Grounding things

**lastberserker** · 04-08-2005, 04:08 AM

Originally Posted by Chase_UK

Adding to this, if the mobo is in a non-metallic case, should it be grounded directly (via a wire) to the PSU and HD?

Same question: I'm assembling my stuff in a home-brewed non-metallic case.

**Pyrotek** · 04-08-2005, 07:18 AM

I built a small wood/plexi case for my mobo and ran into the ground issue. What solved it for me was grounding the mobo, hdd, and psu to my ground block. I used some 12awg that I had extra from the install, prob overkill but eh.

**yonu** · 04-08-2005, 07:36 AM

ok question what is the best way to go about grounding the psu and modo just connecting a wire to it or what?

**-zip-** · 04-08-2005, 09:24 AM

Originally Posted by imaxorz

So anything thats DC have the plus going to plus, and the minus going to something metal close by?

I want to know this too, is this what you guys call ground? the negative (usually black) wire pluged into the device?

**-zip-** · 04-09-2005, 12:48 PM

any answer on the ground being the negative or do you run a seprate wire for ground would be appreciated

**old_lou** · 04-09-2005, 01:29 PM

Originally Posted by joshthepilot

Your vehicle owners manual will call your car a "negative grounded" or "positive grounded" car. I don't know what billiant man came up with "positive ground" but anyway....

If I remember correctly science found that Negative is really the power connection but decided not to change the neg/ pos convention because it will confuse people. Pos earth was the norm when cars had dynamo charging (in the UK anyway). But some cars/bikes were Neg earth so it was decided to create one system so manufacturers can use the same parts. A bit like betamax and vhs, a convention had to be decided on, usually by the manufactureres or no two cars, computers or whatever can use the same spares

**Kupop** · 04-09-2005, 10:56 PM

I would also like to know about ground the mobo and other components in a non metal conductive case.

I havn't even begun ordering my parts but I might be installing my mobo and such in a fiberglass enclosure.

Would running one wire from a mounting hole on the mobo to the psu case suffice?

**Kupop** · 04-10-2005, 11:34 PM

Thanks. Now if someone wants to lend me $1000 I'll order all of the stuff I need and start doing this.

I'm more of the performance first type of person. If my car didn't have a headunit in it when I purchaed it, it still wouldn't have one in it.

**Jono** · 07-28-2005, 12:38 PM

Ground, earth, chassis and - are all different words for what is basically the same thing.

See the black wires coming out of your PSU? They ground the motherboard and the HDDs to the PSU. You don't need any other ground than these wires in a computer.

Cars are a different story. If you're getting audio noise and you don't know where it's coming from, it's probably a badly earthed component, like ddn said on the first page of this thread.
All you need to do to fix this is to give everything a good clean ground connection to a thick part of the car's chassis (e.g. bumper mounting bolt, seat mounting bolt, other fat bolts), or if you're feeling rich and energetic you can run negative wires back to the battery, but I wouldn't recommend this because the wires can break/get cut/get sawed through/get eaten and then you'd be left without an earth.

Oh, and if you're running any power wiring at all, MAKE SURE IT IS FUSED. If there is a fuse somewhere between the battery and the wire it's all good. Too many cars burn because of people running power wiring without fuses.

**CavityCr33p** · 07-28-2005, 04:42 PM

Wow, someone bumped this just when I was having probs, I have a clean ground on everything (even got a grounding bar, which everything connects to) but am getting ****loads of loud audio noise...