PC Building Protip: Test your screws thread into your standoffs before installing the standoffs into your PC case

It is extremely annoying when your screw only goes halfway into a standoff and now you will have to get pliers in order to remove the screw from the standoff.

Context: When installing a motherboard into a PC case, it is often the case that you might need to install standoffs into the PC case. When doing this you need to make sure the PC case only has the exact number of standoffs that your motherboard requires and no more since any more would short your mobo.

Main point: Before you install a standoff into your PC case, you need to find a matching screw that will thread perfectly into that standoff. If you cannot find such a screw then you should not use that standoff. You need to find a perfectly matching standoff-screw pair, and you should install only such pairs into your PC case. This also applies to pre-existing standoffs - you need to find screws that thread perfectly into those standoffs first, before you place your motherboard on top of the standoffs.

Background: I was building a PC today when I noticed that a screw wouldn't go all the way into one of the standoffs that I had installed. It was quite painful to remove - had to hold the standoff with pliers to remove the screw which was halfway screwed into it. Lesson learned the hard way I guess.