Does Linus know that static electricity is harmful?

[richb]

I've watched Linus on Youtube repeatedly talk about tech - holding up graphic cards, ram modules etc. Does he understand static electricity can kill electronic components? It doesn't seems that he does.

[Zodiark1593]

 

[richb]

Righto so he does know. But doesn't care I guess

6 minutes ago, Zodiark1593 said:

Good thanks for that link. So we acknowledge static electricity is a problem. Why continue to make videos ignoring that.

 

[RONOTHAN##]

It's rare to kill something with static electricity these days, there's so much ESD protections built into stuff that you pretty much have to actively try to kill components with static in order to kill them with static, and even then it's kinda difficult. If it was actually a problem, don't you think he would've had stuff die to static? There's a reason why most of the builders I know of in person don't bother with ESD mitigations, they decrease a 0.1% chance of failure to ESD to 0.01% chance, not exactly a big concern.

1 minute ago, richb said:

Good thanks for that link. So we acknowledge static electricity is a problem. Why continue to make videos ignoring that.

Did you actually watch that video? They killed 1 memory module, and it was by putting more ESD than you'd reasonable expect through it.

[Master Disaster]

10 minutes ago, richb said:

Righto so he does know. But doesn't care I guess

 

He doesn't care because for modern electronics it just doesn't matter (at least in most cases, there are some exceptions), like at all. Modern electrical components (and by modern I mean late 80s/early 90s) have built in ESD protection which offers protection from 99% of cases where something would be killed. Its not like its hard to stick a diode in circuit to stop ESD from running back through a circuit.

 

Edge connectors are designed in such a way that you can hold them without damaging them, the gold contacts stops a few cm from the edge of the card so when you grip them you can hold the bottom and be electrically disconnected.

 

ESD is an important factor when messing with older devices going back to the pre 90s since back then ESD protection wasn't really something we tried to implement.

 

 

[richb]

17 minutes ago, RONOTHAN## said:

Did you actually watch that video? They killed 1 memory module, and it was by putting more ESD than you'd reasonable expect through it.

I did. The point is you should properly ground yourself before picking up ram modules or graphics cards. Usually you won't ruin the thing you pick up, but sometimes you will. You should always ground yourself.

[bmx6454]

26 minutes ago, richb said:

I did. The point is you should properly ground yourself before picking up ram modules or graphics cards. Usually you won't ruin the thing you pick up, but sometimes you will. You should always ground yourself.

like others have said, it is very rare. i own esd equipment(bracelets, mats, floor mats, ect.), and i honestly can't be bothered to use them anymore, hasn't been an issue. also, he may have thought about it, and decided the small risk is worth not having the hassle of using esd gear all the time. he does have enough money, and i assume insurance, to not worry about it, just a thought.

[RONOTHAN##]

2 minutes ago, richb said:

I did. The point is you should properly ground yourself before picking up ram modules or graphics cards. Usually you won't ruin the thing you pick up, but sometimes you will. You should always ground yourself.

Again, that "sometimes" is incredibly unlikely. Yeah it's possible, but the odds of it happening are slim to none. 

[SavageNeo]

Do you have a car? if you do why are you driving it?

You know that you have a change of crashing it and dying???

why are you going outside your house? You know that there can be a stranger with a gun waiting for you to come outside and he would shoot you??

[CoolaxGaming]

2 minutes ago, SavageNeo said:

Do you have a car? if you do why are you driving it?

You know that you have a change of crashing it and dying???

why are you going outside your house? You know that there can be a stranger with a gun waiting for you to come outside and he would shoot you??

ha! love this example, I was just about to mention this.

 

on a serious note, @richbtheres literally many other ways that your stuff can die, it reminds me of someone who would always hold stuff for pickups at post office because they said trucks could damage them. at the end of the day theres a lot of precautions you can take, hows your rooms humidity? how clean is the power, does it effect your stuff? usually the answer is if you were in a situation where it mattered, you probably would already be aware of it and would take that precaution already. the reason linus doesent mention it in every video (i used to watch a couple years ago and from what i saw he would use like some mat or smth 50% of the time, and hes made a video on the topic itself), is that static electricity isint specific to building your pc, chances are youd already know if you were in an enviornment that is extremely charged and has no grounding.

[Windows7ge]

1 hour ago, richb said:

I did. The point is you should properly ground yourself before picking up ram modules or graphics cards. Usually you won't ruin the thing you pick up, but sometimes you will. You should always ground yourself.

If the prospect of ESD killing hardware scares you then by all means wear a ESD strap but I can say myself working with a combination of desktop and enterprise grade hardware for about 14 years now I have never killed a piece of hardware that I could link back to ESD. And I'm talking about all the bad practices.

 

Building a computer on carpet.

Not grounding myself prior to starting.

Leaving parts naked in cardboard boxes.

Using non-ESD rated bubble-wrap for shipping.

Among many other instances over the years.

