I am designing my own case. it will be non metal, so I was wondering if each of the components of a pc must be connected to common earth via the chassis. I noticed that mobo's have earth rings around the screw mount points - must these be earthed to chassis?

What about all drives, cards, PSU etc?

I've seen acryllic clear cases so these mustn't be earthed, unless there are earth strips I cannot see.

Any help appreciated.

All components are grounded to the motherboard, and the motherboard needs to be grounded to the chassi, I think


edit: that probably only goes for chassis that can transfer currents though

All components are grounded through the power/data cables. Cards are grounded through the slots on the motherboard. Using a nonconducting case would be no different then testing the components outside the case during an initial build. A properly designed and grounded case will help with the reduction of electromagnetic interference.

Praz is right;
The acrylic case I use does not ground anything, that's all done through the PSU's ground.

Thanks for the info, as I thought.

My idea is.........Have any seen the film 'Pi' about the genius Jewish computer guy
recluse who cracks the stock market code (set in black and white). His PC is just
bits suspended from a frame by bits of wire - looked pretty cool. The idea is just
to have it look like the insides are 'floating'.

The practicalities will mean increased noise, so will try to water cool CPU and GPU.

yeah i've seen Pi, pretty good film. get a few pics up once you've got it sorted