I have built and worked on PCs dozens of times and never used a strap and never had issues. Is it -really- needed?
Same. I’ve only used one maybe once. Never had a problem.
However, our friend @Cremlian once carried some RAM sticks while shuffling across a carpeted floor in wool socks. Pretty sure that RAM did not work.
RAM is probably the most static sensitive thing in a modern computer and even that is a little hard to fry by accident.
A grounded case for working in is technically slightly safer, but really everything is covered in interconnected ground planes anyway, so no big deal. Generally speaking, grounded casings are more for protecting you than the electronics inside the case, but the power supply has it’s own grounded case, so you’re good.
This might be a stupid question, but what makes something qualify as grounded? I thought there had to be a physical connection to the actual ground of the Earth. Like, the third prong on your US power outlet eventually connects to some kind of wire that goes into the dirt/basement. But a little wire connecting to an aluminum PC case is enough? Electrons gotta go somewhere!
It’s a little more complex than that, but it’s all relative voltages. The general idea for human safety is just trying to make electricity go somewhere other than through you.
In avoiding blowing up chips you’re trying to dissipate static safely and avoid putting bad voltages across things. That’s why there’s issues with “power before ground” which is why modern connectors have grounded casings or longer ground pins inside them.
So say a chip wants no more than 5v going through it and you have 1Kv built up on your fingertip. If you touch it directly that could kill something, but if your wrist touches the metal, it can dissipate first.
So like for a thing running on battery “ground” is just the low end of the battery, and everything else is relative to that. It gets more complex when you get into interconnected systems, and then you get ground loops and all this other garbage that you have to worry about.
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[quote=“Raithnor, post:79, topic:327”]
The motherboard backing plate usually comes with the motherboard and is snapped into the back of most modern cases. Now the PCI slots, that’s something work transplanting.
[/quote]The big steel plate you screw your standoffs into? Nah, man, I’ve had that come with cases, but never with mobos. PCI slots wouldn’t be hard - just run a channel of the appropriate size with a router, round out the far end, drill in some appropriately sized threaded shims, piece of piss. Maybe I used the wrong word for the thing?
Sorry, I mixed it up with the I/O shield.
[quote=“Raithnor, post:87, topic:327, full:true”]
Sorry, I mixed it up with the I/O shield.
[/quote]All good. And honestly, I’d probably use one as a template to make a very thin wood one, though it would be a pain. Not a hard job, just a fiddly one, and when it comes to wood, fiddly can be real annoying.
Oooh wooden I/O shield. I didn’t even think of that, but it would be hella stylish. Gotta buy the motherboard first, though.
“Grounded” isn’t really a binary in any sensitive equipment, there are lots of considerations about quality of the connection. For most everyday purposes though, something is grounded in terms of ESD if it has some kind of connection to the third prong of the wall outlet, or to the chassis of a battery-powered device (like a car). This connection can even have mega-ohms of resistance, because that’s still enough to dissipate whatever static charge builds up in a fraction of a second, making sparks impossible. Grounding in terms of power should have a thick enough wire that it could handle a brief short-circuit event without catching fire, and should be as low resistance as possible. The idea is that if there’s a failure that connects the high voltage to the chassis, it will be able to pull enough current to keep the voltage below dangerous levels until the circuit breaker kicks in. The neutral prong in the outlet actually connects to the grounding pole at the same location, but ground gets a dedicated wire to ensure it’s always safe.
Grounding for signal integrity in sensitive experiments is some fucking black magic bullshit that they don’t teach you in engineering school.
[quote=“Apreche, post:89, topic:327, full:true”]
Oooh wooden I/O shield. I didn’t even think of that, but it would be hella stylish. Gotta buy the motherboard first, though.
[/quote]Even if you’re a less skilled woodworker, you can even just throw a matching veneer on a metal IO shield and cut the holes to fit. It’s cheating a little, but it’ll look like wood because it’s essentially just a super thin piece of wood with adhesive on one side.
It might be hard to plug things in with too much material in front of the holes.
A wooden io shield sounds like the perfect application for a laser cutter. Like @Apreche said, thickness might be an issue. I guess you’d have to see which is thinner, 1/8" ply or veneer over the existing shield.
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[quote=“Apreche, post:92, topic:327, full:true”]
It might be hard to plug things in with too much material in front of the holes.
[/quote]Nah, shouldn’t be an issue - you can get Veneers thin as 0.6mm and thinner, with that on top of the IO plate, at worst you’d be close to flush with the tops of the actual plugs mounted on the motherboard.
[quote=“RobotMitchell, post:93, topic:327, full:true”]
A wooden io shield sounds like the perfect application for a laser cutter. Like @Apreche said, thickness might be an issue. I guess you’d have to see which is thinner, 1/8" ply or veneer over the existing shield.
[/quote]It is! you can make some incredibly intricate woodwork with a Laser, something like an IO shield would be an absolute snack.
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This one is huge!
I always follow his videos. This guys covers pretty impressive stuff!
There was a time in my life I would have thought this was the coolest thing ever. Nowadays I look at it the same way I look at the kids with spoilers and body kits and badly done homemade pinstriping on a 1992 Civic. Underneath, not matter how many NOS stickers it has, it’s still a 1992 Honda Civic you’ll use to drive to work. Underneath, no matter how many fans it has, its still a 7700k and a bunch of RAM that you’ll use to play Overwatch. I get it, in both cases that isn’t the point, the point is to be over the top and flashy and if that’s what you’re into knock yourself out. Its just it seems like a lot of flash and extra expense for a box to play video games and look at kitten videos.
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But what if you’re cramming the new $2000 i9 in there and using more RAM than most people’s boot SSD? And have everything liquid cooled via multiple radiators?
And you’re using it to edit video and render Maya while livestreaming overwatch at 4k?
There’s nobody on earth that does that. Even if you did all of those things, you could do it amazingly fast with less hardware.
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