Hey,
I've recently moved to a place where the power appears to be
dirty; the lights in my house sometimes momentarily dim and brighten.
The effect on the lights is tolerable, but I'm wondering how this
change in power will affect my computer system. I'm running a big
machine (dual processors, 3CDRs, lots of PCI and USB devices) so I have
a 650watt power supply in it. Now, I don't really need a UPS to supply
me momentary power in a blackout so much as I need one to clean the
power. Will one of these cheap UPS's sold for under $100 (some as low
as $30) do the trick? I'm a computer geek, but know relatively little
about volts, amps, vA, watts, and other power concerns. Please, some
advice. Thanks,

John

nobodyuknow (AT) post (DOT) com wrote:

(like <85 volts), and provide some filtering. Power cleaning requires a
full time power converter, like one made by APC for servers (not cheap).

On Thu, 13 Jan 2005 04:27:38 GMT, Rick Wintjen
<rwintjen (AT) N0swbell (DOT) 5P4M.net.P1E45E> spewed:
Actually, you just have to buy a GOOD UPS. Cheap ones have no AVR
(Automatic Voltage Regulation) or really poor. I.E. Energizer. Those $40
400va ones have it, but it's got a terrible 25% tolerance in the variation
it'll allow. Basically worthless.
APC even wasn't near as good as I'd expected, like 12%.
The best I've seen so far was a Belkin (which I just bought) at 3%.
I can't imagine getting better than that, so I bought it.
One thing I don't know is whether you want it to regulate it at 120v or
115v. Some say one, some say the other.

A decent UPS will also give you EMI/RFI filtering too, which basically
prevents radio interference from traveling up the power line and into the
PC. Although, some better surge protectors have that as well.
Oh, speaking of that, should mention that I have been told you shouldn't
put a surge protector of that type between the UPS and the AC socket.
Apparently the method each uses to filter can differ and make each
overwork. I forget exactly what happens if that happens, but I figure
better safe than sorry. Plus, all UPS's will tell you that their $ worth
of hardware insurance protection is void if you do that (or even use an
extension cord), so..

HTH,
D.
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