How fragile (or not) are motherboards?

[AccDossNumber15]

Hello, ever since I've heard of static elecricity and how easily it kill your MOBO just by making contact with it—it has become my boogeyman. Now that I've bought a MOBO I feel like even as exposing it to the air with the "right conditions" it can also have static electricity and kill my 12K MOBO.

 

Could someone explain what are the things that make my MOBO vulnerable and how I can prevent it

[Poinkachu]

10 minutes ago, AccDossNumber15 said:

Hello, ever since I've heard of static elecricity and how easily it kill your MOBO just by making contact with it—it has become my boogeyman. Now that I've bought a MOBO I feel like even as exposing it to the air with the "right conditions" it can also have static electricity and kill my 12K MOBO.

 

Could someone explain what are the things that make my MOBO vulnerable and how I can prevent it

Don't rub it against carpet

Don't zap it using a static generator

 

 

Not THAT easy

Sure if you're really unlucky, the stars are aligned, and the Cthulhu ritual had been completed it might instantly kill the part(s).

 

Preventive measure(s) can be taken in form of :

- Wear anti-static bracelet PROPERLY

- Wear non electrically conductive glove

- Motherboard usually comes wrapped in anti-static plastic bag, use it for storing.

- As well as the first two I stated above.

etc

 

[Fankywanky]

Until you do your build keep your mother board in the anti static bag that it came with. While doing your build if your really worried about it, plug your power supply into a wall and touch it with both hands. If you do both those you should be fine.

[RONOTHAN##]

Modern components do have design decisions to help make ESD less dangerous, to the point where outside of very, very specific circumstances it's near impossible to kill a component with ESD by accident. 

 

If you're super worried about it, do what @Poinkachu suggested and get a proper anti-static bracelet wired up, though in reality the odds of issues are minimal at most. In my 9 years of building computers, I have killed no hardware through static electricity even though I don't really take any precautions (including building systems on carpet in socks at some points), though admittedly I don't live in a very dry area (if you're in the desert, the air is more likely to conduct ESD) so static shocks are fairly rare near me. 

[Godlygamer23]

Modern electronics can take a bit of static electricity. Unless you're always getting shocked when touching metal parts, I wouldn't give it TOO much thought, particularly if it's a situation where you're building your PC once, and never touching it again until you're upgrading. However, definitely avoid walking across carpet, and frequently touch the chassis to discharge yourself as much as possible.

 

The video from LTT does next to nothing showing the effects of static electricity, except for the idea that modern computers can deal with it well enough that it doesn't instantly ruin them, but it obviously effects them. The vast majority of the energy was simply routed to ground. If they were separate components, they would've been most likely destroyed, or damaged. 

[flibberdipper]

This is how I store almost all of my motherboards, graphics cards, and other expansion cards in a metal filing cabinet. They all work fine. Not to mention I've built many things on carpet, including my friend's build with a 7700X and 4080.

[AccDossNumber15]

3 hours ago, RONOTHAN## said:

Modern components do have design decisions to help make ESD less dangerous, to the point where outside of very, very specific circumstances it's near impossible to kill a component with ESD by accident. 

 

If you're super worried about it, do what @Poinkachu suggested and get a proper anti-static bracelet wired up, though in reality the odds of issues are minimal at most. In my 9 years of building computers, I have killed no hardware through static electricity even though I don't really take any precautions (including building systems on carpet in socks at some points), though admittedly I don't live in a very dry area (if you're in the desert, the air is more likely to conduct ESD) so static shocks are fairly rare near me. 

I live in a tropical area, near the equator, does I count?

[Somerandomtechyboi]

7 hours ago, flibberdipper said:

This is how I store almost all of my motherboards, graphics cards, and other expansion cards in a metal filing cabinet. They all work fine. Not to mention I've built many things on carpet, including my friend's build with a 7700X and 4080.

similar situation for me except i pile all my boards on a table cause theres no table space left anymore

 

also i very very frequently put computer components on my bed

 

its gotten to the point that i forget esd exists until just now since it doesnt affect me whatsoever, and im using over 10 year old hardware btw mainly stuff older than haswell

[BlackDragon1971]

If you treat the motherboard with respect, it'll be fine. The motherboard should not require a safeword, so don't treat it as such...

[RONOTHAN##]

8 hours ago, AccDossNumber15 said:

I live in a tropical area, near the equator, does I count?

Do you get static shocks when touching doorknobs every other week? If yes, than it might be worth getting an anti-static bracelet. Otherwise don't worry about it. I only mentioned a desert since areas without a lot of humidity tend to have an easier time with gathering and discharging large static shocks compared to more moderate or humid conditions. 

[Dedayog]

10 hours ago, AccDossNumber15 said:

I live in a tropical area, near the equator, does I count?

No, since tropical areas are more humid than dry.  You have more issues with corrosion than static electricity.

 

 

Worry less. Life is too short.

[AccDossNumber15]

On 2/25/2024 at 12:10 AM, RONOTHAN## said:

Do you get static shocks when touching doorknobs every other week? If yes, than it might be worth getting an anti-static bracelet. Otherwise don't worry about it. I only mentioned a desert since areas without a lot of humidity tend to have an easier time with gathering and discharging large static shocks compared to more moderate or humid conditions. 

Not really, I do get some shock when touching the metal guard rails in malls for some reason. 

[Tetras]

On 2/24/2024 at 3:51 AM, AccDossNumber15 said:

Hello, ever since I've heard of static elecricity and how easily it kill your MOBO just by making contact with it—it has become my boogeyman. Now that I've bought a MOBO I feel like even as exposing it to the air with the "right conditions" it can also have static electricity and kill my 12K MOBO.

 

Could someone explain what are the things that make my MOBO vulnerable and how I can prevent it

If you want to take precautions, wrist straps are pretty cheap (not one of those "wireless" ones  *) and put it all together within easy reach (so you're not walking across the carpet in your wool jumper while you hold the parts in your hands), on something like a wooden table.

 

You can touch the PSU casing, or unpainted parts of the case (if it is grounded) to ground yourself before you touch parts and try to only handle them around the edges, e.g. don't grab the whole RAM stick in your hand with the memory chips contacting your skin, just handle it by the sides.

 

You're unlikely to know if you killed something unless it is obvious (like you hear/see the spark), GN's video explains why.

 

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