I finally replaced my 8 y.o. PC with one that I built myself for a total of about $550. I bought a UPS for my old one, but the battery in that has been dead for a couple of years now. Is using a surge protector protection enough, or do I need a UPS to insure that my parts will last longer? I don’t mind if the occasional outage means I may lose whatever work I’m doing; I’m more concerned with the longevity of the parts. Money is tight right now, and if a surge protector is protection enough, I’d rather not bother with purchasing a new UPS or replacing the battery on the old one which is about as expensive.
Oh, while I’m at it, if a surge protector ends up being all I need, is there anything I should look for when purchasing one, or will a cheapo model be okay? I have one that has also been used for about eight years. Does it need to be replaced for any reason?
With most computers, there seems to be a propensity for system problems if you don’t shut down properly. So you might lose more than what you’re working on if the shutdown causes hard drive or file problems due to an incomplete write. You might have to reinstall the system or recover the hard drive (and all the data on it). If you live in an area with lots of outages, the UPS is probably worth it.
As for surge protectors… you’re probably best off getting one that offers a warranty, but I don’t think it really matters. In 24 years of computing, I’ve never encountered a surge that I needed protection from (at least not one severe enough to notice or to trip the protector’s circuit breaker). Your house is more likely to burn down, if you ask me.
For personal use? I have no idea why you’d need an UPS (I pronounce it ‘upps’ even though it’s an acronymn).
I worked in a building that had to have the network up and operational at all times. We had UPSs on every machine. But there were just there to provide power for a few minutes until someone (me if I was there) to go outside, fire up the emergency generator, and switch the power over.
Unless you have to have an operational computer at all times, you don’t need an UPS.
I don’t think you’d ever know if your surge protector has protected your electronics; they’re meant to protect you from surges that are less than what it would take to trip a breaker.
I’ve read that a UPS can protect sensitive electronic devices in ways that a surge protector can’t. IIRC, a surge protector can’t protect against voltage sags that can cause harm.
About six months ago while toiling away on my computer during a thunderstorm my house was hit by lightning. I am not sure if it actually hit the house because there was no damage but if it didn’t it came darn close. Anyway I immediatly lost my network connection. Basically the electricity travelled through the ethernet cable and fried one of the ports on my router and the nic on my motherboard. Interestingly the modem was fine. Everything else seems to be ok. So I know its pretty random but you may want to find a surge protector that has a ethernet option. I don’t know if my surge protector saved the rest of my computer but the only thing fried was the only cable running into my computer not plugged into a surge protector.
From personal experience, during more than 20 yrs, what used to be very sensitive to power surges, or poor cutoffs were the screens, when they blew they would usually send a back surge of high voltage back though the compute doing even more damage. None of the components of a modern machine with an LCD screen develop any power buildups like that, and my machines run 24/7 for years, just down for maintenance from time to time. The most fragile component does still seem to be the graphics card, but I have never since had collateral damage from power.
I’m a stickler for defining terms properly. Make sure you don’t get confused between a “cheapo surge protector” and a “power strip”. A power strip is nothing more than a multi-outlet extension cord, and offers none of the protection that even a cheapo surge protector will give you.
It depends on the situation but the main function of a UPS isn’t necessarily to keep things going during a power outage. It’s to keep things going long enough to save and shut down properly. For an unattended machine, UPSs come with some software that will tell the operating system to shut down automatically after a preset time running on the battery. You set that time long enough to cover brief outages but short enough so that you know the battery won’t run down first.
I’ve never used one at home but small ones to run a desktop are pretty cheap these days. Maybe $50. Certainly if a power outage without the opportunity to save (and possible corruption) would cause major pain then I’d consider it.
The circuit breaker on the surge protector would be “popped” if it had done its job for you, so you’d know about it because you’d have to reset it before you could use it again.
I’ve lived in thunderstorm country for 8 years and have never had my surge protector trip its circuit breaker, but surge protectors are relatively cheap (even expensive ones) and I think it’s worthwhile having one.
I have UPSes on all important computers, since I don’t want to be processing a video file or writing a CD or DVD and have a short power blip interrupt the process. It’s big enough that I can survive a 20-30 minute complete blackout if I turn off the screen.
And there’s really no point in connecting a printer to an UPS. If the power goes down, you can usually restart a print job. Use a surge protector instead.
A UPS is cheap insurance. I’ve got an APC SmartUPS 700 on this box. Cost me £70. It’s been helpful when someone’s accidentally cut the main power cable with a digger.
As someone else mentioned power surges are one thing, low current is another. A UPS ensures a smooth delivery of the correct voltage in LOW power conditions as well. I spend 1/2 the year in Mexico and there the power often goes out but leaves a trickle of current. E.g. low wattage light bulbs continue to flicker even as the power is cut off! In this type of hostile electrical environment a cheap UPS can save thousands of dollars of equipment from getting slowly sizzled at low voltage. A surge protector as far as I know only detects spikes in current, not drops. It has no mechanism of providing extra volts if the power source is too low for a period of time. A condition that can be more dangerous for sensitive electronics than surges.
I use a UPS because I have had problems with low voltage as well. We used to have a problem where every time the air conditioner kicked in there would be a power drop that would force my computer to reboot every now and then. We got that fixed (turned out to be a wiring problem in the fusebox) but I still use one.
We also sometimes get very brief (one or two seconds) outages during the summer; usually so short the clocks don’t even need to be reset but are enough to screw up the computer.
And many years ago I did have a computer damaged by a power surge; fried the modem and disk drive. (The lights flickered, there was a strange “whEEeeee” noise from the computer and then the magic smoke left.)
Just a few thoughts.
Your cheap sits under the desk ups is a poor filter. The way the little one I have works is the unit plugs in and provides power to the AC buss. A rectifier is conneted to the AC bus charging the batteries. The batteries are connected to the DC buss. The DC buss provides power to the inverter that is hooked to the AC buss. Your outlets are connected to the same AC buss. Any fuzzy stuff that is on the supply will be on the outlets.
Your expensive ones a little larger to way larger have 2 AC buss and a DC buss. the plug is connected to the inlet AC buss. A rectifier converts the AC to DC and powers the DC buss. The batteries float on the DC buss and an inverter is connected to the DC buss and supplies power to the output AC buss.
Now about surge protectors yes they work. I work in a high rise building. One day I lost the neutral on a group of circuits. When I checked the voltage at an outlet I was reading 190 Volts. We found out which computers in that tenants space had the good (read expensive) surge protectors. The good ones we had to replace the surge protectors, the bad ones we had to replace the computers.
We live at 40th & Plum and have storms and unreliable electric service.
I use cheap surge protectors at the wall sockets and good ones just before the UPS. I run all computer stuff except speakers and the printer on UPS.
We have fried many cheapo units which is why I call them the scarifical units. Less than $10 each.
Also, I keep our good LCD TV and associated equipment all running off a BIG UPS as wonky current and voltage are the biggest killers of LCD & Plasma TV’s.
Also, usually, the modem (regular phone jack ) and the cat-5 protection slots are one time use even if the other part has a beaker. Check carefully before you buy high dollar units to see if those parts are reusable? Most are not. Another reason to have sacrificial units in line first…
IMO, operating your electronic equipment during a thunder storm with frequent lightning strikes indicates a lack of good sense and so I just hope those that do continue to be lucky.
Thanks.