Static Shock

Do you really need to ground yourself when putting a computer together?

No

Just make sure you touch the metal on the computer case if you have been walking around and you will be fine.

I've built at least 4 personal computers and a ton for work...got pretty careless over the years thinking static shock is a bunch hooey...well it's not. A few years ago I was replacing a motherboard and guess I had a charge built up and when I grabbed the mobo had a discharge and basically blew a component on the mobo. Anyways I still don't think it's a huge issue but I always at least touch the metal part on the computer case prior to touching any components now :P

Better safe than sorry when working with expensive components.

Better safe then sorry, but yes static shock can definitely kill parts.. Much more of a risk if you live in cold dry places. As long as you touch a metal part of the case, you'll be fine.

A little off topic, but I've turned my computer on and off a couple times this winter by just touching around the front IO and shocking the case. I don't like when that happens.

Yeah, I've had that happen with shocks to the mobo and it's probably not good.

Regarding ESD, any good computer repair manual will tell you to keep yourself grounded. Wrist straps work but just being careful and touching the metal in a case that is properly grounded (i.e. plugged in but turned off at the power supply) works as well. A component can be damaged by an ESD so light you don't even feel it. Seeing as how you just spent X number of hundreds on this equipment with your own money, better to play it safe. Some parts are less likely to be damaged by ESD, but others (like RAM) are more delicate. I wonder how many "defective" parts people have dealt with were actually fine out of the box but damaged through careless handling.

-Byshop

Its 2015 and people still believe this old wives tale...?

Modern mobos and everything else are built pretty tough.

And yet I've still seen modern motherboards fail due to static electricity.

I actually ended up busted with an old ATA HDD that was connected internally in my old PC for some data transfer. I had built up static and touched the HDD to remove it. It was a tiny static but after that that HDD never worked.

So yeah, static does damage so precautions are always recommended.

If you know your surroundings and what causes static... You don't need to ground.

If you are unsure how static builds and weather or not the area your in builds static... Then ground yourself.

So far all I've gotten in the mail for all my parts is my case took it out of the box and it already shocked me lol. My computer room has carpet so I will probably put my computer together in my kitchen then take it to my computer room after I put it all together.

I can't wait till that video game comes out.