Gaming PC surge protection

Toggle sidebar Toggle sidebar
Storm Crow

Storm Crow

Reputable
Jan 17, 2015
114
0
4,680
I am going to be getting my computer soon and I wanted to get a surge protector for it and wanted to get a few suggestions to start me off. I was looking at Tripp Lite TLP810NET 8-Outlet Surge Protector 3240 but wanted to see what other people are using in their actual builds. Budget $50-$80.
 
Solution
I


My build cost about the same. We also have pretty reliable power. I just use a $50 10 outlet Belkin.
Sort by date Sort by votes



We had our electricity upgraded a few years back, no brown outs since. And my build is about $2400. So yeah I would want something fairly high quality but I dont have like $300 to blow. lol
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
If you choose a surge protector, keep in mind that the surge protection is self-sacrificing. A built in breaker will help a little, but smaller surges will slowly kill the protector, and a big one will kill it in one. If it can't suppress the full brunt of the surge, the rest can still make it to your PC and could damage it.

Personally I wouldn't count on a surge protector for more than 6 months to a year, by then if it's not totally lacking in protection, it's definitely severely reduced.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote


My build cost about the same. We also have pretty reliable power. I just use a $50 10 outlet Belkin.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
Solution


How do you think it compares to the Tripp Lite TLP810NET 8-Outlet Surge Protector 3240 I posted earlier. As far as which one do you think works better?

 
Upvote 0 Downvote


Have you never really been worried about your computer being fried and thats why you settled with that belkins? Do you have any other suggestions within the price range of $50 like the belkings or the tripp lite? Im ordering my computer this friday (payday lol) so im trying to iron out somethings.

 
Upvote 0 Downvote


Yeah its just my lamp, pc, monitor. My tv and xbox 360 are right next to it but i dont really use them. So really its just 3 things. My routers is downstairs so I have to run a wire up to my room so I dont have to worry about powering it there. But you raised a good point, I might get speakers later lol.

 
Upvote 0 Downvote

Honest replies include perspective - the numbers. How many joules does that Tripplite claim to absorb? Destructive surges are hundreds of thousands of joules. How many in that Tripplite or Belkin? Hundreds? A thousand? Near zero protection means advertising can hype it as 100% protection. Because they forget to include (or even learn) the numbers.

Protection is about where hundreds of thousands of joules are harmlessly absorbed. Facilities that cannot have damage do not waste money on magic plug-in boxes. Homeowners can have similar protection for about $1 per protected appliance.

Coax TV cable should already have best protection installed for free. That would be a hardwire connected low impedance (ie 'less than 10 feet') from cable to earth ground. Protection means a direct lightning strike to cable connects to earth harmlessly and outside the building. How proven protection has been done for well over 100 years.

Your telephone wires cannot connect directly to earth. So your Telco installs a protector for free. That protector is only doing what a hardwire does better. It connects a surge harmlessly to earth.

AC electric has no protection unless you learn of and install what is recommended below.

Once 'all but invited' inside, then a surge on AC mains goes hunting for earth via appliances. No two centimeter protector part inside some box will stop what three miles of sky cannot. But that is what so many believe to recommend a Tripplite or Belkin. Somehow that magic box will block or absorb a destructive surge? Total nonsense.

Tripplite and Belkin are for transients too tiny to overwhelm protection already inside appliances and computers. A hundreds joule surge is even converted by a computer into low voltage DC currents to safely power its semiconductors. Your concern is a surge that can overwhelm existing internal protection. Such surges occur maybe once every seven years. Neither the Tripplite nor Belkin provide any numbers that claim that protection.

Companies with integrity sell a proven solution. With names that any guy would recognize such as General Electric, Siemens, Ditek, Square D, Syscom, Polyphaser (an industry benchmark), Intermatic, ABB, Keison, or Leviton. A Cutler-Hammer solution sells in Lowes and Home Depot. This superior solution costs about $1 per protected appliance.

