Grounding?

[Iamdisturbed764]

Alot of people when they talk about building a pc say to ground, what does that mean?

And i am about to make my first build should i get a barebones system? Alot of people tell me its alot more easier than build one from scratch is it?

 

[snick]

grounding...just touch something metal before you touch any of your components. that way you discharge any static eletricity before you contact them.... if you don't do that, you run the risk of ruining said part. motherboard/video card/ram/etc.

 

[Iamdisturbed764]

should i get a static wrap on my wrist and is it make should i have them on both hands?

 

[Iamdisturbed764]

and are they 100% guarenteed that static wont ruin my part?

 

[Ethereal_Dragon]

For your other questions, yes, barebones is easier.... Motherboard is already in place, fans are already there, usually the power & reset buttons & LEDS are already hooked up to the motherboard.... throw (not literally) in the CPU, RAM, HDD's, optical drives, and expansion cards (sound, video, etc.)...

As far as the static is concerned.... I have worked on a BUNCH of PC's, and have never used a static wrist strap. It is harder than you would think to get static discharge into a part when building, (unless you're being a moron). If you build the PC on a table, or tile surface, you're golden. To be a smart ***, I took apart, and re-built one of my OOLLLLD systems once...... did it on comfy carpeting, wearing cotton socks & sweatpants.... no static (not that I would recommend it.... the PC I was working on was practically garbage anyways.)

Good practices:
-build PC somewhere other than on carpet, or a bed or couch.
- Touch the chassis of the PC before touch any of the PCB's.
-don't TRY to build up static.
-TAKE YOUR TIME!!!!! <<----- CAN'T STRESS THIS ENOUGH!!

 

[leonardmp92]

Thank you guys, I had the same questions and concerns with grounding, I will make sure I build my first PC on a table under tile, and touch the chassis before I touch any internal parts.

Thanks!

 

[Nitestick]

the best way of grounding yourself is to have the psu installed and connected to the power but switched off at the socket. then the pc's chassis is connected directly to the true electrical ground.

 

[leonardmp92]

How do you switch it off at the socket?

 

[Tyr]

I would use an ESD wrist strap if you are worried about it just to be safe. I recently built a PC and where I live it gets very cold in the winter which leads to dry air and ESD. So I used an anti-static strap just to be sure. It takes way less than you think to damage a PC component with ESD. Just because you can't feel the discharge doesn't mean you havent damaged the part. 30V is all it takes to do damage....

 

[Nitestick]

switch it off at the wall :amazed: