I know the YT video about metal multi-socket motherboards says to leave the metal clasps on the motherboard but I just want to double check before submitting boards. On some boards there's no metal plate behind the metal clasps on the motherboard but on others there are. For boards where there's a metal plate (see examples below) do I just leave the clasps and the plate? Or do I remove both since I can't remove the plate w/o removing the clasps?

Can you post the front sides of those?

Most of the time backing plates should be removed. They support plastic or metal fan mounts, which are not part of the board. There are exceptions but their rare.

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Here are image for 6 different boards showing side by side the front and back of the CPU socket area. On all of these boards the "clasp assembly" mounts to posts on the back plate. The boards then fall into 1 of 2 groups:

In this group there's a threaded hole on the clasp assembly onto which the heatsink/fan was mounted:







In this group there are no threaded holes on the clasp assembly onto which a heatsink/fan could be mounted. Instead the heatsink/fan was mounted to a bracket attached to the board itself which I had already removed.







I don't see a way to remove the plate w/o removing the clast assembly but y'all have seen orders of magnitude more server motherboards than I have so I defer to your wisdom. :)

They are standard hex screws on the top side. The plate will fall away leaving the socket clean.

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I was 99.9% certain this (remove the back plate which removes the front clasps) was the answer but thought it couldn't hurt to ask. Thanks for confirming all metal needed to be removed on these boards.