Static shock on PC case

[Deleted member 2213048]

Hello everyone,

I've just finished my new PC build, put the tempered glass on and pulled the protection plastic off. This generated alot of static electricity so I tried to find something grounded. But in the process I accidentally came in contact with my S340 Elite steel case. It's not grounded yet because the power cable isn't plugged in yet.

So my question is, did this cause any damage to my components inside? It wasn't a big shock and I only touched the outside. But it's a steel case, so who knows.

 

[AppleGwava]

You wont know until you try to boot it up,there are instances of components being fine after shock and instances of it not.

 

[Solandri]

More than likely, everything is fine. A static discharge is an extremely high-voltage, low-current jolt. A physical analogy would be a bullet - extremely high velocity, but very little mass.

Due to the large amount of metal in your case, even when ungrounded it acts like a large mass would against this bullet. The mass of metal in the case dissipates the static bullet's energy over its large mass, resulting in stuff inside the case feeling very little impact from the bullet.

Grounding (with respect to a case) helps against large current discharges, like if there's a short in the power supply. The physical analogy there would be a large rock being dropped on your case (low velocity, high mass). Grounding would help deflect the rock so the case and components inside only suffer a glancing blow, not a direct hit.

With respect to components, grounding helps by preventing the bullet from ever being fired. If you wear a grounding strap, any static which builds up in your body (the explosive charge which fires the bullet) gets drained before enough of it builds off to fire the bullet (discharge a static shock).