Power protection for high end PC

[Theultimateeye]

So i've already had to reset the fuses in my room twice now. My question is would a better power strip/surge protector/power distributor help with that? My specs are in my sig plus another 7970. Everything is overclocked pretty much to the max. PSU is an AX850. Any info would be great. -Jeff

 

[Sp33dFr33k]

First thing would be to have an electrician come out and fix the underlying issue. Getting a good quality UPS will certainly help if power is being cut unexpectedly.
Something 600W or higher should be sufficient.

 

[Theultimateeye]

I'll look into 600+ watt UPS's thanks. I just rent a room in this house so i highly doubt they'd have an electrician come out just so i can suck up more electricity (I don't pay the bill anyways). Any other recommendations? I don't mind spending money.

 

[Theultimateeye]

I was also thinking, would an 80+ Platinum PSU help? The AX850 already seems pretty solid to me but maybe taking it a little step further might help. I'll check out jonnyguru in the meantime.

 

[Dangman]

I was also thinking, would an 80+ Platinum PSU help? .

Nope.

 

[Oldie]

I will never understand why people have $2,000 rigs and plug them into $2 power strips. A UPS does a lot more than give you a battery backup, a good one provides automatic voltage regulation and will save you from the slow damage caused by brown outs and spikes, even the ones you might not notice.

 

[larrymoencurly]

Something is really wrong if you've had to reset the circuit breakers twice. Either you have too much equipment running off too few circuits, or the circuit breakers are bad (a good possibility if the breaker box is by Federal Pacific).

One way to check the circuitry yourself is by plugging a 1500W+ hair dryer into a Kill-A-Watt and testing each wall outlet for voltage drop. A bad socket or wiring will cause a drop of over 2 volts when the hair dryer is turned on.

 

[DouglasteR]

Fuses shutting down is like a heart attack, theres something VERY WRONG with your wiring or supplied energy.

CALL AN ELETRICIST NOW

 

[dandragonrage]

Yeah, sounds like you are over capacity on the circuit and/or something is miswired and/or you have some semi-faulty equipment. I do recommend a UPS, but I do not recommend it as a fix for this problem, but more of protection from this problem and from power issues in general. I would recommend diagnosing the electrical problem first, or hire someone who can.

First thing I would do is figure out which outlets are on the same circuit as your computer and make a list of everything plugged into those outlets. Especially if you have anything with a motor (e.g. air conditioner, heater, refrigerator, etc.).

Also, like larrymoencurly mentioned, what brand and model of distribution panel ("breaker box") do you have? And is the circuit breaker for your circuit of the correct brand/type for the box?


For UPS, I primarily recommend APC SmartUPS, Liebert GXT2 or GXT3, or Eaton Powerware. These are all server-grade stuff, but I feel it's worth it. Many of them are loud. The SmartUPS RT should be a pretty good option for the home environment, and not jet engine loud like some other options.

For a surge protector, I recommend in approximate order from best to less good: Furman (especially the ~$100+ stuff with series-mode protection), ZeroSurge/BrickWall, Panamax, APC, Monster (if the price is right), Tripp Lite. You can do outlet -> surge protector -> UPS if you want (I do). I don't recommend outlet -> UPS -> surge protector unless you have a very high quality pure sine wave UPS, otherwise the lower quality signal may trip up the surge protector. Most UPS have decent surge protection built in, but I would rather a surge protector sacrifice itself first. The best kinds to use with a UPS would be the "protect or disconnect" kind, since the UPS has batteries to remain online when disconnected anyway.