1.01?

Xaltar wrote: PCIe slot 2 is the top x16 slot nearest the CPU  PCIe slot 1 is the short PCIe x1 slot above it and PCIe slot 4 is the bottom most PCIe x16 slot and is only an x4 slot electrically.

Got it, thanks heaps for your help Xaltar!