PSA - AsRock Rack X470D4U / Adhesive Backplate


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Just a quick Public Service Announcement regarding the AsRock Rack x470d4u motherboard.  If someone, like myself, is planning to use this motherboard w/ an after-market CPU Heatsink please be aware that the factory backplate is attached to the motherboard with an adhesive. If your after-market heatsink (in my case, the Noctua NH-L9a-AM4) requires the use of it's own backplate expect to spend considerable amount of time to remove the factory installed backplate. I would also say doing so comes with high risk of damaging the board.

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1 hour ago, greg602 said:

the factory backplate is attached to the motherboard with an adhesive.

 

1 hour ago, greg602 said:

high risk of damaging the board.

For anyone contemplating adhesive debonding, most tech adhesives somewhat release with heat. Heat gun on low or hair dryer on high may make things easier.

YMMV. Guitar picks make good wedges to slide into the gap as you work it loose. Slow and steady, take a break to add heat between each additional move.

 

Patience is required, even if it appears nothing is moving, many times if you have a wedge partially inserted and add heat it will slowly unstick itself without additional force. Low force = less chance of damage.

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CrapRock.  I wouldn't touch one of their boards with yours. 

 

Do yourself and return the board while you can, before it flames out and burns your house down or something.  Yes, I've had an AsRock flame out, thankfully I was only setting up the machine and had the side off, and was able to power it down PDQ.

 

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1 hour ago, HellDiverUK said:

CrapRock.  I wouldn't touch one of their boards with yours. 

 

Do yourself and return the board while you can, before it flames out and burns your house down or something.  Yes, I've had an AsRock flame out, thankfully I was only setting up the machine and had the side off, and was able to power it down PDQ.

 

Thanks for your response and advice. That said, considering AsRock is a company known for their motherboards and generally well liked amongst the DIY hardware community, I have to assume the "flame out" you experienced is not something that should be reflected as the norm across all manufactured AsRock boards. If I do notice anything abnormal in the way this board operates I will certainly consider returning it. Currently, aside from the unfortunate backplate adhesive, this motherboard has been a breeze to setup/configure and has been working flawlessly in my server for a week now; running 24/7. Again, I appreciate your input on the thread.

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Thanks for your feedback. I'm considering buying this motherboard for a new build. I heard on some forum posts that there might be trouble installing CPU heatsink when all RAM slots are populated. Did you experience this issue?

And do all aftermarket CPU heatsinks require a custom back-plate?

 

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12 hours ago, greg602 said:

Thanks for your response and advice. That said, considering AsRock is a company known for their motherboards and generally well liked amongst the DIY hardware community, I have to assume the "flame out" you experienced is not something that should be reflected as the norm across all manufactured AsRock boards. If I do notice anything abnormal in the way this board operates I will certainly consider returning it. Currently, aside from the unfortunate backplate adhesive, this motherboard has been a breeze to setup/configure and has been working flawlessly in my server for a week now; running 24/7. Again, I appreciate your input on the thread.

Thanks.

 

I neglected to mention I also got two DOA AsRock boards - all three I've bought have been AsRock Rack workstation boards, C226 WS boards of various flavours.  One arrived factory sealed with a mashed CPU socket, and one was just plain dead.  The third I've already described.

 

I do have a number of machines at work using elcheapo AsRock Z370 boards (the low-end microATX boards, supplied in pre-builts), and had no issues with those in the past year or so.  It's annoying that the AsRock Rack boards were a 100% fail.

Edited by HellDiverUK
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7 hours ago, spiderben25 said:

Thanks for your feedback. I'm considering buying this motherboard for a new build. I heard on some forum posts that there might be trouble installing CPU heatsink when all RAM slots are populated. Did you experience this issue?

And do all aftermarket CPU heatsinks require a custom back-plate?

 

I only have two of the DIMM slots occupied.l, so I had no issues. That said, with my noctua heatsink, if I wanted four I could. It would likely require choosing RAM with no heat sinks though; first slot is covered slightly.

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  • 2 weeks later...

I bought this board and Corsair H80i v2 liquid cooler which states which states "The stock AMD motherboard backplate is used for AMD installation" in the manual. I will give it a whirl this weekend and post and update with pics. Maybe I just got lucky with my hardware picks because I did not think of the idea that they would use adhesive to apply the backplate.  

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42 minutes ago, old man said:

I bought this board and Corsair H80i v2 liquid cooler which states which states "The stock AMD motherboard backplate is used for AMD installation" in the manual. I will give it a whirl this weekend and post and update with pics. Maybe I just got lucky with my hardware picks because I did not think of the idea that they would use adhesive to apply the backplate.  

Ah yes please do that. Would love to hear about your experience. Also while I’m back on this thread I’ll report again that I have had no issues with this board and it’s been absolutely great, running 24/7, aside from my backplate woes.

Edited by greg602
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  • 3 years later...

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