Do *NOT* do this with mains electricity applied to anything you're working on!!!
It is wise to be cautious, of course, but once all the components are in the mother board they will be protected by the other components on the board. (You weren't going to stroke the cat and then touch the isolated processor or memory chips, anyway, were you?)
Good luck and have fun!
Most if not all computer chips have some degree of ESD(Electro-Static-Discharge) protection nowadays. So your body doesn't have to be all the way to 0V. You just have to discharge the majority of it before handling sensitive circuitry. Whenever I'm swapping boards in my computer I just make sure I grab something grounded to earth ground before doing it. And then if I do any degree of shuffling myself around on the carpet, like changing positions to get comfortable, I grab it again. Water pipes are good grounds. Metal vents for heating or anything electrical that has an earth-grounded case like a desktop computer. If you're not close to something like this, then attach a long wire that you can grab that leads close to where you are working.
If you're not sure if an appliance has an earth ground to the case, you can check it with an Ohm meter. Just unplug the device, put one side of the meter on the third prong of the plug and the other on the case and see if there's a short. If there is, it's Earth grounded. If there isn't, it's isolated and can't be used for this.
The components come in anti-static (conductive) bags. Touch the computer case and touch the bag at the same time before opening the bag. If the room is really dry, place the components on or back in the bags unless they are installed in the case. Don't walk across the carpet and immediately pick up a component.
Hook an alligator clip to a piece of wire. hook the other end of the wire to a wrist strip or bracelet through a 1Meg resistor. this is an anti static(AS) wrist strap. Hook the alligator clip to the frame of your device and the other end to your arm, leg, anywhere on your body.
when you handle electronic parts touch the ground of a board or device first. Most parts come in an AS plastic bag.
Boil a pot of water and increase the relative humidity of your room to nearly 100 percent. Have you noticed how you can feel a static discharge as you get out of your car on a dry winter day? But never on a foggy summer day! Moisture leads static electricity.
Make sure your body is grounded to house ground.
I'm building my first computer tomorrow :)
I don't have an anti static wriststrap or a anti static matte. They aren't easy to get around where I live (not america) and I'd probably have to order them online and that takes a lot of time here (2-7 days) so i'd rather not to that. Is it really essential to use an anti static wriststrap or will I be fine without them? I will not be building on a carpeted floor. I've heard that you can just touch your pc case now and then on a metal part that isn't painted but how often is "now and then"? Also my pc case is a NZXT Phantom and I think most of it is plastic and what is metal is painted so what else could I use? Also why can't I just take something metal and tape it to my arm or something?
