I didn't watch the video but the answer is, absolutely. And you also........

3 hours ago, W2DR said:

I didn't watch the video but the answer is, absolutely. And you also........

Yes, indeedy.  Years ago I I wrecked a fairly expensive joystick by touching it before grounding myself. But that's not my best static war story (retold here for the non ham radio guy):

When I lived in Southern California (San Bernardino) I had a nice ham radio setup for working "DX"--distant international stations--on the HF bands.  One of my antennas was a fairly simple single element aluminum dipole antenna.  That is, essentially, two ~33' long aluminum poles set end-to-end.  Unlike my other antennas, this one had no DC ground path on one side of the antenna--the feed line choke was just some loops of coax cable--the grounded outer braid connected to one side, the center (ungrounded) conductor to the other.

We regularly endured the Santa Ana winds there in San Bernardino--dry, hot winds that blew for days at a time at steady state of 60-80 MPH with even higher gusts.  One day while those winds were blowing, I walked into my radio room and heard (with everything switched off and the radio physically unplugged from the antenna cable) a loud snapping noise every couple of seconds.  I noticed that I could see a bright blue flash on the gauge face of my antenna tuner (connected to aforementioned antenna) that was in sync with the snapping sound. 

Curious sort that I am, and knowing the skies were clear with no possibility of a lightning event to explain this, I turned around the antenna tuner and pulled that coax cable to the antenna off the back of the tuner to get a better look, instantly making myself the ground path for the INTENSE static buildup that had accumulated on that ungrounded aluminum antenna element as the dry, sandy wind blew across it for hours.  The jolt I got sent me crashing against the opposite wall and my hand and forearm were numb for several minutes afterwards.  Later I looked at and measured the plates of the capacitor that were arcing over, and figured out the amount of voltage needed to arc through that distance, and it was something in excess of 5,000v.  Ouch. 

I'd had--and dutifully followed--all sorts of training regarding electrocution safety...always disconnect the mains, always discharge power caps, stay away from feed lines during thunderstorms etc...but nowhere had I ever heard mention of the possibility of such a dangerous static charge buildup on a nice clear day.

Now when I get zapped after walking across the carpet, I take that as a sign to immediately go downstairs and dial-up the setting on my whole-house humidifier.

Reminds me of the times on those dry days when I could shuffle across the carpet and zap the cat on the nose!  Shocking! 🐱

My last house was wall to wall carpet and never had an issue with static electricity except in the winter when Dallas gets much colder and the humidity vanishes. It seemed like no matter how hard I’d try to keep discharged, every time I’d sit down to my PC and touch the joystick, I’d get a shock and the lights in the X52 would flash.

Fortunately after years of doing this to my PC in the winter when trying to fly, I never had any issue with the PC or my X52, despite shocking it every time I’d go to the desk.

Now I live in a house with wall to wall hardwood floors and it’s no longer an issue.

Actually, believe it or not, there are quite a few individuals around that are of the opinion that static discharge is not as big a deal as claimed. Hence the video.

Those individuals should use their common sense and consider that Intel and AMD and others, wouldn't be spending millions of dollars on ESD mitigation if that were the case.

And damage from ESD discharge doesnt have to mean instant death for a component, it can mean failure days, weeks or months after the initial discharge. Long enough to have no idea why the component failed.

Static is precisely why I wear a static bonding strap on both my wrists when working on delicate electronics. That keeps me pretty well grounded! 

To be honest, I start a build with good intentions, but invariably end up ditching wrist bands and regularly touching metal central heating radiator instead. 😁

One thing we can do, is install PSU first, plug in, but leave wall outlet switched off at the wall.

The first three items on my preflight checklist after entering my sim room are:

1) Touch the metal grounded desklamp

2) Sit down

3)Touch the metal grounded desklamp again.

Static can easily damage your PC, but to really make sure it is put beyond easy use, you can either install Windows Vista, or use one of these:

When working on my PC, I just attach an 18 gauge wire from what ever I'm working on to my tinfoil hat. 😉