Static electricity while building pc

[apoyusiken]

i see people concerned with this. is this a valid concern?

[freeagent]

I used to build computers on my living room carpet. Touch the chassis or PSU first before handling a part if you are overly concerned.

[Mowf]

Same as free agent, always build or rebuild my PC on living room carpet and not had a problem just plug in the psu so it’s grounded and touch it intermittently. 

[Kisai]

51 minutes ago, apoyusiken said:

i see people concerned with this. is this a valid concern?

Slightly overrated and depends on your local environment. If you are in a dry, low-humidity environment, then yes.  So building a PC in the winter is usually not a good idea without some anti-static measures. In the summer in a humid environment, it probably won't be as much of a big deal.

 

But Air Conditioning inside also dries out the air, so if you live in an air conditioned building, you have to also treat it as a high static potential.

 

[apoyusiken]

1 minute ago, Kisai said:

Slightly overrated and depends on your local environment. If you are in a dry, low-humidity environment, then yes.  So building a PC in the winter is usually not a good idea without some anti-static measures. In the summer in a humid environment, it probably won't be as much of a big deal.

 

But Air Conditioning inside also dries out the air, so if you live in an air conditioned building, you have to also treat it as a high static potential.

 

so what happens if there is a contamination?

[Kisai]

7 minutes ago, apoyusiken said:

so what happens if there is a contamination?

A particle of dust or mold usually doesn't affect electronics. The electronics that require the bunny suit, are assembled and sealed away from that.

 

Dust has to be of a very high concentration before it becomes explosive.

(I've seen dust an inch thick in computers in the 90's that were operating in a saw mill, and was surprised these could still run.)

 

[Timme]

Don't build with wool clothes on and don't pet the cat until you're finished. Other than that everything should be fine,

[manikyath]

the concern is valid, in the same way that the concern for potential accidents when crossing the road is valid. if you have an ounce of common sense and take just the slightest of precautions, the chance of problems is extremely low.

 

plug your power supply into an earthed (grounded) outlet, and turn the switch on the back of the power supply OFF. just make sure to touch the power supply before handling each sensitive part, and you're probably fine.

 

additionally, wear clothing you havent accidentially zapped yourself with, and make sure the room's humidity is at least above 30%. i see wool mentioned a lot, but i dont have much evidence that wool specificly is problematic. 

 

bonus point about the power supply thing, on european sockets the earth pin is exposed, and you can just touch the pin on the outlet.. however dangerous this may sound to our american friends here.

[apoyusiken]

8 minutes ago, manikyath said:

the concern is valid, in the same way that the concern for potential accidents when crossing the road is valid. if you have an ounce of common sense and take just the slightest of precautions, the chance of problems is extremely low.

 

plug your power supply into an earthed (grounded) outlet, and turn the switch on the back of the power supply OFF. just make sure to touch the power supply before handling each sensitive part, and you're probably fine.

 

additionally, wear clothing you havent accidentially zapped yourself with, and make sure the room's humidity is at least above 30%. i see wool mentioned a lot, but i dont have much evidence that wool specificly is problematic. 

 

bonus point about the power supply thing, on european sockets the earth pin is exposed, and you can just touch the pin on the outlet.. however dangerous this may sound to our american friends here.

but what would happen if something went wrong?

[manikyath]

4 minutes ago, apoyusiken said:

but what would happen if something went wrong?

well.. you zap electronics, and something breaks. a good static zap can break a mosfet, and it just so happens the majority of active components in a computer are basicly mosfets piled together.

[DJ_Jay125]

On 2/23/2025 at 2:09 PM, apoyusiken said:

but what would happen if something went wrong?

worst case? youd break some component, you wont explode or anything but absolute worst case scenario you could kill your mobo or gpu

 

but honestly? I've build and repaired PC's on my bed with my feet on the carpet floor and been fine, even more unpredictable 1990s parts survived fine

[LogicalDrm]

It used to be more than it current day is. Most components are shielded. You don't need to touch contact surfaces rarely ever and there aren't that many visible. Biggest and most vulnerable component is CPU where all contact surfaces are visible before its seated into socket. Socket is too, but I do suspect there's some kind of shield between socket and rest of the mobo to keep things safer.

[DeerDK]

I usually just plays footies with the metal frame of my chair while building. I do live in an apartment with wooden floors, so that may play a role.

[MS-DOS]

On 2/23/2025 at 10:20 PM, Mowf said:

Same as free agent, always build or rebuild my PC on living room carpet and not had a problem just plug in the psu so it’s grounded and touch it intermittently. 

What if you put it on top of a mousepad like the big qck one?

 

Also, can I touch the metal support tube thing on my table to discharge? how do you know if you are charged? its not like we have status bars showing our amount of charged static so yeah.  I want to clean a laptop btw.

[daygeckoart]

On 3/27/2025 at 4:14 AM, LogicalDrm said:

It used to be more than it current day is. Most components are shielded. You don't need to touch contact surfaces rarely ever and there aren't that many visible. Biggest and most vulnerable component is CPU where all contact surfaces are visible before its seated into socket. Socket is too, but I do suspect there's some kind of shield between socket and rest of the mobo to keep things safer.

