Static electricity: does it matter?

[chensov]

Hi everyone,

 

So before you simply throw a reply please read below statement.

 

of course it matters from physics, general pc building perspective, however, I see Linus, JayzTwoCents and other big youtubers never warring any king of anti static wrist bands or grounding themselves in general for that matter. So the question really is how frequent can it occur , what are the chances of damaging your components. Of course wearing socks on carpet, rubbing your wool sweater doesn’t help, but can it be critical ?

 

Thanks everyone.

[WereCatf]

1 minute ago, chensov said:

So the question really is how frequent can it occur , what are the chances of damaging your components

It all depends on what you're wearing, what sort of surfaces you are touching and how humid the air is; the lower the humidity, the more easily you accrue a static charge.

2 minutes ago, chensov said:

but can it be critical ?

Of course it can be, but, as I said above, there is no way for anyone to give you any specific numbers.

[chensov]

3 minutes ago, WereCatf said:

It all depends on what you're wearing, what sort of surfaces you are touching and how humid the air is; the lower the humidity, the more easily you accrue a static charge.

Of course it can be, but, as I said above, there is no way for anyone to give you any specific numbers.

I agree, so Youtubers mentioned above simply risk I guess.

[Chionele]

They kinda do ground themselves all the time by touching all sorts of metal objects around. Sure it's not the same "foolproof" method as something properly done could be, but they've also done multiple videos intentionally trying to cause this problem, and failing until they went well beyond overboard with it.

 

I'm quite vary of (static) electricity because I really hate the snaps no matter how small they might be, but I've never even considered those wristbands. Just grab the case itself and that'll do it.

[Moonzy]

It depends, personally I only ever get static shocked maybe... Once every two years because I live in a humid country

 

But if you're spending $1000 on a pc, last thing you want is something to be dead and you'll have to waste time diagnosing and RMA, so just take the safer route

[Tan3l6]

There was recently a LTT video about static electricity and what mayhem it can cause:

(Almost none)

 

 

[mariushm]

Videos are EDITED. They may discharge by touching something grounded before camera rolls

A psu plugged in mains is grounded touching the metal of psu discharges you. Psu mounted to case means case is grounded touching unpainted bits discharges you...

 

People also know how to handle parts ... Fingers on edges or grounded metal parts, not touching exposed metal contacts or pins

 

[Andrew O]

1 hour ago, chensov said:

Hi everyone,

 

So before you simply throw a reply please read below statement.

 

of course it matters from physics, general pc building perspective, however, I see Linus, JayzTwoCents and other big youtubers never warring any king of anti static wrist bands or grounding themselves in general for that matter. So the question really is how frequent can it occur , what are the chances of damaging your components. Of course wearing socks on carpet, rubbing your wool sweater doesn’t help, but can it be critical ?

 

Thanks everyone.

I think that Linus wears it round his ankle as I saw in a build guide (the POV one I think?), but with their electroboom video recently it didn't seem to affect RAM until they got really serious with static guns etc, however I always ground myself on a side panel etc before working on a pc

[airborne spoon]

jay did a vid about it ages ago, he built a pc while rubbing his feet on carpet and all kinds of crap that you're not supposed to do and it all worked fine. hell he did a vid not that long ago about static and how him standing up shorted his monitor but it was still fine, he even zapped his case a few times and you could see the electricity jump to it with no issues.

My experience i have never followed "recommended protocols" for handling and building stuff in regards to static and i even built a PC on my bed one time with shag carpet. never had a problem.

Its possible to fry something but the likelihood of it breaking something is crazy low with all the safety measures manufactures put into their builds, and if by chance your board is just a POS and you fry something just RMA the damn thing and you're good to go 

[minibois]

On 1/23/2021 at 1:09 PM, chensov said:

I see Linus, JayzTwoCents and other big youtubers never warring any king of anti static wrist bands or grounding themselves in general for that matter.

Linus wears the anti-static bracelet around his ankle, indeed.

He has been doing that for a good couple years, this was the first reference I remember to it:

 

And to OP, the chance of something bad happening is quite small, but why take that risk?

Properly ground yourself and definitely do consider an anti static bracelet.

The $10 you spend can be used in a lot of scenarios and far outweighs the loss of hardware should it happen. Of course the more you build, the higher the chance of static screwing up hardware.