goof doofus

I have this anti-static mat, with the one cord coming out of the white/beige end. I have two questions. 1. Which side is supposed to face up? The mat comes with no documentation at all! 2. Where do I hook in the clip at the end of the cord? How about my anti-static wrist strap? Can it be a large metal desk drawer, or does it have to be something connected to the true ground of a wall outlet?

I've heard that building a computer on a wooden surface will not cause static electricity issues, but what if the surface is coated with polyurethane? By the way: my tentative build plan in the footer is totally out of date. I'm going with this one.

Any anti-static mat recommendations? There doesn't seem to be much of a selection online, especially for large ones, and I don't need one with reference information on it.

The ASUS VN248H-P boasts a 1cm bezel, but is that really thin by today's standards for a 2+ monitor setup? How thin do bezels come? In your experience, how thin is thin enough? I'm not a hard-core gamer. I do game sometimes, but I'm mostly a hard-core programmer.

When I'm actually ready to start building, should I hook up my monitor(s) to a UPS system? Or do I just need a surge protector for the display? What about keyboards, mice, etc.?

I have read a couple articles online that emphatically recommend ups's, but the good ones are pretty expensive. I also read that in an area with clean power, I won't really need one. So how do I check how clean the power is in my area? I don't want to assume it's clean just because I live in a city.

For the build linked below, I plan to have the 2 140mm fans that come with the case as front intakes and the separate Noctua one as rear exhaust. All 3 fans have about the same airflow and rpm. Will that be a problem, or does the single exhaust need to be more powerful than the 2 intakes? Does the fan on the D15S cooler count as an exhaust? (It will be right in line with the rear exhaust at the top of the back panel.) EDIT: I will never be overclocking.

Was that with your MSI X99A SLI Plus?

Now that I think about it more, GTX 1070 seems more appropriate. For what I'm willing to pay, it'd be a high-end GeForce vs. a mid-level Quadro, and going with the high-end option for the same price sounds like a better deal. Plus, I can install CUDA and OpenCL drivers.

Good point. This morning, I called up ASUS and talked to 2 different service reps, and both confirmed that the X99 A II would not need a bios update.

What fan headers do you choose? Will I be ok as long as the fans are close to the headers? I want to be sure the correct temps are being measured.

In the build linked below, should I use the case's built-in fan controller or three motherboard case fan headers for my three 3-pin case fans (2 front intake, 1 rear exhaust)? Bonus points for recommending specific headers on the ASUS X99 A II.

I checked, and the ASUS X99 A II supports Broadwell-E.

Great. Quadro because I want to do CUDA programming and content creation more than gaming. I'll consider 6800k.

For the tentative build plan linked below, will my M.2 ssd interfere with the PCIe lanes available to my Quadro M2000? Will the GPU still get all 16 PCIe 3.0 lanes? What if I add a PCIe SSD in another x16 gen 3.0 slot?