installation - Is it safe to power on a motherboard outside of its case?

I have a new motherboard which needs a BIOS update to support a new CPU.

Thankfully I have an old (compatible) CPU handy. My plan is to install the old CPU, update the BIOS, then install the new CPU.

I'd prefer not to have to mount the motherboard in a case just to do the BIOS update bit.

Is it safe to power up the motherboard outside of its case? My understanding is that the case provides grounding for the motherboard – could the lack of grounding be an issue?

Yes, it should be safe. Just be sure to put your motherboard on something not conductive, like cardboard box, and it should not touch anything that conducts electricity, including your main computer case. I did this few times. If you stop by in almost any computer shop, technicians do this sort of thing routinely.

Yes, you can power on the motherboard outside of its case. Just keep some precautions, like laying a piece of cardboard underneath the board, and you're good to go.

Also, human body contains static charge, so ground the static by touching a grounded appliance or wiring a ground circuit. Static charge in the human body might damage sensitive electronic components of the motherboard.

you waste your electrical shielding and get maybe some weird effect in nearby radios, or whatever transmitter - or in case you have strong senders nearby (maybe lay your nice smartphone on the motherboard) you induct some current somewhere on the motherboard, and if its an good one (means on the technological edge) there will be less room for errorcorrection of these ... also every wifi- bluetooth connection will be disturbed (at least a little) with this extra RF noise around. or in other words, you have to pay extra attention to the said shortcutting, dirt and dust probllem, maybe to water (in the air or simply your coke bruzzling around) AND the over the air electrical (non)shielding

The other answers you got are correct: it's definitely doable and something that is done all the time by professional/power/enthusiast users for all sorts of purposes.

What I would like to add is that, if you search online, you'll see that a lot of people will turn the motherboard ON using a screwdriver: they simply close the circuit between the 2 power pins using the metal part of the screwdriver. This is done because you no longer have a power button (since there is no case). The electrical current in there is extremely small, so there's zero chance of harm.

However, be very very careful if you use this technique. Touching the wrong pins can damage the motherboard. They usually have some protections in there for situations where people don't connect the cables properly, but you shouldn't rely on this.

To mitigate these risks, there are 3 possible solutions:

• be super super careful when you do it
• get the power button out of your case and connect it normally. It should work. It's a simple circuit-breaker
• some motherboards (more expensive ones, dedicated to high-end PCs) have a power button on them. If yours does too, use that instead.

Strictly no, in practice definitely yes: yes you can power up the motherboard outside of its case, or just forget the case altogether and harvest the power supply. You can happily run such a system with all of your components on the desk/shelf/whatever, great way to have an "extra" PC around in plain site that doesn't look like your typical PC.

But to explain the strictly no, having exposed components around makes it easier to short some circuits, or just get dirty faster, or collect spilled coffee etc... You probably don't want to drill some holes in metal over the motherboard, little metal filings going everywhere won't be good for that. Once you get used to having the mobo in the open, you tend to not notice these little mistakes until its too late.

The power supply connection(s) provide the ground to the mobo, not the case. The case just happens to physically touch the power supply's case, which is grounded, and thus the case gets ground as well.

Keep in mind that many of the locations for screws on a motherboard are ground points. The screw grounds to the case and the power supply to the walls ground.

I'm sure it will run without them grounded to the case but I'm also sure your board is safer well grounded.

Ever wonder why there is copper/gold around the screw locations on the motherboard?

Inside a lab probably yes even if is a custom lab.

IF you make a safe place to work without any cable or power interrumption . you are talking about a BIOS upgrade, not a common software fail safe after format.

you can't say something is 100% safe for it, when was not been builded for it.

where will you place it?

on a carpet? you can burn it

on the floor? you can crash it

People may transit around and think is a shiny toy

Its case will provide many things

1. Hit protecion
2. Garbage protection
3. Anti-static protection
4. Pins will not touch any thing but the air
5. Grounding .

And yes. you can't mount it outside it case. not a good practice.. more like a gamer practice.