AMD Ryzen Threadripper Unboxing - Hilarity Ensues

[FrgMstr]

What shocked me about this video is how you touch the processors contacts with your bare fingers repeatedly before installing it in the socket!

This actually makes me laugh as to how many people who have said this, mostly on Youtube comments. The LGA processors are tough as nails. I literally keep them stacked up and take no special care of them. I have never seen a LGA CPU damaged by handling ever. You can use the things for throwing stars. All that said, I generally clean them off with 99.9% alcohol when I go to actually use those. In the video, the socket was broken, I was not worried about it being actually fired up on a working system.

 

[FrgMstr]

Picture of my test bench right now.

 

[Glock24]

In most cases that will really make no difference at all. If you or your space is prone to static buildup, then maybe some precaution is recommended. If you have really oily skin, then that may also be a concern. If you build a hundred systems/test setups a week, you'll have a pretty good idea of whether any of this is a concern or not. (At least in my opinion.) I've worked in hardware compatibility labs before (several actually) and routinely swapped hardware in and out of testbeds with pretty much zero precaution.

I'll build systems right on the living room floor sometimes, or even in one of the rooms that has carpet. I'm taking a superstitious risk saying this, but I've never had a problem. hehehe I haven't zapped any sensitive discrete components either when building any of the circuits that I design. (FETs, logic ICs, etc.)

I've heard plenty of horror-stories though, and they must come from somewhere. I just haven't experienced any of it myself.

I was actually not really thinking about static electricity killing the chip (where I live humidity is very high, so ESD in not much of a concern here).

I'm kind of a freak about leaving finger marks on metal surfaces, I just can't stand it. I wear gloves when possible or clean the surface afterwards with alcohol or another non-residue degreaser. In this case tough, the skin oil could affect the conductive performance of some of those 4094 pins/contacts.

 

[FrgMstr]

Every time I roll over to my test bench, I touch the grounded PSU first.

 

[Deleted member 83233]

I was actually not really thinking about static electricity killing the chip (where I live humidity is very high, so ESD in not much of a concern here).

I'm kind of a freak about leaving finger marks on metal surfaces, I just can't stand it. I wear gloves when possible or clean the surface afterwards with alcohol or another non-residue degreaser. In this case tough, the skin oil could affect the conductive performance of some of those 4094 pins/contacts.

I agree with that. I personally have really dry fingertips, so I don't really leave much in the way of residue on things like this. I do avoid touching pins, but I'm also not overly careful about it either. If I do hold something by the contacts, it's usually with pretty low pressure. I don't use cleaners or solvents on anything typically. If something really needs it, like Kyle, I use alcohol to do it. I design circuits, and handle boards, ICs, discrete components, etc. regularly. Unless something is HIGHLY static sensitive, I don't take any additional caution. By HIGHLY I mean certain discrete JFETs, some expensive analog multipliers that would just suck to damage at $50 a chip (simple DIP packages too) Otherwise, you might call me a bit cavalier about such things. I do use water soluble flux solder though, so all of my PCBs (including all sealed components soldered on) get washed after soldering anyway, so residue isn't much of a thing there.

Anyway, I'd never fault anyone from being cautious, or even what I'd consider overly cautious. That's totally cool, and actually pretty smart. Personally, I don't go out of my way to mistreat anything, use care when it's really needed, but I'm pretty easy-going with a lot of electronics.