Is the anti-static wristband really necessary?

[mikeybal]

Want to build my PC tomorrow but I don't have an anti-static wristband. I'd rather not but if it's really better to have one I could wait until the week and borrow from school

 

My mobo is Asrock B450M Pro4 if that affects anything.

[Ezzy-525]

Its not a necessity. Just ground yourself before you start building.

[attackattack0706]

In short no its not really that necessary,  JayzTwoCents has a pretty good video on his channel about the subject.

[PopsicleHustler]

Its not necessary. You can discharge yourself by touching something that is grounded before you start working.

[TomvanWijnen]

I've personally never used one and have worked on the insides of more different computers than my age in years, nothing has ever broken while working on it (knocks on wood lol) - you should be fine. Grounding yourself before working is not a bad idea, though. Also beware of carpet and other fabric stuff, so you don't create new static energy. Have fun!

[eman1000]

No, I just built a PC and I didn't need one. As long as you don't shimmy over to the family room carpet with socks on to show your family your new motherboard, you'll be fine. If you wanna be sure, occasionally touch something metal to release static.

[Zodiark1593]

For my own stuff, I don't tend to bother. For stuff belonging to other people, wrist strap goes on.

[Arika]

no.

[GoodBytes]

1 hour ago, mikeybal said:

Want to build my PC tomorrow but I don't have an anti-static wristband. I'd rather not but if it's really better to have one I could wait until the week and borrow from school

 

My mobo is Asrock B450M Pro4 if that affects anything.

It is normally fine. Consumer hardware these days are pretty well protected (especially quality parts from trusted custom build brands). They are not full proof, of course, but they aren't as fragile as they are used to be. People wear a wrist trap just to fully protect themselves when building a someone else system as it would suck that you have to pay out of your pocket for some bad luck, and just rule out any potential, no yet visible to you, broken things due to discharged that your consumer may found.

 

If your wall plugs are grounded, you can simply ground yourself by connecting the power supply power cable and touch the power supply. The casing of the power supply is grounded (assuming you don't buy no name brands garbage PSU which are probably a fire hazard as well). If not, the easiest way to ground yourself is to wash your hands, assuming your water piper are in copper, and/or touch the copper pipe under the sink also works.

 

Oh and don't build a PC on carpet and don't rub your feet on carpet.

[ravenshrike]

No, so long as you don't do anything silly after grounding yourself before starting to build or build on top of certain types static generating materials(certain cloths or plastic types, the latter not really common as a working surface). It used to be a bigger issue but modern consumer electronics are all built mildly resistant to ESD now to the point where it's not needed under normal circumstances.