ESD question

[davegl1234]

Hi,

So I decided, seeing as though they don't cost much, to purchase an ESD wrist strap for when I'm poking about in my pc. I know some people don't think they are necessary, but I thought, why not, after another SSD died on me.

It is one of the ones you connect directly to a plug socket. So this will ground me when pc building. Do I also need to ground the PC itself? Is it worthless unless I do this? Or is just better to ground both myself and pc anyway?

I believe to ground the pc I need to plug it in, keeping the power supply switched on, but off at the wall socket?

I did look into an electro static mat, and I believe the optimum solution would be for the pc to be grounded, and myself connected to the grounded pc (so everything is connected to the same 'circuit')? But they are quite expensive, and I could do without?

Thanks

 

[larrymoencurly]

You want to ground you and the PC together, and it doesn't matter if both of you are earth grounded or not. Those wrist straps that plug into a wall outlet have one megaohm of resistance inline with their ground cable, for safety reasons, in case you touch high voltage.

The best practice is to have an anti-static tabletop and connect everything to it. You can't use a metal top for this because it can short out stuff, and anti-static mats are expensive, so I use pink anti-static foam or bubble wrap. Have it overhang the table so you'll be more likely to come in contact with it, and work in short sleeves so your elbows will be more likely to touch it. Working barefoot helps, too.