The Mother Board

[meppwc]

I have lost several PCs due to power surges. I purchased a Monster Power HTS-1600 to protect my HD TV and it seems it works fine.

Would this be suitable protection for my PC. It is a costly item but well worth it to me.

So I am looking for recommendations of the best protection for my PC and money is no object.
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Antec 900 - 650W ATX
Intel DQ35JOE
Intel Core 2 DUO Q6600 Quad Core 4gb
2gb 800mhz DDR2 DIMM
500gb SATA 7200rpm
Alpha Dog gForce FX 8800 512 pci
XP Pro SP2

[Karlsweldt]

Certainly would be ideal protection for any electronic gear that is sensitive to surges/spikes. Just ensure you don't exceed the wattage rating for all devices connected to it. Stay at least 10% under the max. A short extension cord of less than 15 ft in AWG 14 gage would be acceptable. Ensure it is a 3-wire cord!
If you want to have individual protection, look at those power strips with small UPS features. Some cost just over 50 bucks.
Protection against surges and spikes is one feature.. but you also want a bit of reserve for those minute 'blips' on the mains that cause a PC to restart. A UPS will provide that feature, as well as surge/spike protection.
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F@H.. to solve mankind's maladies.. in our lifetimes!

[thomas_w_bowman]

I feel that a UPS is a requirement, a volatge sag can do as much damage as a spike - but a surge suppressor cannot help with momentary outages or sags.

Remember that the VA rating is from marketing and the Watt rating is from engineering (typical 1500 VA UPS might be rated for 800 W - you want something rated for at least your PSU rating + monitor wattage (then don't back up stuff that may not matter so much without adding in that wattage as well - example, laser printer may draw considerable wattage ), most UPS have some surge suppressed plugs for stuff that you may only want to protect from surges, but who cares if a printer screws up a page or two because of a sag.

The worst case is a voltage sag or short term drop out when writing to registry, etc.
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[meppwc]

These are all great point and suggestions. Based on this, can anyone recommend the perfect product to address my needs?
_________________
Antec 900 - 650W ATX
Intel DQ35JOE
Intel Core 2 DUO Q6600 Quad Core 4gb
2gb 800mhz DDR2 DIMM
500gb SATA 7200rpm
Alpha Dog gForce FX 8800 512 pci
XP Pro SP2

[Wolfy1220]

meppwc,
I have heard great things about apc and this unit to be specific -> Link
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MOBO ------ ASUS A8M2N-LA
CPU -------- AMD Athlon 64 X2 4600+ Windsor
Chipset ---- Geforce 6150 LE
RAM ------- 2GB DDR2 PC2 5300 Dual Channel
HDD1 ------ Seagate 320GB SATA
HDD2 ------ WD 160GB PATA
Video ------ NVIDIA GeForce 6150 LE Onboard
Display ---- ViewSonic VA2026w 1680 x 1050

[meppwc]

I had an APC that used PowerChute software. The software was a nightmare....................kept getting invalid error messages and when I tried to remove the software, it too was a nightmare.................and tech support was a total joke also...............offshore...............say no more there

Are there good UPS units that don't require software?
_________________
Antec 900 - 650W ATX
Intel DQ35JOE
Intel Core 2 DUO Q6600 Quad Core 4gb
2gb 800mhz DDR2 DIMM
500gb SATA 7200rpm
Alpha Dog gForce FX 8800 512 pci
XP Pro SP2

[Karlsweldt]

Hard to know the true power needs of a computer, unless you have a chart for different setups on the PSU. Or a device like the Kill-A-Watt in-line unit. But generally, figure on about 150 watts to 200 watts for a Pentium D 2 Ghz or equivalent, with one hdd and one video card. More power will be drawn, with more devices added. The monitor may draw about 50 watts. This is for 120 VAC use.. for 240VAC use, the wattage would be about 40% less.
A UPS with at least an 1800 VA rating would be good for about 12 amps of current. But the batteries are what determine the off-power operation. Some designs have provision to utilize external batteries of very large capacity, extending run time to several hours. With most packaged units, you can expect about 10 minutes to 20 minutes backup time.. during which you safely shut down with no data loss. Most UPS devices have a control port to interact with the PC, and initiate a non-attended safe shut-down.
_________________
F@H.. to solve mankind's maladies.. in our lifetimes!