I've seen this claim pretty often, that modern components are more immune to static. I can't find anything that verifies that. If anything modern components are more fragile because everything has shrunk and can be damaged easier!

 

 

[daygeckoart]

27 minutes ago, MS-DOS said:

What if you put it on top of a mousepad like the big qck one?

 

Also, can I touch the metal support tube thing on my table to discharge? how do you know if you are charged? its not like we have status bars showing our amount of charged static so yeah.  I want to clean a laptop btw.

What matters is getting rid of any potential difference between objects, that's what makes the spark and what causes damage. For example if your body is charged and you touch a computer part that's grounded, the static will go from your hand into the component to equalize things.

 

In the past I used a wrist strap but always got annoyed by the cable. Now I just touch the PC and touch a safe spot on the component to equalize charge, then move forward. For example let's say my computer is unplugged and on my carpet awaiting a new graphics card. I don't care about ground, I need to worry about equalizing charges through a safe path. So I grab the computer chassis with one hand, and I grab the PCIE bracket on the graphics card. If there's a difference in charge, it will equalize through the chassis, me, and the bracket. Then I hold the graphics card and put it into the slot, also being careful not to move around on the carpet or do anything else that will generate more charge. 

 

This page explains the concept of potential and charge:

https://esdsystems.descoindustries.com/questionsandanswers/ShowQuestion.aspx?i=1199

 

By the way, materials play a big role in generation of ESD. There is a thing called the tribolectric series that assigns materials different values. Some are positive and some are negative, meaning they give up or take electrons. The more different two objects, the more static gets generated. That also means materials with values closer to 0 are lower risk for static generation. For example, cotton and abs plastic are + and - but very low values. So I've shipped hard drives in 100% cotton bags encased in polycarbonate tool cases. 

 

Synthetic fabrics and materials used for carpet are extremely negative values, hence high risk!

 

https://www.alphalabinc.com/triboelectric-series/?srsltid=AfmBOooZECdxWQYxBcBsWZLvHop_XuuHkAbpHi8EO--d_eqS0F8ngB6O

 

 

 

[MS-DOS]

7 minutes ago, daygeckoart said:

What matters is getting rid of any potential difference between objects, that's what makes the spark and what causes damage. For example if your body is charged and you touch a computer part that's grounded, the static will go from your hand into the component to equalize things.

 

In the past I used a wrist strap but always got annoyed by the cable. Now I just touch the PC and touch a safe spot on the component to equalize charge, then move forward. For example let's say my computer is unplugged and on my carpet awaiting a new graphics card. I don't care about ground, I need to worry about equalizing charges through a safe path. So I grab the computer chassis with one hand, and I grab the PCIE bracket on the graphics card. If there's a difference in charge, it will equalize through the chassis, me, and the bracket. Then I hold the graphics card and put it into the slot, also being careful not to move around on the carpet or do anything else that will generate more charge. 

But you need to take shoes off? This is too convoluted. Also I don't have a carpet, it's a flat surface, so I just put my computer on top of the desktop which is made of wood, but I have the QCK heavy big pad on top, so I put it on top of there.. ive never had problems and i have bought several computers across the years. Now I have never opened a laptop and I want to clean it. I skipped class on this static thing. But from what I've heard, you just have to touch a metal with no shoes on (is socks ok?) and thats it. So every 10 minutes or so I will be touching some metal piece. The laptop I have is made off some sort of metal on the wrist rest area, and it gives me static sometimes. I touch the metal legs of the desk and it stops for a while it seems.

[daygeckoart]

1 hour ago, MS-DOS said:

But you need to take shoes off? This is too convoluted. Also I don't have a carpet, it's a flat surface, so I just put my computer on top of the desktop which is made of wood, but I have the QCK heavy big pad on top, so I put it on top of there.. ive never had problems and i have bought several computers across the years. Now I have never opened a laptop and I want to clean it. I skipped class on this static thing. But from what I've heard, you just have to touch a metal with no shoes on (is socks ok?) and thats it. So every 10 minutes or so I will be touching some metal piece. The laptop I have is made off some sort of metal on the wrist rest area, and it gives me static sometimes. I touch the metal legs of the desk and it stops for a while it seems.

You touch metal only because it's conductive and discharges better. But touching a random metal object won't do any good. You have to touch the computer chassis or the laptop chassis to equalize your static with the computer's static. And you also have to touch the component in a safe spot to equalize static. So in my example I touch both the chassis and the graphics card bracket to equalize, then I install.

 

For a laptop it's more challenging. If an outer housing for a USB port is exposed, that might work, or some screws or bits of chassis. For some components like RAM, I don't know if there is a safe location. I just grab the heatsink and hope that's good enough.

[LogicalDrm]

11 hours ago, daygeckoart said:

I've seen this claim pretty often, that modern components are more immune to static. I can't find anything that verifies that.

IIRC there aren't any scientific studies on the matter. I've seen two tech-tuber videos testing things. Not to the level I would test things myself. But still. Let's take this reverse, how many people you know in past 5 years to have killed their PC from static shock?

