i never built a pc before so this week is going to be my first time. would it be wise to buy Anti static gloves or wrist band to prevent frying my parts?

You should not be at too much risk, personally, I have never used an antistatic wrist strap or gloves while building my own pc's. Had very few problems. Mainly, do it preferably not on carpet, but if you, you'll be ok I think, just your main thing is to make sure you touch an unpainted part of the case, which will give you some ground, and keep touching that from time to time, and don't move/shuffle around. But that said, the gloves I don't think would be necessary, but a wrist strap would not be a bad idea. I recently got a tech job, and you'd be suprised how much damage ESD can really cause.

I always use a wrist strap. Really cheap and can keep it for years to come. If I can't be bothered to use it for quick things - I'll touch the side of the case to release any possible static before touching cards and things. Like ohiou_grad_06 said - you are not at too much risk. Just don't try moonwalking on a carpet wearing a pair of socks before touching your ram or vid cards etc.

lmao , ok so i might get a wrist band btw what am i suppose to connect the end of the wrist band to?a car battery?

an unpainted part of the case...

i remember once i forgot to use the wrist band and fried my brand new mobo, i now ALWAYS use the wrist band.
you hook it up to the inside of your case, the exposed metal part.

so i can connect it to the CD/DVD driver slots?

Depends, some probably do, like the one at my work, you plug it into a power cord, but it only has the plug for ground, then you plug the cord into the wall. But if it's a clip, then yeah, any unpainted part of the case should do fine.

I always use a wrist strap, I get them from work. It is even more important to use one now during the winter since the humidity is so low that static builds up quickly. Oh, and btw hooking up the strap to the case will just put you and the case at the same potential as the case. Now you need to open the static bag and then touch the board which is at a different potential and you could still zap the board.

What kind of jury rig is that? Sounds like a recipe for a disaster.

I can say i have never used a wristband and never fried anything... In fact i have never heard of anyone actually frying a part due to static electricity, I know it can be done but never met someone who has done it.

Just touch the chassis every time you pick up a part or enter the inside of the machine and try to avoid carpet.


***edit**
had a couple funny spelling errors.

LMAO .

step 1. Strap on Wrist Band.

step 2. Plug into power cord (not the real socket the fake socket for ground)


i think as long as you dont rub a balloon on the top of your head while sliding back and forth with your sweater vest on then finding that one metallic transistor in the case that is going to blow something up . you should be fine...

Just touch the case like everyone said imagine you have OCD and have to touch it just to do normal things like turn the lights on .. haha...

I've never used an anti-static band in all the years of building pc's or upgrading them (since 1988 or so) and never had an issue. The big change that I found out, was that the soft-on buttons on the pcs means you absolutely turn them off with the switch on the back of the power supply or unplug it. It USED to be that powering off a pc meant there was no power going to the motherboard. I happily shut off a friends compaq or dell once, popped the memory out, proceeded to put in new ram, BAM! Flash of white light and some smoke and a glowing piece of metal on the dimm socket. (No, the pc was not in sleep mode). Seems this particular motherboard kept power to the memory sockets, and a fairly large amount. One of the gold fingers from the dimm I was putting in melted off and had soldered itself to the dimm socket. Ended up have to put a twice as large stick in the other socket.

Just remember if you unplug the power cable, you have no ground iirc.

Just dont touch any of the black chips on any board.

just ground by touching a piece of metal before you touch any of ur hardware. you'll most likely be fine.

Dell instructions ..... Unplug the computer and then press the on/off button to discharge the residual power on the MB and within any circuits. Pressing the on/off button will also discarge any static charge of the person working on the computer.

The MB has a light bult that will indicate that the MB has residual power.

BTW, when you first plug the computer into the outlet the light bulb will immediately glow ...... the MB has been energized.

Touching the unpainted part of the case will discharge you even if the PSU is unplugged. You should unplug it actually, for the reasons mentioned a