Again, numbers must be provided with any honest recommendation. Protectors must not fail even after multiple direct lightning strikes. A lightning strike may be 20,000 amps. So a minimal 'whole house' protector is 50,000 amps.

Again, no protector does protection. Protectors are only connecting devices to what actually absorbs hundreds of thousands of joules - single point earth ground. The most critically important component - the 'art' of protection - in any protection system is earth ground. Earthing should have most of your attention. A protector is only as effective as its earth ground.

Protectors that do not claim such protection have no dedicated wire for essential earthing. Will not even discuss it. Most recommendations only recite what advertising said. Ignores all numbers. And will not even discuss THE most critical component in every surge protection solution - single point earth ground.

This should cause you pause. And create plenty of questions.

 
Upvote 0 Downvote
Dunno bout you westom but here home earthing is standard and needed for legal compliance.

I use my protector to protect against the type of spike induced by one of the prefused plugs connected to it.

If lightning is inside my house... I've got bigger problems than my extension cord to ponder....
 
Upvote 1 Downvote

Do those standards require or even discuss low impedance? Of course not. Codes only address human safety issues. Transistor safety requires both meeting and exceeding those requirements. Details in the previous post make obvious that earthing must exceed what is required by codes.

Appliances are damaged when lightning is all but invited inside the building. Protectors must protect from these surges that actually do damage. Power bar protectors only claim to protect from surges made irrelevant by protection already inside appliances. Informed homeowners upgrade so that lightning currents are nowhere inside a building.

Unfortunately, most of us only know the first thing told by hearsay, advertising, or salemen. Therefore most will recommend obscenely overpriced protectors that do not even claim to protect from typically destructuve surges; such as the Tripplite and Belkin. An effective protection system comes from other manufacturers with better integrity. To connect "low impedance" to a critical item that exceeds code requirements - single point earth ground. All four words have electrical significance.

It an OP's computer needs protection, then so does everything else inside his hosue.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
Loosen the tinfoil, Westom. Any house built to code in the last 40 years already has single point earthing and adequate lightning protection through the power meter and/or the main electrical panel, both on an exterior wall right near the grounding stake. Surge protectors are for arresting surges in line voltage, which if too high for the protector, are going to be in the range that triggers the circuit breaker. That gap between enough power and tripping the breaker is all a surge protector has to cover.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote


This poster demonstrates that most who recommend protection only recite what they were told subjectively. For example, will the millimeters gap in a circuit breaker stop what three miles of sky could not - as he claims? Of course not. Will a circuit breaker that takes hundreds of milliseconds or minutes to trip somehow stop a surge that is done in microseconds - as he claims? Examples that expose why so many promote myths, post insults, and do not bother to first learn basic electrical concepts..

Does every incoming AC wire connect to earth? Of course not. He also should have known that. Only one AC wire connects to earth. Those other wires are why AC electric is THE most common source for surges. And why Standler (an industry guru) notes with despair that no requirements exist or are planned in code to provide that protection. That protection is still not required and clearly did not exist 40 years ago ... when PC Magazine noted (undersized) plug-in protectors were creating house fires. No protection even for strip protectors existed.

Relevant is something called 'low impedance'. If a ground wire goes from breaker box, over the foundation, and down to earth electrodes, then the house is earthed ... only for human safety. Earthing has been compromised for transistor safety. Too many sharp bends. Wire too long. Wire not separated from other non-grounding wires. He knows what safety code requires to protect human life. Code does not require or even discuss a 'low impedance' connection. Transistor protection requires low impedance earthing.

Single point earth ground was not required 40 years ago. Even earthing to a water pipe is no long sufficient for earth ground as it was 40 years ago. That connection is also insufficient for transistor safety. Code changes have made transistor protection easier. Codes, industry standards, and Federal regulations require such protection on telephone, cable, and antenna leads. But no such protection has been required on THE most common incoming path of surges: AC mains.

Minimal protection means a 'whole house' protector must be properly earthed where AC electric enters the house. Earthing must be upgraded to both meet and exceed electrical code requirements. Especially if a house was built 30+ years ago.

