Best surface for building a PC?

quadboi · 27 Jun 2006 at 18:39

Dining table, before my mom gets home!

It has the cloth thing which is good too

greencreeper · 27 Jun 2006 at 18:49

I was considering this myself - at the end of the month, I will be building a PC for the first time. Not a lot of space here. Certainly no room for a table. I do have one but it's small and I have to take the legs off and store it when not in use. The cellar would be ideal but it has running water - a stream to be exact. Plus assorted wildlife and fungi. So - I bought a largish sheet of MDF and stuck some vinyl floor tiles to it. I can work on the carpet, but the sheet gives me a clean, flat surface, in addition.

All metal pipes should be earthed and earthed together (cross bonding). I usually plug myself into the mains - only without the brown/blue ones connected in the plug

A wrist strap connects me to the bare wire from the plug.

Corasik · 27 Jun 2006 at 22:06

I've been using the case/psu plugged into mains (turned off) for years now, and never had any problems.

Hlebio · 27 Jun 2006 at 22:12

Explicit said:
For a second, that didn't sound right...

Also built my computer on there too.. :rolleyes:

peter7 · 27 Jun 2006 at 22:12

i use a wooden table with a thin cloth over it (damn scratches) and a 3M antistatic wristband..does the job..unfortunately, my latest build refuses to work..stupid hard drive..and stupid XP! :mad:

scotty32 · 27 Jun 2006 at 22:35

I use our dining room table, made of glass, for major things (building from scratch), bedroom carpet for minor things (new gfx etc).

PuncH · 27 Jun 2006 at 23:27

i usually build on my carpeted floor, but keep all the components in the boxes etc until needed. no problems yet.

KizZ · 27 Jun 2006 at 23:36

no_1_dave said:
Bedroom floor (carpet)

paulsheff · 27 Jun 2006 at 23:55

I took my decks off the bench I had made and built mine there with a big rubber cutting mat underneath to protect the components I had to put on it. It's at a good height to work off, I find if you're on the floor you get numb legs.

spirit · 28 Jun 2006 at 00:16

i plug case in and touch metal part of case to discharge.

I often use boxes/the antistatic wrapping ontop of a carpet.

Vai · 28 Jun 2006 at 00:26

I start off wth a table, and a rubber mat (for grip), but with new builds I usually end up running out of room due to all the packaging and use the floor aswell

Berserker · 28 Jun 2006 at 00:28

I got myself an antistatic mat, and I also have a wrist strap that's earthed to a mains socket (saves messing about with plugged in power supplies etc). Though, tbh, using the boxes and/or antistatic bags is just as good in most cases. I'd avoid carpet though (both for static reasons and getting bits of carpet in places they shouldn't be).

Keylow · 28 Jun 2006 at 16:00

It lives!

(Sorry for the bad photo, taken on a mobile)

Build worked first time amazingly. A couple of setbacks such as missing screws which was fixed by a quick trip down to the local PC shop, but all is well with the machine. Just needs a floppy drive or bracket now. The HDD LED doesnt work, probably becasue its plugged in the wrong way, but that isnt a concern at all. Temperatures have dropped significantly

The table with the plastic mat worked perfectly. No ill effects from static.