Warning! Anti-static precautions needed

Before you begin, one thing that you should be aware of is the dangers of static electricity. This can build up on your body, particularly if you wear rubber-soled shoes or are walking on nylon or woollen carpets, which prevent all that charge from grounding. When you then come into contact with a conductive object, such as that RAM you just bought, some of this charge will discharge, which stands a good chance of sending said RAM to silicon heaven.

All statically sensitive components are vulnerable to this, but you can vastly reduce the risk of administering electrostatic death to them by grounding yourself (by touching a heating pipe, the sink, or any other conductive object) before you start work, and periodically thereafter as you construct your PC.

If you’re terribly concerned, or if you are some kind of static magnetic, then get yourself an antistatic wrist strap. Fixing one end of this to ground will ensure no static builds up on your person, but beware: being attached in this manner can interfere with installing things into hard-to-reach places. Your power supply, plugged in but not turned on, also provides a handy grounding point. Connect the antistatic strap to the mounting screw to ensure a good connection. Tying your dreadlocks to it probably works too, but is inconvenient.