Best protection works just as well on 2010 household wiring; or 1930 wiring. In both cases, earth ground is often upgraded to also provide transistor protection.


 
Upvote 0 Downvote
I'm not speaking subjectively. I have empirical knowledge of what it's like to be in a house struck by lightning. Main breaker tripped and it shunted to ground. Melted the back casing of the breaker and blasted the corrosion off the ground stake. All the computers in the house survived, the receiver, VCR, and CD player in the entertainment center survived. All were on surge protectors. The TV that wasn't on a surge protector was toast. After replacing some capacitors, Grandpa (who was a TV repairman) got the TV working again (I watched him do it) and it still worked when we sold it 12 years later.

So tell me again that I don't know what I'm talking about?
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
I would always go with belkin personally simply because I claimed on one of their relatively cheap surge protectors 10 or so years back to the tune of 3 grand or so.

This 6 months down the line turned out to be a wiring defect in a 130 year old house I was living in - belkin paid out in under a week .
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
You don''t. A surge was not both incoming and outgoing to everything. Only defined are a few items that connected that surge to earth. Items that had both an incoming and an outgoing path. Many other items, also not on protectors, also were not damaged. Or were they connected to invisible protectors?

Your conclusions come only from observation. Observation, without first learning underlying principles, is how junk science gets created. We all learned that in junior high science. But some forget. Then use only observation as if proof.

Others who know suffer direct lightning strikes without damage to anything. You had damage because lightniing was all but invited inside the building. Those damaged items had to act as surge protectors for other undamaged appliances. You have provided zero reasons to believe a Belkin or Tripplite did anything useful. Even those manufacturers do not claim protection from that type of surge.

Damage to the earth ground rod implies further problems that may be obvious even using observation. Earthing was either too small or the electrode may have been loose in earth. Or a 'primary' surge protection layer was missing. Did you know about that other protection layer? Or do you still want to argue and deny?

.A picture demonstrates the 'primary' protection layer inspected by informed homeowners to not have your damage:
http://www.tvtower.com/fpl.html

Listed were damage items that should not have been damaged if using proven protection methods.
Not that you will learn this. Your attitude is to deny vindictively. To protect a myth that forgets to mention Belkin and Tripplite do not even claim to protect from such destructive surges.

Informed homeowners spend about $1 per protected appliance for the proven protection. So that nobody even knows a surge existed. So that nothing is damaged including the so many appliances that cannot be connected to an expensive Belkin or Tripplite.

Informed consumers inspect their 'primary' surge protection layer. And upgrade or install proven 'secondary' protection: one properly earthed 'whole house' protector. Recommended by someone who actually did this stuff; who literally traced surge damage through each damaged item and had conclusions confirmed by a design review committee; who says why it works by citing specifications and other numbers; who is not educated by advertising, hearsay, and junk science conclusions.

Informed homeowners proper earth a 'whole house' protector. And inspect the only always required component in every protection system: earth ground. Since that is the proven solution over 100 years ago - that also costs tens or 100 times less money.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
It's obvious that you suffered a catastrophic failure not because code failed you, it was poor maintenance of the infrastructure that took things out of code compliance. I do see now that we are arguing from different points about the issue. Homeowners cannot do much more than file complaints or requests to remedy failing infrastructure to the power delivery company, and hope the company allots funding for proper repairs and maintenance. In the home they can be and should be more proactive, especially if the infrastructure is flaky. And not everyone owns their home or can get centralized protection.

Where I am now the above ground poles are being decommissioned as the infrastructure is moved underground or onto metal poles that don't need to rely on a bit of wire running down the side that can be broken or left disconnected. Does this qualify as a primary layer like I think it should? (I'm serious, not being sarcastic.)

People come here for answers, and if they only see yours they may choose not to get an protection at all thinking it won't work for everyday use. That puts equipment in danger.

