Hi, I am going to be working with a new Mobo and CPU, installing them both in my system and I just wanted to know how often I should touch a non-painted metal portion of my case to remove the static electricity from my body? From what i've read doing this is just as good as working with one of those static electric wrist bands, but Is doing this one time a half hour or twice an hour good enough or do I need to be cautious and put both hands on an unpainted metal portion of my case every 5 or 10 minutes? I know someone here will definitely know better then me and I won't start messing with stuff until I'm sure I won't zap anything. Thanks
Touch the chassis, or some other form of grounding, whenever you're actually handling the ESD-sensitive components. Less-ESD sensitive devices, such as CDROMs, don't need as much precaution.
Addis, are you serious? If you're holding a motherboard to mount that could take more then 20 seconds alone to align and setup with the screws. I may be wrong but that sounds like overkill and you're just being EXTREMELY cautious. Being that i'm gonna be working with a motherboard and a CPU i'd really like a "reasonable" amount of time people generally touch the non painted metal portion of their case or something similar. I guess i'll just overkill the ESD myself to be safe, but wow, every 20 seconds seems a little crazy.
Well that should be just fine, for me i use an anti-static wrist strap whenever i fix a computer. Or if i dont have one, ill just simply touch the case(metal part of it) with me knee or somtime my foot :chk:. Being extra cautious will not harm you
Well. If you're installing a new mobo, most people actually put mobos into cases don't they. And while your doing that can't you just stretch out a finger or bend your arm every now and again to touch the case? Can't be that hard. Anyway I have an ESD wrist strap even though I don't have many places to connect it. Just helps to be that extra bit cautious and be ok.
No offense afidelino, but those anti-static wrist straps are shit, they're complete shite, just don't work very well. Your safest bet, is to take your shoes off (and rubber socks if ur into that type of thing) and place one of your metal side panels from your case and stand one foot on that and the other on the floor whilst your building hardware.
They're actually pretty effective. As long you connect it properly and use a fairly decent one, they can do the job. But its better aswell if you can work in a place where you have hard flooring and without any 'asking for it' clothes.
My anti-static wristband that I got for £1.50 fails miserably but the one my cuz paid £5 for works good