ISD
04-25-2001, 10:02 PM
I may be a bit paranoid, but since putting together my new system I would sure like to protect it. Is there such a thing as a line conditioner/surge protector? Any advice would be appreciated.
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Mr.Goodbytes
04-25-2001, 10:19 PM
APC has some good units that are Uninterruptable Power Supplies and also have Automatic Voltage Regulation. They have a 500 Volt-amp model, their Pro line, for about $155. Good investment. If you have a big monitor, I'd get the 650VA model which is about $240.
Bsdboy
04-25-2001, 10:26 PM
Surge protectors are made by APC,Tripplite,
SLWaber,Belkin and others I'm sure if you
shop around you will find one that fits
your needs and budget.
Bsdboy
SLWaber,Belkin and others I'm sure if you
shop around you will find one that fits
your needs and budget.
Bsdboy
sharder8
04-26-2001, 07:28 AM
APC does have a super product, but I found if your running an Athlon, APC doesn't give you enough time or recommend anything with AVR at a decent price.
I ended up buying a CyberPower 900AVR for $170 locally and that was cheaper then ordering on-line and then paying shipping. With my Athlon 800MHz, CD-RW, DVD, Mag 19" monitor, it will give me around 15 min. of back-up battery time.
If you are in an older home, have power flux's, etc. you need to have the AVR feature. I have no choice in where I plug in my computer (just ask my wife) and the microwave is on the same circuit. Voltage to computer before microwave = 118v, while microwave is on (without AVR) = 103v, with AVR = 118v. Realize that 15v drops, while it may not seem like much, it hard on electronics, especially solder joints.
Harder
I ended up buying a CyberPower 900AVR for $170 locally and that was cheaper then ordering on-line and then paying shipping. With my Athlon 800MHz, CD-RW, DVD, Mag 19" monitor, it will give me around 15 min. of back-up battery time.
If you are in an older home, have power flux's, etc. you need to have the AVR feature. I have no choice in where I plug in my computer (just ask my wife) and the microwave is on the same circuit. Voltage to computer before microwave = 118v, while microwave is on (without AVR) = 103v, with AVR = 118v. Realize that 15v drops, while it may not seem like much, it hard on electronics, especially solder joints.
Harder
Mr.Goodbytes
04-26-2001, 05:38 PM
Wow, I hadn't heard about APC missing the mark with the Athlons, but then again they do draw a lot of juice. But I did want to add that you will want to steer clear from Belkin. Their products have always been inferior, and their time estimates are way off.
dcc1977
04-27-2001, 10:51 PM
It could also be a lot of hype. Being in the dorms with power that absolutlity was horrid, I had to get a UPS to save my machine.
I'm using an atholn 700, 300 ps, and a CTX 17". All of this was hooked into an APC 500 back-ups.
I was away from my room when power died. I got back to my room about 30+ minutes later only to find my machine still up and runing, monitor and all. I did not have my machine have any standby, sleep options or what not. the HD was set to never spin down, and the monitor to never turn off. (I did use a blank screen saver, but that was set to kick in after an hour) Afterall, I was paying ungodly amounts for the "privlage" of living in the dorms, might as well get my money's worth.
I emiddatly shut my machine down of course, but I'm still left curuios, how long could it really have lasted?
(did I have any background major number crunching going on? No, I didn't. That is I'm guessing the defrag of a 40 gig HD and anti virus check of it all was done before the blackout)
I'm using an atholn 700, 300 ps, and a CTX 17". All of this was hooked into an APC 500 back-ups.
I was away from my room when power died. I got back to my room about 30+ minutes later only to find my machine still up and runing, monitor and all. I did not have my machine have any standby, sleep options or what not. the HD was set to never spin down, and the monitor to never turn off. (I did use a blank screen saver, but that was set to kick in after an hour) Afterall, I was paying ungodly amounts for the "privlage" of living in the dorms, might as well get my money's worth.
I emiddatly shut my machine down of course, but I'm still left curuios, how long could it really have lasted?
(did I have any background major number crunching going on? No, I didn't. That is I'm guessing the defrag of a 40 gig HD and anti virus check of it all was done before the blackout)
tonym
04-28-2001, 06:18 AM
The APC UPS will work just as well as ANY other with an Athlon system!
You just need to size it according to the power draw of you system. I've looked at all the competitiors out there and I chose APC becasuse of their ruggedness, quality and reliability. With an UPS/AVR, you really do get what you pay for. Opt for el cheapo, and you *might* get burned when it fails!!
A good rule of thumb for UPS sizing is to get a unit whose VA rating is at least twice the power draw of you system. This will give you room for expansion and decent run-time during a typical power outage. Unless you're real hardcore or own a business, the UPS is only used to give you some "quality time" to do an orderly shutdown and then wait for power to return in the event of a failure.
All UPSs give you transient protection (both drop-outs and spikes...some are AVR's -- they are always "on-line" and provide a highly regulated sine or stepped-level wave to run the load devices and others are "bypass" devices that provide the line to the load and ONLY provide the regulated signal to the load when the input source goes out of the regulation tolerance band. For almost all but the most demanding application, either style will work just fine: an AVR model provides an extra measure of security as the output waveform is rock-solid.
BUT, if the electronics inside the AVR-type of UPS fails, you are screwed becasue it doesn't have a bypass mode (unless it's very expensive and has a switchover feature)...it just goes to zero output. Fail safe, but it does FAIL!
And dcc1977, there's a pretty easy way to determine how much run-time you'd have with your computer/UPS system. Just unplug the UPS from the wall and let 'er rip. You can then safely determine the run-time at your leisure so you can absolutely know how much runtime oomph that your system has.
Tony
You just need to size it according to the power draw of you system. I've looked at all the competitiors out there and I chose APC becasuse of their ruggedness, quality and reliability. With an UPS/AVR, you really do get what you pay for. Opt for el cheapo, and you *might* get burned when it fails!!
A good rule of thumb for UPS sizing is to get a unit whose VA rating is at least twice the power draw of you system. This will give you room for expansion and decent run-time during a typical power outage. Unless you're real hardcore or own a business, the UPS is only used to give you some "quality time" to do an orderly shutdown and then wait for power to return in the event of a failure.
All UPSs give you transient protection (both drop-outs and spikes...some are AVR's -- they are always "on-line" and provide a highly regulated sine or stepped-level wave to run the load devices and others are "bypass" devices that provide the line to the load and ONLY provide the regulated signal to the load when the input source goes out of the regulation tolerance band. For almost all but the most demanding application, either style will work just fine: an AVR model provides an extra measure of security as the output waveform is rock-solid.
BUT, if the electronics inside the AVR-type of UPS fails, you are screwed becasue it doesn't have a bypass mode (unless it's very expensive and has a switchover feature)...it just goes to zero output. Fail safe, but it does FAIL!
And dcc1977, there's a pretty easy way to determine how much run-time you'd have with your computer/UPS system. Just unplug the UPS from the wall and let 'er rip. You can then safely determine the run-time at your leisure so you can absolutely know how much runtime oomph that your system has.
Tony
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