Safe Spots to Touch Computer Parts?

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Justiceinacan

Justiceinacan

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Jul 19, 2016
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Hello once again

As the delivery date for my new computer order draws near, one though kinda made wanna double check things. In the past few weeks I have been tinkering around with old PC's but I never really knew if I broke anything while fixing it.

I do know about ESD ; I know one must keep grounded when working with electrical components.

But I wanted to know if anything can break by holding it in the wrong space. Where should I hold parts while installing them? Any other caution to take when building?

I also know about socks and carpets and stuff, my workspace is currently just an empty room with a cement floor (unfinished basements for ye)

Thanks for any tips
 
Solution
Woohoopy
Hey there,

As mentioned above, you want to avoid touching any socket/gold teeth contacts on your computer parts. Here's a list of where to grab components when handling them.

1). Power-Supply Unit: Grab this by the front on the outer metal body and away from the fan grill.

2). Motherboard: Attempt to only grab this board by the sides, especially avoiding to touch capacitors (little metal cylinders) and metal pins (kind of uncomfortable if you touch the spiky pins on the back), no big deal if you do but can cause a short circuit if two spikes are connected by the metal on your screwdriver or something.

3). Ram: Grab by the top of the heatsinks (top part opposite from the gold teeth). Avoid touching the gold teeth...
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R_1

R_1

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Sep 8, 2015
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avoid contact with the contacts, skin oils can react with the copper/gold contacts.
Do not pick up parts by capacitors or any other circuitry.
Cards (VGA,NIC) have a nice handle on them for you, the backplate.
do not touch any circuit boards (hard drives), a lethal ESD is low enough voltage that you cannot feel the shock at all, the PC will. if you feel a discharge its way too late. some motherboards have circuit protection for this especially around the rear ports.
ground yourself then handle the motherboard by the edges.

Ground yourself, do not move your feet, if you do ground yourself again.
I hope this is somewhat helpful
 
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Woohoopy

Woohoopy

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Jun 8, 2013
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Hey there,

As mentioned above, you want to avoid touching any socket/gold teeth contacts on your computer parts. Here's a list of where to grab components when handling them.

1). Power-Supply Unit: Grab this by the front on the outer metal body and away from the fan grill.

2). Motherboard: Attempt to only grab this board by the sides, especially avoiding to touch capacitors (little metal cylinders) and metal pins (kind of uncomfortable if you touch the spiky pins on the back), no big deal if you do but can cause a short circuit if two spikes are connected by the metal on your screwdriver or something.

3). Ram: Grab by the top of the heatsinks (top part opposite from the gold teeth). Avoid touching the gold teeth, as your skin oils can damage the contacts.

4). CPU: Only grab by the corners. Make sure to not touch the bottom pins, (there are dozens of them) as they are very delicate and bend/break easily.

5). CPU Cooler: Handle by the top/sides avoiding the copper bottom and avoiding excess pressure on a single metal fin, as it might bend the thin metal fin and reduce its cooling capacity (marginally of course).

6). Graphics Card: Do not touch the gold teeth, grab it by the plastic sides around the cooling fan.

7). Hard Drives: Do not press down on the middle section (disks) as this destroys a traditional HDD. Grab along the metal sides.

8). SSD: These are pretty tough no worries here grab by the sides.

9). Case Fans/Cooling Fans: Grab by outer sides and do avoid touching the fan itself, may unbalance the fan.

All set, good luck, and MOST computer parts are pretty resilient so besides ESD you should be good most of the time. Washing your hands before avoids most smudges and worries.

Good luck!
 
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