Open Case and Static Electricity Mod

Well...I'm really loving the HSPC Tech Station case, but I'm having a dilemma. I live in a house full of carpet, and walk around in socks frequently. I want to mod this case to somehow let me discharge my static electricity before I power it on (No button, it's just a little "accesory" that you plug into the board.) Here's a pic of the power on switch; along with a bunch of other goodies that come with it:

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Here's the case ( I'm getting the larger version, but the pic is of a small version due to a lack of pictures with a large version with hardware.):

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Here's the LARGE Case. Notice that you now have room for two fans.
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Should I just buy a switch and make it located outside the case? Or can you smart minds think of any way to discharge my static electricity, before I stick my hand into my hardware. The setup is DEFINATELY not cheap, and will be around $2,400 worth of hardware. Any ideas? It sounds almost like with my circumstances I shouldn't be using this case, but I am REALLY in love with it.
To discharge your electricity do you have to just touch metal? Any ideas?

just touch your psu or any metal part of the case, that gets rid of any build up charge (i belive, and if not, i really really am so negative, that i cant get a charge goin cuz if i do ground myself thats how i do it)

hainer36 said:

(i belive, and if not, i really really am so negative, that i cant get a charge goin cuz if i do ground myself thats how i do it)

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Needs more funny...Thanks for the advice though.

Herr Rogers said:

Needs more funny...Thanks for the advice though.

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sadly thats so true that it is funny....its a running joke about me in my computer building school (yes i am in a computer building class in high school)

if you want i have a few old power buttons with about 10 inches of wire on them

Well you can touch a conductive metal and it would discharge easily. Or you can always shock your parents

technicaly as long as the system is plugged in to a properly grounded outlet in the wall, you can touch any part that is connected to that ground pin on your power supply. you can find those with a multimeter. check for continuity between different parts of your case and the center (bottom) pin in your power supply where the power cord plugs in. (always make sure there is no power to your system when testing for continuity as you would risk damage to your multimeter or yourself.) if you really wanted to check it, you could check continuity between the metal part of your case and any ground wire on a power outlet in your wall (please be careful. i dont want to be responsible for anyone frying themselves.)

Judging by the pictures you provided, i would suspect your power supply would be your best option. or if you wanted to get creative, you could build a sort of copper pad that you mount somewhere on there that is wired directly to a ground point on the case. maybe even etch something into the copper that says something like "DANGER! EQUALIZE ELECTRONS BEFORE SERVICE!" or what not.

just keep in mind, if the system isnt plugged into the wall, it doesn't have a good earth ground, so you arent doing a whole lot of good by grounding yourself to it first.

I second or third that or whatever number its on now, almost all ATX power supplies are grounded to the psu housing so that essentially the whole case becomes a ground. But in your case just touch the psu and it will discharge you completely because the casing is hardwired to the ground on your AC plug.

another note...
i wouldnt recomend touching the case itself as it looks to be painted. paint isnt the best conductor. if your power supply has a ground logo on it, then you KNOW its safe. look for a sticker that looks like either earth ground or chassis ground
they look like:
earth ground --> http://library.thinkquest.org/10784/media/cs_ground_earth.gif
chassis ground --> http://library.thinkquest.org/10784/media/cs_ground_chassis2.gif

You can just replace a psu screw with a largish thumbscrew to give a reliable touch point. Touch it everytime you walk away and back to your computer and you'll be fine.
The psu is painted, but most thumbscrews are electroplated and conductive to the unpainted portion of the psu's threaded holes.

Plugged or unplugged doesn't matter. The idea is to get you to the same charge potential as the computer. The ground wires in all the psu cables will take care of the connections to other parts (including the mobo). Fan grilles don't, incase you were thinking that...