Originally posted by: sbaksh
For those of you who didn't know ESD breaks down the life the of a PC component, so when you say you never had a problem, maybe you didn't keep your damn pc long enough to find out the hard way. so you keep upgrading the damn thing after the newest component came out to stay on top of the game. Guess WHAT I TOOK ELECTRONICS, AND I AM AN ELECTRICIAN AND I CAN TELL YOU THAT USE AN ANTI STATIC DEVICE IS RECOMMENDED, I FOUND OUT THE HARD WAY TWICE IN THE LAST 5 YRS. I GUESS YOU "GENIUSES" NEVER KEPT YOUR PC FOR MORE THAN 2 YRS.
Excuse me for being emotional,
ESD is only a problem if there is a DIFFERENCE in potential. It doesn't matter if the computer or yourself is grounded, as long as all the components AND yourself is at the same potential relative to each other. Given that all the electronic components in a computer case are grounded to the metal chassis, touching the chassis WILL bring you and your computer to the same potential, therefore there can not be any ESD.
The trick here is that you have to make sure you STAY at the same potential during the "operation". If you have a long operation and are working in less than optimal conditions (shag carpet during the winter perhaps), you can quickly build up a charge on yourself, so you need to ground yourself VERY often to make sure the delta doesn't get high enough to cause damage. Its not that hard to do...
Frankly, the best route is just to use a proper grounding strap. There are only three differences between a wrist strap and a piece of wire: 1) Nice little wrist band to hold it to you, 2) clip on the other end to attach it to you system you are working on and 3) built in high resistance (megaohms if my memory is correct) so you don't kill yourself if you accidentally connect your "ground" to an hot AC voltage rail in the power supply instead...
Oh, and the person that uses latex gloves... You REALLY need to rethink that plan! I work for sort for Intel (where all the completed die on each wafer are tested for function). Even in the class 1 clean room where the wafers are made, working on electronic components of the process tooling is the one case where you are REQUIRED to remove your latex gloves!
Why? Latex is an insulator. Which means even though YOU are grounded through your grounding strap and grounding clips on your shoes (you have to be working on a conducting floor for the shoe clips to work), because the gloves are insulators, they can and WILL build up a static charge as you work and eventually discharge and kill something very expensive.