Most home repairs survive without a wrist strap. Some don’t, and those are the ones you remember. RAM stick that died in your hand on a dry carpet in January. The useful version of this advice is short.
The habits that pay
- Work on a table, not a bedspread or a carpet.
- Leave the PSU plugged into the wall but switched off, and touch the metal chassis before you touch a stick of RAM. That references you to the case. For a dust-out, unplug the wall first — that is a shock issue, covered in the cleaning guide.
- Unplug fully if you are opening the PSU side of things — that is a shock hazard, not an ESD trick.
- Do not shuffle. Do not wear a fleece and then grab a GPU by the fan shroud with a finger on the PCB.
- Keep parts in the bags they came in until they go in the slot. The bag is the strap you already own.
On the bench
A simple wrist strap (for winter, carpet, or board-level work)
Clip to bare metal on the chassis and wear it. If you only open a machine once a year on a wood table in July, skip it. Carpet in heating season, don’t skip it. I keep one in the drawer for winter.
- Alligator clip to chassis ground, not to a painted panel that does not conduct.
- An inexpensive strap is enough. The mat-and-cord kits are for a real bench.
Verdict
Table, touch the chassis, keep parts in the bag, strap on if the room is dry. That’s the useful ESD guide. The rest is either scare stories or a production line.