Static - how carefull should i be?

[omgwtfbbq]

as you may know i am building a second computer, this is the first computer i have actually built myself although i do own a decent gaming rig and a 17" powerbook (1.33 ghz). however i did not build either. anyway i am asking about the infamous "static" destroying computer parts. how carefull do i need to be?

could touching my processor to remove dust without having grounded myself have damaged it (i had socks on and i was sitting on my bed oh and it was still sitting in the plastic casing it came in...i simply opened it to remove the dust). please excuse my gross ineptitude and i appreciate the patience of the oc3d community.

 

[PV5150]

Better to be safe than sorry, although some peeps are quite anal about static and their PC's. I personally don't use an anti-static strap, I just touch the side of something metallic before handling my gear. Further, I usually always place the gear on the anti-static packaging it came in when removing or installing. Common sense is generally the best approach...Don't wear clothing that naturally attracts/holds static charge i.e nylon etc, and make sure that you're grounded (touch the side of your case) before you touch anything inside. Easy peasy

 

[browney]

I don’t use an anti-static band but I do...

1. Use an anti-static bag

2. Take off watch (don’t want it to crack into everything)

 

[Raven]

somethings i do in no pertucilar order.

1.

only use cottonclothes, some materials are VERY good at making electrostatic.

2.

try to avoud touching the components on cards and try to use the outer edges instead or heatsinks.

but be carefull with heatsinks, far from all is fastened hard.

3.

touch a water radiator and then the case of the computer, dont know if it helps reduce ES.

4.

have alot of space around me where i can place cards harddrives and other equipment.

5.

time, never rush a build.

6.

kick the cat into the bathroom and close the door, she has tried to help me install both cards and harddrives and it usually doesnt go well

as this is the first computer you will build i strongly recommends googling on words like "how to build computer"

if you do you can find many guides showing what to do and how to do it and with many good tips but be carefull some guides has been known to come with bad ideas.

can for example remember a guide claiming thermalpaste should be used plenty, for a cpu they used more than i have for 5 cpu's and 4 gfx cards.

 

[omgwtfbbq]

ok sweet, thanks guys...so i have no need to worry about my precious new processor? *paranoid*

 

[nathan]

i think that components today are not as sensitive to static. But i would still take some precautions though.

 

[FragTek]

Static can be a killer, that's for damn sure so you need to be careful. As far as going to the extent of buying the wrist-bands etc I think that's a bit too far. You just need to make sure that you're grounded before working on your computer and discharge any static in your body by touching something metal (other than your computer) while grounded to discharge yourself. From there on out you should be ok.

 

[Ham]

The most basic answer: Medium - high

 

[outrunner]

I would think that a discharge of in excess of 4000v dc (the threshold for feeling shocks is in the range 2,000-4,000V) might just do some damage to a motherboard, cpu etc

At work I'm hooked up to a wrist-band with all the parts on an anti-static mat.

 

[Raven]

(the threshold for feeling shocks is in the range 2,000-4,000V)

not higher than that :eh: would have guessed higher, the static on old tv's can reach over 20.000v

the problem with static is it often only damages hardware from what i read so the problem can come a day a week a year after, one reason why i prefer to buy new and not used stuff.

 

[FragTek]

The last 10+ years I've been building computers I don't think that I've ever once killed anything from static. I did once however mess up one of the DVI ports on a 6800GT last year from it however. I forgot exactly what I was doing but I grabbed the card before grounding myself and accidentally rubbed my finger across the solder points to the left-hand port and felt a slight shock. Once I installed the card and fired up the computer I right away realized that something had gone wrong, I had a mess of multi-colored lines and sometimes intermittent black and white. I switched the DVI cable to the other port and everything was just fine. Don't know what happened but I definately screwed over the other port from some static action.

Gave me a good excuse to get a new pair of 7800GTX's though! :rocker:

 

[nathan]

yeah i worked in a repair workshop for a 18 months. didn't use any sort of wrist strap. we have no carpets (big cause of static). I just made sure i touched the case first. in those 18 months i didnt have 1 damaged peice of hardware.

 

[PV5150]

Yep there's no substitute for good ol' common sense

 

[llwyd]

i was recently moving my componants around and out of habit i just touched the edges of the pcb's, nothing else. started up my rig, everything worked fine, touched my radiator and zaap got a pretty massive shock and realised i was wearing nylon shorts

 

[PV5150]

I'll say it again "there's no substitute for good ol' common sense"

 

[omgwtfbbq]

curious

I ask this question out of curiosity so feel free to ignore it .

does the static need to travel THRU the component in order to damage it i.e be linked to the ground in more than one way (your hand). or will it be damaged if the only thing linking it to the ground is your hand (if it is sitting in plastic or somthing).

thanks

 

[outrunner]

Static is more likely to wound the component i.e. cause intermittent and difficult to diagnose faults, not some thing you want if repairing a company's primary storage cluster, costing more than you earn a year

 

[AKtodaface]

well for the last month and a half i have been getting artifacts all over my screen while in game and out of game do u think static could have been the culpret?