Power Surge Protection

[The Edge of the Ice]

On Thu, 09 Sep 2004 12:20:15 -0400, Devin Whalen
<devin-Gq53QDLGkWIleAitJ8REmdBPR1lH4CV8 at public.gmane.org> wrote:
> Hey,
> 
> My motherboard just recently blew out (or whatever you want to call

My condolences.  I was lucky when that happened to mine, as it only fried
the second IDE channel and the CDROM at the other end of that cable (the
burner in the middle of the cable was otherwise unaffected).  It's the strangest
burnout I've ever heard of.  Anyway.

> it).  My computer just stopped working and when I looked at the
> motherboard there was this thick grey dust all over it (well centred
> around the cpu).

Well that's what you get for putting a heatsink with fan on the CPU!  ;)

> that it was probably a power surge.  Currently, I have a power bar, but
> I am told that this is not enough.  What should I get to ensure this
> doesn't happen again?  What does everyone here use?  Thanks.

A UPS is probably your best bet as far as protection for a reasonable price
goes.  You can get a reasonable one for $120 or so, that should power the
machine for a dozen minutes or so (longer if you don't include a monitor).
That will protect against brownouts as well as surges, generally.  If
that sounds
excessive considering your $400 computer, then you can just run without and
buy another $400 computer if it happens again.  ;)  You probably don't need
a high end solution, such as a line conditioner ($500 or more, but you get
_really_ clean power out of it!).  Be sure that you have a good power supply
in any case.  A good power supply will go a long way towards machine
stability.

-- 
taa
/*eof*/
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