eah... I cringed as he put the whole stinkin' tube of the thermal grease on the processor.
Not just that. He actually said it is always good to have a little extra thermal paste on top of the CPU! What a bunch of malarkey! The best transfer of heat occurs with direct metal to metal contact. The purpose of the TIM is to ONLY fill the microscopic pits and valleys in the mating surfaces. So any extra TIM is actually in the way and counterproductive to the most efficient transfer of heat.
I'm not arguing that. But whatever that thing is that he put on his wrist is not going to protect anything from ESD.
Exactly, Those straps that don't include a grounding wire/clip are pure hogwash. If air ionization worked, why do people standing on the ground still get zapped by lightning?
Depending on the air around you to dissipate any static in your body is ludicrous. I used to live in Tucson, Arizona. 10% humidity is common - and that's outside! Inside where it's air conditioned, the humidity can be even lower. And static electricity loves low-humidity environments. Even if you have humidifiers adding moisture to the air, static is still a problem. Even in high humidity regions, air conditioning works by removing moisture from the air. That's why computer rooms control not just temperatures, but humidity too.
You don't have to ground yourself to "Earth" ground but you sure do need to put you and the ESD sensitive devices "at the same potential". You need to remove the conditions that allow the static voltages to "arc" and torch a Grand Canyon size (microscopically speaking) trench through a few million transistor gates in your processors and memory modules. So if you are going to wear a strap, it
MUST be "grounded" or connected to bare metal of the case to put all "at the same potential".
Another problem with
all wrist straps (even top quality straps) is they loose effectiveness, and pretty quickly too, as they get gummed up with sweat, dead skin, and other dirt and grime.
Me, I just try to keep one hand firmly planted on the case's bare metal all the time. And I never ever touch the electrical contacts of the devices.
