What parts can static damage?

[darsunt]

I believe static electricity can damage the mobo, the cpu and memory chips. Can it damage the optical drives or hard drives? I wouldn't think that it could.

 

[atomic tofu]

hard drives yes....optical...sort of yes...

static could not really do much for the platters on a harddrive except to corrupt data. But all the drives, hd or optical have circuit board components, which could get fried by a pop from esd

 

[Phantom118]

Static can damage pretty well any sensitive electronic equiptment/part. AFAIK....

Every part I have ever ordered has arrived in static protective film.

Read this for more info
Shocking Information about Your Hard Drive

 

[darsunt]

Thanks. I was thinking about installing a hard drive while working on a carpet. Haha. Good thing I asked you guys.

 

[Phantom118]

Just make sure you ground yourself thats all.... I've installed stuff while on carpet...

 

[atomic tofu]

do it on a yoga mat...or not, lol...I'm flexible...I always grab my case with my monkey feet.

 

[Sora]

buy an Anti-static wrist strap. It clips on to the case and grounds you while you work...you can get one for like 10 bucks.

 

[j12]

yeah get one of those straps to play it safe

 

[b1gapl]

If I'm working on a carpeted floor, I just touch any metal part of the case, for a few seconds, to ground myself.

 

[darsunt]

I'm a bit paranoid about that. Last time I put together an old computer wearing that anti static strap, but couldn't get it to run. So I'm going to put it together in a garage with a concrete floor later. Probably I could get away with it on carpet but ... that's a lot of money on the line there.