Easy Case Standoff Drilling Guide (Supermicro H11-DSi with Fractal Design North XL)

[mzakocs]

This is a quick guide for drilling standoff holes inside cases. I bought a Supermicro H11DSi and a Fractal Design North XL to build a home server. Supermicro lists this motherboard as "EATX" and has the 330mm measurements, so I assumed a case that says it supports "EATX (330mm)" on the website would have the correct standoff holes for this type of motherboard, but only a few of them lined up.


Only the red highlighted screw-holes above were aligning. Ignore the extra screw at the top; I forgot to take a picture before I had one of the standoffs drilled in. The top of the motherboard only having one screw was the most concerning as this motherboard would be fairly top-heavy with two heatsinks installed. I also did not want the motherboard to flex and bend in the top left of the case. Not sure if the motherboard is some non-standard EEATX or CEB format, but I really wanted to use this case, so I decided to just drill holes and risk ruining it. I bought a cheap drill and tap set from Amazon and got to work. I started by putting the motherboard in the case and securing it down so I could mark where I needed to drill holes. I used the largest drill bit that could fit in the motherboard screw holes without damaging it (just so it would be as center-aligned as possible) and put some pressure on it while spinning it down so it would make a small mark in the metal.




After I had the mark, I used the smallest drill bit in the set to make a bit of a dent so I could center the larger drill bit. This was not the best idea, and I would definitely buy a center punch if I had to do it again, as it was very difficult to keep it centered. Afterward, most standard standoff screws are 6-32 sized, so I used the drill bit for that and slowly drilled a hole with some SuperLube applied to the area. I'm sure there are better machining lubricants out there, but this is the oil I had on hand.


After the holes were drilled, I applied a bit more oil and used the included tap set to create 6-32 threads. There were only 1-2 threads on the thin sheet metal, so I definitely made sure not to over-torque the standoffs, but they seem very solid and are certainly better than nothing.


After dusting out the metal shards and cleaning up the oil with some degreaser, I installed the motherboard, and luckily, all of the screw holes lined up. I was able to fully screw down the motherboard into all the standoffs, and it seems secure enough for my use. Hope this helps someone in the future to build more server/workstation builds in nice-looking cases.

Also ignore the quiet adapter for the Noctua heatsink, I only used it temporarily until I got my PWM fan extension cables in the mail =)

 

[erock]

This is a quick guide for drilling standoff holes inside cases. I bought a Supermicro H11DSi and a Fractal Design North XL to build a home server. Supermicro lists this motherboard as "EATX" and has the 330mm measurements, so I assumed a case that says it supports "EATX (330mm)" on the website would have the correct standoff holes for this type of motherboard, but only a few of them lined up.

View attachment 40618
Only the red highlighted screw-holes above were aligning. Ignore the extra screw at the top; I forgot to take a picture before I had one of the standoffs drilled in. The top of the motherboard only having one screw was the most concerning as this motherboard would be fairly top-heavy with two heatsinks installed. I also did not want the motherboard to flex and bend in the top left of the case. Not sure if the motherboard is some non-standard EEATX or CEB format, but I really wanted to use this case, so I decided to just drill holes and risk ruining it. I bought a cheap drill and tap set from Amazon and got to work. I started by putting the motherboard in the case and securing it down so I could mark where I needed to drill holes. I used the largest drill bit that could fit in the motherboard screw holes without damaging it (just so it would be as center-aligned as possible) and put some pressure on it while spinning it down so it would make a small mark in the metal.