Surge protectors do work, but as I pointed out above, they only work as long as they have capacity for it. Except you have to remain on top of it because almost all manufacturers make it so they still supply power when there's no more protection.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
Surge protectors adjacent to appliances do work. They do protect from surges that are also made irrelevant by protection already inside appliances. They do not and do not claim to protect from the other and typically destructive surge.

One who knows this would also know that putting wires underground does nothing to eliminate that destructive surge. AC power wires above or below ground both need same and properly earthed 'whole house' solution. A utility is not responsible for averting that transient damage. Only the homeowner is responsible for protecting his appliances

Utility is responsible for damage maybe created by their employees. But we are not discussing that. We are discussing damage that every homeowner can avert if not using plug-in protectors AND if earthing proven 'whole house' protectors. Damage that can occur with both overhead and underground service. This superior solution also costs tens or 100 times less money compared to those plug-in protectors.

BTW, if using plug-in protectors, then do not locate them behind furniture, in piles of dust, or on carpets. Since those undersized devices have a history of creating fires.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
Every facility that cannot have damage uses this other and well proven (100+ year old) solution. Anyone who knows about surge protection knows about the only device that must always exist in every protection system (single point earth ground). Too many want solutions in magic boxes rather than learn about how the 'system' works.

Simply go to any electrical supply house or big box hardware store. As for the 'whole house' protector. These are provided by companies with better integrity such as Polyphaser, General Electric, Square D, Ditek, Intermatic, Syscom, Leviton, ABB, Siemens, and Cutler-Hammer to name but a few. Lightning can be 20,000 amps. So a minimal 'whole house' protector (located at the service entrance and low impedance to earth) is 50,000 amps. Because protectors that fail do not do effective protection. Protectors that do not have that always required earthing connection do not claim to protect from destructive surges.

Again, better protection is a hardwire connected low impedance (ie 'less than 10 feet') to earth. Since phone lines cannot connect directly to earth, then all phone lines already have a 'whole house' protector - provided for free by the telco. That protector is only doing what a hardwire does better.

Most common source of destructive surges is AC electric. That has no protection unless a homeowner properly earths a 'whole house' protector. As sold to informed laymen in Lowes and Home Depot. The one solution known by anyone who knows what protectors are suppose to do.

A 'whole house' protector is recommended. But most attention must focus on what really does the protection. Protectors only connect to what absorbs hundreds of thousands of joules - single point earth ground. A protector may be necessary. But no earth ground (or improperly connected) means no effective protection. Earthing (with a low impedance connection) must always exist. Most attention and questions should focus on THE most important component in every protection system - both for a secondary protection layer and for the primary protection layer.


 
Upvote 0 Downvote
Please provide a link, not a repeat of your previous rhetoric. Those manufacturers produce a variety of equipment. I do not like going into a store blind and having to make a choice based on the limited data buried in marketing wank on a box. I prefer to have taken time to research and compare before going to the store.
 
Upvote 1 Downvote

Go into any big box store (or their web site). Ask for a 'whole house' protector. Need I also recommend a particular loaf of bread? That was a short list of manufacturers. The proven solution from manufacturers with integrity may be more than bread bakeries.

Remember, a protector is only doing what a hardwire does better. Do you do research for bread or wire before shopping?

Also provided was a most important number. One cares little for the manufacturer name. The product is generic. Specification numbers are far more relevant. A 'whole house' protector must be at least 50,000 amps. That number (not a name) was important.

Please grasp the point. Protectors are only connecting devices - like a hardwire. Request advise on what actually does the protection - the 'art'. Most every post should be asking about what is relevant - quality of and connection to single point earth ground. Protectors are only simple connecting devices to what actually does protection. Again, where are hundreds of thousands of joules harmlessly absorbed? That is the 'art'. Unfortunately, many want solutions inside a box. A protector is only as effective as its earth ground.

Please refocus on what matters most.

 
Upvote 0 Downvote
You must log in or register to reply here.

TRENDING THREADS

Latest posts

Moderators online

Share this page

COMPANY
RESOURCES
FOLLOW
Top Bottom