• Some users have recently had their accounts hijacked. It seems that the now defunct EVGA forums might have compromised your password there and seems many are using the same PW here. We would suggest you UPDATE YOUR PASSWORD and TURN ON 2FA for your account here to further secure it. None of the compromised accounts had 2FA turned on.
    Once you have enabled 2FA, your account will be updated soon to show a badge, letting other members know that you use 2FA to protect your account. This should be beneficial for everyone that uses FSFT.

picking a surge protector

V

vietkangta

Limp Gawd
2FA
Joined
Dec 18, 2005
Messages
316
I think i need more outlets to plug in more devices to the wall.

Im not sure whats it called, a power strip or surge protector?

Whats a good surge protector i should get? The one that has the most joules?
 
Power strip is typically a strip without surge protection.

A surge protector is a strip with surge supression.

Is this for your computer? Do you have a UPS already?
 
Read the sticky on surge protection. High joule value is not necessarily a measure of good surge protection.

In general, the UPS surge protectors are better than the ones that come with a generic protected power strips. If you look around, the price of a UPS is not much higher than a good power strip (e.g. last week, I saw a one-day sale on an APC 350VA UPS for only $17.50 - not much for running a computer on battery, but just adequate to do an immediate, safe shutdown in a power failure).
 
Michael Daly said:
Read the sticky on surge protection. High joule value is not necessarily a measure of good surge protection.

In general, the UPS surge protectors are better than the ones that come with a generic protected power strips.
Click to expand...

Really? I always thought that UPS's were a bad substitute for surge protectors. Although if you're talking about the ones that you always find on sale in the big bins at Staples or Office Depot, then I guess you have point.
 
no i dont have a ups, or know what one is. And yes im trying to get something for my computer.
 
Tipycol said:
Really? I always thought that UPS's were a bad substitute for surge protectors. Although if you're talking about the ones that you always find on sale in the big bins at Staples or Office Depot, then I guess you have point.
Click to expand...

lol, other way round !!
 
UPSs make great surge protectors. Not only do they protect in a surge but they tend to help condition the power; correcting brownouts or over-voltages. Though these features will vary depending on the make and model of the UPS.
 
I've seen super-cheap surge protectors that were nothing but power strips with a single MOV wired between the hot and neutral lines. At the very least, look surge protectors certified for UL 1449 at 330V, but Consumer Reports, in 11/1994, found that not all such devices gave equal protection, and they recommended units containing at least two types of protection, which I assume means three sets of MOVs (one set per pair of AC lines) plus a choke-capacitor (L-C) filter.

Consumer Reports tested at least one APC backup power supply and found that it offered very good surge protection, but don't assume that all brands of backups will because I have a 375VA Belkin that would let the computer and itself crash, every time the laser printer turned on (was plugged directly into an outlet). None of my APC/Conext backups had that problem with the same setup. The following pictures may explain why:

Belkin 375VA backup:
2067393081_7b6d306053_b.jpg


APC/Conext 300VA backup
162537931_d0f3530ec3_o.jpg
 
Wow - looks like two MOVs in the Belkin vs half a dozen in the APC.

APC has been around longer than most other UPS makers and they have a good reputation. I prefer to stay with them than risk another. I just bought a dedicated DSL surge suppressor from APC - it's the only one I could find that was guaranteed fail-safe (well, for less that several hundred dollars - the APC was on sale for $22 (reg $32) at Dell.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top