power management

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I soon will be constructing a PC based around a soyo K7V Dragon+ motherboard and have a lot of questions.

One item that has been brought to my attention is the uninterruptable power supply. A friend mentioned it to me and said that the primary benefit would be the power filtering these units provide that eliminate various problems like monitor flicker, low level buzzes in speaker systems, and generally save electronics from wear and tear. I would also need a surge protector fall all my PC/stereo components that will be used in unison.

But, after looking at a few uninteruptable power supply/surge protection/filtering combination devices with multiple outlets, I noticed that they had 300 watt power ratings. Now, I know that the power supply I am looking into has a 350 watt power rating, the monitor a 140 watt power consumption, and my stereo receiver (Sony STR-DE925) is a 18 kilogram (40 pound) beast that is sure to draw it's fair share of power too not to mention various extras i'd want to plug in. What is the meaning of the 300 w power rating listen on the various uninterruptable power supplies -- is it per outlet? My budget for such a device max's around $200 and thats a painful sum at that. Should i drop the idea of a UPS?

Being that the main features I want are surge protection and filtering, are there economical alternatives?
 

AndrewT

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Dec 29, 2001
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I would only put the computer and the monitor on it, to be honest when power is out my biggest problem isn't the sound system. I got an Altec Lansing sound setup plugged straight into the surge protector and hear no buzz.

<font color=red>Handsome A7V133 looking for long term relationship with a XP CPU. Prefer non smoker.</font color=red> ;)
 
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But that still doesn't answer the question of wattage rating. Am I to assume that the watt rating on a power supply is for all devices? per jack? i know the monitor I will purchase has a power consumption of 140w and the enermax powersupplies that I'm interested in have ratings of 350w and up.
 
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The power rating, unless specifed otherwise, IS the TOTAL power rating of the UPS. Just go to your local BestBuy store, although they don't have a wide selection nor the price, they allow you to look and touch (and what ever else you want to do with the package) the product. Their support staff should be able to answer that kind of technical questions you're looking for

By the way, a power supply rating of 350W does not mean that it will draw 350W constantly. The case Power Supply rating specifies the max power that various components inside the case can draw from it. The purpose of the case Power Supply is to provide DC power to components from the AC outlet. Depending on your activities, your power usage will vary. The most critical, demanding moment for your computer would be the moment you turn on that switch for a cold start up.

Having said all that, I would personally recommend an UPS in the order of 350W to 400W. If you really want to protect your PC, look for one that has some form of line conditioning like AVR (Automatic Voltage Regulator) or line filtering or something like that. Focus on protecting your main/most valuable/most critical components. A speakers failure is not as bad as frying ur PC or loose ur all-night-long documents. Good hunting ;-)
 
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My stereo receiver is a fairly expensive component as it would cost roughly $640 retail. And my speakers would not be using power outlets anyhow. Furthermore, I'm not very willing to make room for the prospect of damage to any one of my pieces of pricy electronic gear.

I suppose I should identify the cat that is most likely out of the bag, I really don't know what I want. I know that I need, desire very much, surge protection for the safeguarding of all my expensive equipment. I would need a surge protector with at least 6 widely spaced outlets. And I suppose that to be totally save, I would want a protector that shielded phone lines/network lines as well. Back up power is not exactly a big concern of mine since the religiously routine saving of all important work has saved me from any memorable experiences of time lost due to power failure. But, I was enticed by the idea of line conditioning/filtering for the claimed protection from general electronics wear and tear and the elimination of line noise which is crucial for sound/music editing/creation.

Might there be surge suppression/line conditioning combinations that can accomodate for a computer & full stereo system?
 
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As you said, in order to make a good selection, you need to identify exactly what you need/want.

A surge protector, unless specified/combined with extra feature, usually only protect your equipment agains excessive input AC power. A use case would be when ur outlet AC voltage jump from 110V to 200V for a few seconds. A good surge protector would have a "resetable" internal fuse that would disconnect the circuit in that case (most surge protector have that now). This would protect your equipment from being fried. However, in case of a computer, it would mean "pouf!". Bam! Everything lost! That is why they make UPS

Uninterrupted Power Supply, or UPS does not feed your equipment directly from the AC line. Correct me if I am wrong, but I think UPS sorta works like your car alternator/battery couple. If you turn your car engine off (equivalent to power failure, no more AC power), your stereo still works uninterruptedly due to the power provided by your car battery. The battery is charged as long as AC power is on (equivalent to u running the car engine), as power down time prolong, ur battery's charge is down. Most UPS comes with integrated surge protector and some even include surge only (not protected by battery, so would go down if there's power failure) outlet a long with battery-protected outlet. The whole idea is to keep whatever equipment u have running in case of a power failure. That's a standard UPS. Some manufacturer add line conditioning/filtering in their products, which require a AVR (basically a huge variable transformer with a motor that change the transformer according to the input line so the output line is constant), that's conditioning. Filtering is just a circuit that filter line noise (electrical signals that don't have the standard 50/60 Hz frequency, correct me if I am wrong). This line conditioning thing is good in case of sudden spike or brown out or short failure (happen mostly in thunderstorm/lightning, looses about 1 or 2 waves).

Having said all that long technical stuff, in your case, I would recommend a regular surge protector for ur stereo equipment, although surge protector don't filter nor line condition, kinda a dilemma, coz they're inexpensive. Pay attention to their load rating (usually measured in Joule), it tell you how big of a surge they can protect ur equipment from (I think). Surge protector that shield phone line/network does exactly the same: protect the surge to come in by way of phone line/network. That is just pure electrical equipment protection from over voltage, or over current. Anything else is above and beyond.

You said you want to also protect your equipment from wear and tear and from noise inteference. That's what the conditioning/filtering is about. As I said above, most line conditioning/filtering products automatically include surge protection. You should look for a pure AVR (Auto Voltage Regulator) that includes filtering. You might want to consider separating your stereo and computer though. Combined, your stereo and computer can be quite a load and to buy a AVR that can handle that load is quite a jump over a $200 budget. Either increase budget or do an incremental purchase, buy a AVR for either the stereo and TV and all that (all together) for now, get the surge protector for your computer, or vice versa, whichever fit the budget better. Then in the future when more $$$ (don't we all need some?) is available, get another AVR or UPS/AVR thingy for the computer or vice versa.

Good luck (I don't know too much about what manufacturer to recommend, someone else is going to have to help you on that).