 

11 hours ago, daygeckoart said:

If anything modern components are more fragile because everything has shrunk and can be damaged easier!

Any proof of this claim then? Being fragile can mean more than one thing. Being physically fragile is very different from being electrically fragile. Also, things getting smaller is better as it leaves more room to safety features like shielding or physical casing. Remember the golden age of mobile phones? They were smaller and weren't as fragile as modern phones. 

[daygeckoart]

6 hours ago, LogicalDrm said:

IIRC there aren't any scientific studies on the matter. I've seen two tech-tuber videos testing things. Not to the level I would test things myself. But still. Let's take this reverse, how many people you know in past 5 years to have killed their PC from static shock?

 

Any proof of this claim then? Being fragile can mean more than one thing. Being physically fragile is very different from being electrically fragile. Also, things getting smaller is better as it leaves more room to safety features like shielding or physical casing. Remember the golden age of mobile phones? They were smaller and weren't as fragile as modern phones. 

The risk isn't that you kill your PC, it's that you cause damage to a small part of one of the components. I have gotten a used graphics card that worked when the seller tested it, but not when I received it, and I think it's because he packed it in standard bubble wrap.

 

If you can find any info on protective measures in modern electronics, I'd love to see it! I haven't heard of any except the type that has already existed, like plugs being designed so that ground pins connect first 

[wanderingfool2]

3 hours ago, daygeckoart said:

The risk isn't that you kill your PC, it's that you cause damage to a small part of one of the components. I have gotten a used graphics card that worked when the seller tested it, but not when I received it, and I think it's because he packed it in standard bubble wrap.

 

If you can find any info on protective measures in modern electronics, I'd love to see it! I haven't heard of any except the type that has already existed, like plugs being designed so that ground pins connect first 

That more likely has to do with vibrations/handling of the components/general physical damage than electro-static.

 

Not saying that static can't harm electronics, just that dealing with a bunch of computers I've never once caused a static discharge that managed to kill any component.

 

In practice the only times that I will wear an electrostatic band that is grounded is if I am dealing with very expensive equipment/mission critical equipment where even the tiny chance isn't worth the risk of the downtime having the component gone would entail.

 

While not scientific as well, LMG and ElectroBoom I think displayed that there is a very good chance that a static discharge is unlikely to damage a component.

 

Overall as well, it comes down to probabilities.  What is the chance of a static discharge when you touch something (noting you likely aren't shuffling around during the build all too often and often you will have touched a giant metal case at the beginning/unpacking stage...then what is the chance that you touched a critical component when you had that discharge.  Then on top of that the chance that the component happened to be susceptible to the static discharge.

 

The only thing I would say though is when handling the CPU directly is the only time I would ensure I've touched something grounded...and that's just because it feels more vulnerable with the data lines being right there.

[CasualExtremist]

Everyone here trying to go find research papers when we have the "real research" ^/s already done in a "scientific lab" ^/s by our very own LTT ft. Electroboom

 

The conclusion I got from it is:
Don't be a dumbass and you'll be fine. Better chance winning the lottery than killing a component during assembly.

[wanderingfool2]

13 minutes ago, CasualExtremist said:

Everyone here trying to go find research papers when we have the real research already done in a scientific lab by our very own LTT ft. Electroboom

...the "real research" wasn't proper research and done in a "scientific lab".  If you think that that is how real research is done you are in a world of a surprise.

 

How a "real research" in a "scientific lab" would actually conduct the experiment would be more deliver a prescribed voltage at specific and repeatable locations across multiple brands etc...and then do proper inspection of the components afterwards.

 

Not saying that LMG's and ElectroBoom's video doesn't serve a purpose in showing just how resilient it is...but it's hardly a real research and more of a "it's overblown the cautionary tale".  It's like pouring molten aluminum, there are plenty of examples of YouTubers pouring in it to get a cool casting...but at the same time in the right conditions if you pour it into water you can actually get it to physically explode.  Yet there are plenty of examples of people pouring it and not having anything happen.

[CasualExtremist]

1 minute ago, wanderingfool2 said:

...the "real research" wasn't proper research and done in a "scientific lab".  If you think that that is how real research is done you are in a world of a surprise.

 

How a "real research" in a "scientific lab" would actually conduct the experiment would be more deliver a prescribed voltage at specific and repeatable locations across multiple brands etc...and then do proper inspection of the components afterwards.

 

Not saying that LMG's and ElectroBoom's video doesn't serve a purpose in showing just how resilient it is...but it's hardly a real research and more of a "it's overblown the cautionary tale".  It's like pouring molten aluminum, there are plenty of examples of YouTubers pouring in it to get a cool casting...but at the same time in the right conditions if you pour it into water you can actually get it to physically explode.  Yet there are plenty of examples of people pouring it and not having anything happen.

I figured my exaggerative language that you reacted so heavily towards would have given the safe assumption that I was being sarcastic. I will add a "/s" just for you, special one. haha

[benny001]

I saw an ad for a wireless grounding wristband once.