Power protection for planned build...

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Okay, so I'm "planning" a fairly high end system ($3500 or so) for my next build this February, and I want to do the best I can to protect it. In the past, I've pretty much only ever just bought a cheap power strip from Walmart to power everything, but I DON"T want to do that this time around. I want the best protection I can get for it. I'll probably have about $500 or so for this, so shoot me some advice. Thanks

EDIT: My house has no safety grounding (third prong), and as much as I'd love to change it, I can't as I'm renting.

 

[-=Antimatter=-]

EDIT: My house has no safety grounding (third prong), and as much as I'd love to change it, I can't as I'm renting.

I'm pretty sure that you need to have at least a couple grounded plugs if you're renting, otherwise the place is not up to modern code and that isn't legal.

And while I'm in here, you might want to consider a larger power supply if you're overclocking that setup. I know a few guys here have been running dual GTXes on that Corsair for a while now, but it never hurts to be safe.

 

[BinarySynapse]

I'm pretty sure that you need to have at least a couple grounded plugs if you're renting, otherwise the place is not up to modern code and that isn't legal.

Nope, I've check everyone of them and non have any safety ground, but the houses are 30 or more years old. I'm not sure what the laws are for renters, but I know that if I owned it it only has to be up to code as of the date it was buiilt. But if I own it I'd go ahead and rewire it for the peace of mind.

And while I'm in here, you might want to consider a larger power supply if you're overclocking that setup. I know a few guys here have been running dual GTXes on that Corsair for a while now, but it never hurts to be safe.

If anything I was going to d a mild OC on the CPU, but I doubt I'd do that for extended periods of time. It was a toss up between the Corsair 620 and a PCP&P 750 I saw. I originally went with the 750, but saw that a few people were having good results with the Corsair 620 so I changed it. But obviously, this isn't set in stone.

 

[Gorankar]

The 2 prong to 3 prong adapters can be perfectly fine provided the screw is used, and the outlets breakout box is itself properly grounded.. You could always ask your landlord to install a newer outlet or two where you plug your computer in....

 

[BinarySynapse]

The 2 prong to 3 prong adapters can be perfectly fine provided the screw is used, and the outlets breakout box is itself properly grounded.. You could always ask your landlord to install a newer outlet or two where you plug your computer in....

that woudl be great, but when I said no grounding, I meant no grounding what so ever. The outlets are wire with 14/2 romex with no egc. But I've already changed some of the outlet to 3 prong outlet so that I wouldn't have to use an adapter or cut off the 3rd prong.

 

[Gorankar]

Sorry about that.. Sometimes the metal conduit the wire is fed through is grounded.. Giving you a ground via the screws holding the outlet in the breakout box..

 

[BinarySynapse]

Sorry about that.. Sometimes the metal conduit the wire is fed through is grounded.. Giving you a ground via the screws holding the outlet in the breakout box..

There is no metal conduit.

Anyway. I've read the UPS sticky in here, and done a bit of research, but I'm a little lost on what I actually need, and what would provide the best protection, and still fit within my budget ($500 for this).

 

[[Spectre]]

If you had proper electical in the house you would ideally want at least a line-interactive (best would be a double conversion true online) pure sinewave form UPS with AVR. A modified or squared sine waveform line-interactive with AVR will work and be fine but it isn't as good a solution....you don't want a standby UPS. As always you want a PSU with active PFC when using a UPS if at all possible.

 

[BinarySynapse]

If you had proper electical in the house you would ideally want at least a line-interactive (best would be a double conversion true online) pure sinewave form UPS with AVR. A modified or squared sine waveform line-interactive with AVR will work and be fine but it isn't as good a solution....you don't want a standby UPS. As always you want a PSU with active PFC when using a UPS if at all possible.

But seeing as I don't have proper wiring, and I have no way to change it (trust me I want to), would what you suggested still work?

And yes, Active PFC is one of the requirements I have for my new computer's PSU.

 

[[Spectre]]

But seeing as I don't have proper wiring, and I have no way to change it (trust me I want to), would what you suggested still work?

And yes, Active PFC is one of the requirements I have for my new computer's PSU.

At the very least your UPS is going to register a site wiring fault because you have in the frame of reference a wiring fault (ie no ground). This is not a safe condition.

 

[BinarySynapse]

At the very least your UPS is going to register a site wiring fault because you have in the frame of reference a wiring fault (ie no ground). This is obviously not a safe condition.

And worse case? I know that having no safety ground poses a risk in the event of a hot-chassis fault. In which case I'm screwed either way. But what problems besides personal safety would appear from there being no safety ground? I really don't want to plug a $3500 system into an unprotected power source (unprotected in the scope of the equipment, not me)

 

[[Spectre]]

And worse case? I know that having no safety ground poses a risk in the event of a hot-chassis fault. In which case I'm screwed either way. But what problems besides personal safety would appear from there being no safety ground? I really don't want to plug a $3500 system into an unprotected power source (unprotected in the scope of the equipment, not me)

The number of problems that can occur from running without a ground are rather staggering. Really wonky things can hapen like huge DC builds up that arch.....there is a short intro here: http://www.epanorama.net/documents/groundloop/why_grounding.html