Build bench static safe?

[Sam22]

Linus starts all his build guides with make sure you are at a static safe workstation, how do I do that? I am building on a wooden desk, on a carpet floor. I am going to be standing on a cardboard box so I don’t rub my feet on the carpet, and wearing an antistatic ankle strap attached to a power supply plugged in  and turned on only at the wall not on the psu itself. Is this ok? Will I kill stuff? What else do I need to do? 

[Votivee]

You'll be fine. That's super overkill, but it's good to have safe practices.

[Sam22]

Do the clothes I wear matter too?

[Sam22]

It’s my first build, and it’s the most amount of money I’ve ever spent on something bearing in mind I’m 13, so better safe than sorry

[Sam22]

And which bits of the psu need to be switched on plugged in, turned on at all wall or plugged on and turned off at wall?

[Slottr]

Pc parts are more durable than people think. Just make sure to touch your case or another hunk of metal to discharge every once in a while.

 

[RollinLower]

Just now, Sam22 said:

And which bits of the psu need to be switched on plugged in, turned on at all wall or plugged on and turned off at wall?

doesn't matter, the PSU is grounded either way through the wall outlet. even if it is turned off.

 

and you really, really don;t need to worry about killing stuff this much. it's not as big of a risk as you make it out to be

[Votivee]

Just now, Sam22 said:

Do the clothes I wear matter too?

Yes. You must be completely naked while building the PC. (Just kidding)

 

As long as you're wearing a normal T-shirt, jeans/shorts you'll be good.

 

There's a video somewhere on this forum of one of the Moderators rubbing his GPU on his cat and then proceeding to use it. You really don't have to worry that much about ESD.

[RollinLower]

this is a good educational video to watch when building a pc

please note that even after this, the pc still works.

 

[Zmax]

This may help

 

 

[Dedayog]

25 minutes ago, Sam22 said:

It’s my first build, and it’s the most amount of money I’ve ever spent on something bearing in mind I’m 13, so better safe than sorry

Man, when I was 14 I upgraded my folks machine with my buddy's father, he was an IT Manager.  No one I knew could do it and no Youtube, no easily accessible forums.  Good for you, man.

 

Take your time, double check everything, ask questions if you have issues, etc. Good luck, post when it's all together and rocking.

 

 

[Sam22]

Thank you very much 

[MandoPanda]

6 hours ago, Sam22 said:

-snip-

Don't be too scared. Just do your work on a wooden table, no carpet under your feet (I'd prefer this over the cardboard. Find some tile or something). I never use an anti static wrist strap, just touch some metal before you touch your components.

[Sam22]

Carpet is unavoidable, with cardboard and a wrist strap will I still be ok?

[MandoPanda]

17 minutes ago, Sam22 said:

Carpet is unavoidable, with cardboard and a wrist strap will I still be ok?

As long as the strap is grounded.

[Laughingman91]

I did it with carpet and no socks to reduce static from friction and material.

The main thing as has already been recommended is to routinely touch something metal or grounded, for safe static discharge.

My hair easily feels the static if I have any. Me and my mum regularly shock each other it's how we were born.

So for my builds I made sure to touch the metal radiator, and this shiny thing underneath the bathroom basin.

It has an electrical ground in case the house is hit by lightning.

 

In any case, if your build won't switch on in the end it is probably due to static.
Very simple way to fix it, turn off the power on the PSU, or disconnect the power lead from the wall.

Then, hold the On button on your PC - the power light might flash on for a second or two, and on the motherboard too.

This is the static being used up lol. Then simply reconnect the power and boot up like normal.

[Sam22]

Does this actually work?

[Zmax]

Not sure about that but

 

 

Quote

For modelling the effect of static discharge on sensitive electronic devices, a human being is represented as a capacitor of 100 picofarads, charged to a voltage of 4000 to 35000 volts. When touching an object this energy is discharged in less than a microsecond.^[7] While the total energy is small, on the order of millijoules, it can still damage sensitive electronic devices. Larger objects will store more energy, which may be directly hazardous to human contact or which may give a spark that can ignite flammable gas or dust.

 

[MandoPanda]

4 hours ago, Sam22 said:

Does this actually work? 

Does what?

[Zmax]

On 11/7/2018 at 11:40 AM, Laughingman91 said:

 

In any case, if your build won't switch on in the end it is probably due to static.
Very simple way to fix it, turn off the power on the PSU, or disconnect the power lead from the wall.

Then, hold the On button on your PC - the power light might flash on for a second or two, and on the motherboard too.

This is the static being used up lol. Then simply reconnect the power and boot up like normal.

 

7 hours ago, Sam22 said:

Does this actually work?

 

Quote

Does what?

 I am not sure about that

[MandoPanda]

2 hours ago, Zmax said:

 I am not sure about that

Yeah, I don't think that will bring back fried capacitors and other damaged equipment.

[Laughingman91]

17 hours ago, Sam22 said:

Does this actually work?

If you could assemble enough hairy wolf-men and yeti's to shuffle on shaggy wool carpet or rugs, and then touch a motherboard or GPU on the back-face PCB, that's when you've got a problem.

Apart from bad luck which can happen to anyone, without socks, you're not likely (in my experience of PC building) to ruin any components with static if you're careful and touch grounded objects regularly.

In any case, you should be touching only the sides and non-vital parts of the kit, like the plastic fan shroud on the GPU.
Or the edges of your mobo, which you'll probably install first and thussly not have built up much static if any.

This is a real nit picking issue.

If you're really scared or are really hairy and have a medical requirement for shuffling, wear rubber gloves when you do your build, easy fix.
Another thing is add the PSU second after the mobo, attach the power cable, and connect the PSU to the wall power to make it auto-grounded.
In my experience though i've needed to disconnect PC's from the wall to dischage all the static, as you get a little bit just by plugging it in.
 

7 hours ago, MandoPanda said:

Yeah, I don't think that will bring back fried capacitors and other damaged equipment.

 

And, to state the previously stated obvious; you cannot revive busted components or equipment, by zapping them with static electricity. The magic is not real.

 

[Sam22]

Maybe this is a dead thread now, but if I take my PSU out of the box, by touching the metal can I zap it? And when I am installing PSU to case, can and will the case hold or distribute any static charge? Sorry for so many questions, just reaaaaaaallly don't want to get this wrong

[MandoPanda]

On 11/23/2018 at 5:48 AM, Sam22 said:

if I take my PSU out of the box, by touching the metal can I zap it?

You will be fine.