Thread: Bricked

Fried another power supply I need a new surge protector.

Heh, damn. Well, at least it was only the power supply. You can often find some pretty serious surge protectors on sale from outlet stores, but if not, it may be worth buying a more expensive one if your house is prone to power surges.

That is what I am thinking Cecil. My house is kinda like a wiring nightmare, it works, but if it ever stopped god I don't know what I would do. Half of the house was built in the early 60's and the other half was added on in the late 80's, and when it was added on the power entered in the new part of the house so now my power has to jump from new wiring, to old wiring, into the PC. So I think a battery backup would be the best thing to try and keep the juice flowing at a steady pace.

Also, apparently my power supply has a 3 year warranty which shocked the hell out of me, so it isn't going to cost me much, if anything, so all I have to do is wait............oh shit.

Whatever you buy, make sure it has power conditioning included. Some of the cheaper UPSes don't condition the power so that it's a constant amperage. You'll pay a little more, but in the long run it'll save you money in power supplies. After I fried 2 PSes at my old apartment, I bought a $125 UPS and haven't had an issue since. I only use the cheapy UPSes for things like my TiVo and cable modem so they stay powered during the brief power outages we have here when there's thunderstorms.

By the time bad power gets to your power supply, it's too late. Any spike or drop in amperage can cause damage that over time will kill the power supply. Surge protectors really only catch extreme surges from lightning strikes. A good UPS can catch things that a surge protector won't. Another nice thing about UPSes is that most can hook up to your PC via USB and auto-shutdown your computer when the batteries are about to drain.

Go to APC's website. (www.apc.com) They have a little tool to help you pick out a UPS.

Originally Posted by Angellmajick

I will never get them APC again. I had one for my PC and the wiring was loose on the inside...took it back...same problems again but this time they did not show up right away and was out of warranty. Piece of crap.

The low-end APC ones are crap, but the ones designed for high-end workstations and servers aren't bad. I've had no problems or complaints with mine, but I paid about $150 for mine.