Question Does being barefoot while building ground yourself?

[Rasty]

Hey
im finally gonna build my pc however i'm a bit worried about static, I know that nowadays it's not big deal
but it doesn't hurt to be cautious.

Does being barefoot ground yourself?? like on concrete floor
I was planning on doing it on underwear, using nitrile gloves and barefoot, on a wood table with cardboard

 

[CelicaGT]

I just touch the PC case intermittently, and before I pick up or install a component. The discharge is from the differential between yourself and the case/component so unless those pieces are in electrical contact with the floor being barefoot will not help.

 

[Unolocogringo]

That is a shockingly dreadful mental image with your avatar.
No need to be overboard about it.
The barefoot on concrete does ground you. unless the computer is also grounded to the floor it negates this.

But the most important thing you can do is touch the case with any part of your body before reaching inside.
When installing motherboard touch it with your arm.
Once you remove your hands from inside. to reposition or pick up another component.
Touch the case again.
After a while(many years here) it becomes a very good habit.

 

[ohio_buckeye]

Biggest thing, touch an unpainted metal part of the case before you handle components. Don’t handle components by the chips or pins, but by the edges as much as possible. Just use common sense, like don’t go touching the pins inside the cpu socket, or the underside of the cpu, just touch the metal on the case before handling components etc and you should be good.

 

[BFG-9000]

Likely only if you are standing in a puddle of saltwater.

Human skin typically has a resistance of 1000-2000 ohms but it can go as high as 100,000 ohms depending on humidity (yes, this means if you shock yourself on a doorknob the voltage difference was over 1000 volts). That's higher than the typical insulation value in capacitors, so you could easily become a human capacitor and store a high-voltage charge. Nitrile gloves can be slightly conductive too.

If you insert an electrode underneath your skin and into the ground prong of a receptacle, the internal resistance of the human body is only about 300 ohms.

What does this tell you? Those anti-static wristbands your employer may make you wear are most likely feel-good measures that don't really work either, unless they actually use sticky patches like EKG electrodes. Those have a conductive gel in the middle for only 100 ohms, on top of your internal resistance.

I will say that most used-computer parts stores just use the wooden bins salvaged from when all the record stores went out of business, and customers rummage around in the piles all day with their bare hands, and yet the parts continue to work fine. So you don't have much to worry about unless you intend to build the computer while rubbing your feet on carpet, or rubbing a balloon on a cat.

 

[Karadjgne]

Don't wear gloves. Gloves typically become a conductor not an insulator.

Static electricity is a ionic charge built up by everything naturally, but increased by stuff such as motion, vibration, contact etc. The problem is that that charge is always unequal in seperated items. Electricity, like fluids, likes balance, equality, so if you have a 1000v charge built up, and the pc sitting on a grounded conducting mat has a 0v charge, and you touch it, you will dump that 1000v to ground through the pc. That same pc sitting on a tabletop might have a 200v charge, here comes you for first touch, you will dump 400v into the pc, equalizing to a 600v charge for both you and pc.

So if anything is grounded, everything needs grounded, including you, table, mat, pc, everything. If nothing is grounded, just touching the case prior equalizes everything, so no voltage then travels when adding equipment.

Choose one or other, no half-way.

 

[CountMike]

Hey
im finally gonna build my pc however i'm a bit worried about static, I know that nowadays it's not big deal
but it doesn't hurt to be cautious.

Does being barefoot ground yourself?? like on concrete floor
I was planning on doing it on underwear, using nitrile gloves and barefoot, on a wood table with cardboard

Great way to get electrocuted if you make a mistake and touch live wires. Because of skin's relative resistance, small, static charge will have hard time going thru but 110/220v from mains will have no problem.

 

[abletudu]

I think wearing a special wrist strap connected to an unpainted section of the case would eliminate the chance of static electricity.

 

[Karadjgne]

The wrist strap provides a conductive connection between the case and you. This balances out any charge you or what you have the pc on may accumulate. This doesn't remove any charge, that's still there, it's just the same for all components so there's no actual power flow, no static discharge.

This is why the pc should not be plugged in, that physically grounds the case, rendering you + strap at 0v charge and anything you touch (like pulling gpu out of the electrostatic bag) will now discharge its charge through you, to ground. Quick way to fry a motherboard or gpu.