Dangerously Confused

[XWrench3]

so, my son and i are starting to assemble his gaming computer project. so before we kill the motherboard, i want to ask a question about grounding us. i bought a pair of wrist ground straps for us, so that we will not do damage to any of this. we will wear them any time the case is open. but, this is where i get confused. exactly where do we hook the alligator clip to? my initial thoughts was to ground us to the ground circuit (NOT the Neutral circuit) of our home wiring. as in, the bottom grounding lug in a 3 prong plug. my son says to the computer case, with the power supply plugged in, which brings us back to the same circuit electronically. the install manual say to unplug the power supply, and just clip to the case. which to me, is like not grounding anything. another thought that crossed my mind is to connect us to a ground rod (thru a 15 foot piece of wire) that is right outside of the house. but that is also the ground for the electrical system. unfortunately, every pipe in this home is plastic, so i can not connect to a water pipe. at this moment, the case is sitting on the kitchen counter, because it is the only place in the house that we can stand on something besides carpet. so what and where is the best place to connect the clip to?

 

[PP Mguire]

Wouldn't worry about it. Touch the bare metal of the case before grabbing any hardware and you'll be fine. Don't wear shoes or socks if you want to be a tad paranoid. If you want to use your ground straps they would clip to the case.

 

[carnageX]

Ideally yes, to a ground circuit. For the most part, just clipping to the case or some unpainted metal is fine as well.

Honestly, I hadn't ever wore a grounding strap on any of the systems I had built and they all came out fine. I just made sure to touch some metal (like the screw on a wall light switch) before proceeding every now and then to discharge.

 

[XWrench3]

thanks guys. we both touched light switch screws, the kitchen (stainless steel) sink and the faucet while being "grounded" to the case. for better or worse, it in and mounted. it went pretty smoothly, the only problem we had wad one of the holes for the stand offs that you screw the motherboard to was off just a little. other than that it went pretty smoothly. thanks again!