I stopped using antistatic wrist straps and nothing fried - but I'm still paranoid about it

I worked on 12 desktops last month without a wrist strap after losing mine, and they all booted fine, but then my buddy said he killed a motherboard by skipping the strap once. Has anyone else taken the risk and got away with it, or am I just lucky?

2 comments

2 Comments

oscarcooper7d ago

Is it just me or does this whole paranoia thing feel like how people treat phone chargers? Like you hear one horror story about a cheap cable frying a phone and suddenly everyone's checking for MFi certification on lamp cords. I've built like 15 PCs over the years without a strap and never had issues. But I also treat my carpet like it's lava when I'm working and touch the case frame every few minutes. The risk is real but it's more about your environment than luck. If you're on a hardwood floor with low humidity you're probably fine way more often than not. It's one of those things where the one guy who blew a board screams about it while the rest of us just keep building.

wright.drew6d ago

Gotta say I feel you on this one. I've been building since the Core 2 Duo days and I've never once used a strap, never zapped anything either. But I'm also that guy who's paranoid about socks on carpet so I shuffle around like a penguin and keep one hand on the PSU case the whole time.