 

I still have the parts from my very first computer which have "been around" if you know what I mean. Still work perfectly fine.

[LogicalDrm]

3 hours ago, richb said:

I did. The point is you should properly ground yourself before picking up ram modules or graphics cards. Usually you won't ruin the thing you pick up, but sometimes you will. You should always ground yourself.

It's more likely to bend and break something when handling than by ESD alone. ESD is actually only real dander for bare, unshielded CPU sockets (and pins). On anything else, the amount is too low to penetrate existing shielding which is implemented on manufacturing level.

 

We are decade past of ESD being actual danger. You are living in past.

[Needfuldoer]

6 hours ago, richb said:

I did. The point is you should properly ground yourself before picking up ram modules or graphics cards. Usually you won't ruin the thing you pick up, but sometimes you will. You should always ground yourself.

Touch an unpainted piece of the PC's case, or a cold water pipe, or a grounded metal outlet cover / electrical conduit or something.

 

When you're just working with modern consumer electronics, that's all you need to do. You're not going to kill modern parts by just looking at them. Your home isn't a NASA clean room.

 

As long as you don't brush your dog with a processor, or something like that, it's going to be perfectly fine. Stop worrying about it.

[Middcore]

I think Linus knows more about static electricity than OP judging from this thread. 

[Master Disaster]

32 minutes ago, Needfuldoer said:

Touch an unpainted piece of the PC's case, or a cold water pipe, or a grounded metal outlet cover / electrical conduit or something.

 

When you're just working with modern consumer electronics, that's all you need to do. You're not going to kill modern parts by just looking at them. Your home isn't a NASA clean room.

 

As long as you don't brush your dog with a processor, or something like that, it's going to be perfectly fine. Stop worrying about it.

My dog literally lay on top of my GPU a few months back. I had placed it on my bed next to my table because I didn't have room to put my PC down sideways without risking knocking it off and unbeknownst to me she jumped up on the bed and lay down right on top of the card. Picked it up, gave it a blow with compressed air and it works fine.

 

I'll be honest though, I was a little worried about what might have happened even though I knew it was probably fine.

[Bitter]

An old or especially cheap/poorly made power supply is more likely to kill components in your PC than ESD. I'd be more concerned about that.

[Just that Mario]

Do YOU know that ESD is overrated?

[motomat86]

TLDR:  person new to forums registers account to post a hot take

community gives them an old video already showcasing the mythical problems of said hot take

new user ignores video and declares linus a moron

 

 

 

[TetraSky]

8 minutes ago, motomat86 said:

TLDR:  person new to forums registers account to post a hot take

community gives them an old video already showcasing the mythical problems of said hot take

new user ignores video and declares linus a moron

There's a lot of those lately.

[Needfuldoer]

“OH WELL YEABUT HE SAID [word he debatably misused] AND THAT IS WRONG BECAUSE [pedantry about a quote taken out of context] THEREFORE HE IS WRONG ABOUT EVERYTHING FOREVER IN THIS ESSAY I WILL…”

 

The biggest Linus-adjacent hazard to electronics is gravity, not electrostatic discharge.

[tkitch]

2 hours ago, TetraSky said:

There's a lot of those lately.

BUT PIRACY (or something)

[Lurick]

2 hours ago, tkitch said:

BUT PIRACY (or something)

That's PIRACY of my thinkings!!! STAY OUT OF MY BRAIN!!!!

[DeerDK]

15 hours ago, tkitch said:

BUT PIRACY (or something)

Don't you mean Privateering?

[Vishera]

On 3/26/2022 at 9:30 AM, richb said:

I did. The point is you should properly ground yourself before picking up ram modules or graphics cards. Usually you won't ruin the thing you pick up, but sometimes you will. You should always ground yourself.

You don't really have to,

PC components are extremely resistant to ESD.

There are people that build PCs on carpets and everything turns out fine,though i don't recommend it just to be safe.

[wanderingfool2]

On 3/26/2022 at 1:30 AM, richb said:

I did. The point is you should properly ground yourself before picking up ram modules or graphics cards. Usually you won't ruin the thing you pick up, but sometimes you will. You should always ground yourself.

Pretty much listen to what everyone else is saying.  The chances are pretty slim, especially when doing things like touching a grounded surface occasionally.

 

On a related take, I'm curious how often people who use an ESD band actually end up damaging components.  After all, wearing it on your wrist, you can easily knock something off your desk...or if you forget to remove it pull it yanking off what your attached to...or the wire becoming unclipped and hitting something like a trace.  I would say you could use an ankle one, but then you would also have a tripping hazard.

 

So overall, it would be a fun stat to know (unlikely ever to get an accurate stat) how often people wearing those ESD bands end up damaging equipment because they are using it...vs how many times it saves components.  I mean unless you are working with a piece of equipment that is super super expensive that could be vulnerable to it, it's not really worth it in most cases.  Just touch something grounded before picking up something if you are worried.