View attachment 40619
View attachment 40620

After I had the mark, I used the smallest drill bit in the set to make a bit of a dent so I could center the larger drill bit. This was not the best idea, and I would definitely buy a center punch if I had to do it again, as it was very difficult to keep it centered. Afterward, most standard standoff screws are 6-32 sized, so I used the drill bit for that and slowly drilled a hole with some SuperLube applied to the area. I'm sure there are better machining lubricants out there, but this is the oil I had on hand.
View attachment 40621

After the holes were drilled, I applied a bit more oil and used the included tap set to create 6-32 threads. There were only 1-2 threads on the thin sheet metal, so I definitely made sure not to over-torque the standoffs, but they seem very solid and are certainly better than nothing.
View attachment 40622

After dusting out the metal shards and cleaning up the oil with some degreaser, I installed the motherboard, and luckily, all of the screw holes lined up. I was able to fully screw down the motherboard into all the standoffs, and it seems secure enough for my use. Hope this helps someone in the future to build more server/workstation builds in nice-looking cases.
View attachment 40623
Also ignore the quiet adapter for the Noctua heatsink, I only used it temporarily until I got my PWM fan extension cables in the mail =)

I went through a similar process when I bought a Be Quiet Dark Base Base Pro Case to enclose a H11dsi. However, instead of using a drill to mark the holes I first used a pencil to outline the motherboard holes. After the holes were traced I used a punch to create a dimple to guide the drill.

Later I was informed by folks on this forum that the Phanteks Enthoo Pro 2 case has all of the necessary standoffs for the H11dsi. I decided to go down this route and ditch the modified case since the Phanteks case was only $130.

 

[mzakocs]

I went through a similar process when I bought a Be Quiet Dark Base Base Pro Case to enclose a H11dsi. However, instead of using a drill to mark the holes I first used a pencil to outline the motherboard holes. After the holes were traced I used a punch to create a dimple to guide the drill.

Later I was informed by folks on this forum that the Phanteks Enthoo Pro 2 case has all of the necessary standoffs for the H11dsi. I decided to go down this route and ditch the modified case since the Phanteks case was only $130.

Yep one of my friends has the H11DSI in an enthoo pro 2 as well but I wanted something a bit nicer looking. I just didn't realize how proprietary/different the mounting holes were on the motherboard, though it would be standard EATX

 

[drdepasquale]

Excellent guide! This is a fairly common issue with Supermicro EATX sized motherboards. I also drilled extra standoffs to accomodate an H12DSi-NT6 motherboard. I've seen this on every EATX Supermicro board that I have worked with since the X9 series.

 

[autoturk]

for those of us who cosplay as an electrician at home and have some tools, you could also use a drill tap set like this to get the job done in one go: Klein Tools Drill Tap Tool Set, 4 Piece 32383SEN - The Home Depot

 

[pricklypunter]

The last time (years ago) that I encountered having to do this, I used rivnuts that were just about the correct length. I bought a kit from Amazon that included the puller. I only had to add a few and remove a couple of the existing standoff's as I remember. It was cheap as chips and resulted in a really solid fixing, in fact probably more solid than the existing ones that were just threaded into the steel

 

[erock]

After drilling un-threaded holes, I used hex brass standoffs with screws and nuts from amazon: https://a.co/d/eNZyEqT.

 

[dogfight]

Some Supermicro mainboards have very special standoff diagram. E.g this X10DRL I have, it has only 8 standoff holes (in green and red).

In this picture, blues and greens are normal ATX holes (9 in total). The Supermicro X10DRL has holes at green and red locations, missing blue holes.

The bad thing is the red hole at the center will not match any consumer case. And it is very important because normally there are 2 holes (in blue) to support the mainboard in ATX size.

So I had to drill the red one at the top, then use a normal standoff, with an additional nut at the back to keep it solid. It will never loose.

For the red hole in the center, it was very difficult for me as the case backplate at that location is not flat, but it is a bump instead, so drilling a hole was not an option. After observing the mainboard, I found that at the blue hole locations at the back of the mainboard, there are nothing. So the solution was easy: I use 2 standoffs attached to those 2 holes in the case backplate, but the standoffs are not attached to the mainboard. It works well as the mainboard have tendency to bend outward in the middle, under load of 2 heavy heatsinks, so those 2 standoffs will firmly support the mainboard without having to attach to it.