Grounding wire on a new PSU

[wixdfast]

Hi, I just got
http://www.newegg.com/Product/...x?Item=N82E16817814014
And I was wondering, how to you install that ground wire? I've never dealt with any PSUs that have a ground wire before, so any help would be appreciated. Thanks

 

[CalvinHobbes]

Ground wires are normally run to a metal part of the case and secured with a screw.

 

[zerocool84]

Either use a self tapping screw or drill a hole for it. You could probably use one of the existing screw holes on your case somewhere and screw it to it. Maybe a hd screw hole or a PCI expansion slot hole. Anything like that should work fine.

 

[wixdfast]

I had the thought of attaching it to a standoff, but that sounds like a terrible idea.

 

[Zepper]

They should suggest what to do with it in the manual of the PSU. All that I can think is perhaps that the paint on the PSU chassis is such that it insulates the PSU chassis from the case metal (hard to do if you fasten the PSU in with screws). But it can't hurt to connect it to a central point on the case metal to insure a solid ground. Back in the AT PSU days, finding a ground lead on the PSU was fairly common (but its jacket was usually green (for Earth) - haven't seen one on an ATX PSU in a loooong time.

A solid, true earth ground is good for making sure static energy developed by drives, etc. gets bled off.

.bh.

 

[tcsenter]

Originally posted by: wixdfast
I had the thought of attaching it to a standoff, but that sounds like a terrible idea.

That or the motherboard mounting screw is what Tagan recommends. Its not even an electrical safety or ESD ground. Its an EMI ground. This practice must be common in Germany or something, because Tagan is pretty much the only PSU company you find doing it.

The problem is that EMR/EMF is a strange animal and EMC considerations are highly design dependent. A grounding strap or cable that can be useful for mitigating EMI in one system can serve as a great ground loop, antenna, or reflector in another system.

If you can't test whether an EMI ground strap, cable, or other specific feature is useful or actually makes things worse, its generally better not to implement it.