Surge protectors

[tris-]

hi, does anyone know of a good surge protector for PCs? i seen one in dixons for £30 which had, i think 33k peak amp rate. £30 is quite a bit but in the end it would save more than if the equipment is damaged.

 

[Tom]

Does your area have problems with its electricity supply? Or is your house poorly wired? Because if the answer to both is no, then you shouldn't really need one. It might actually be cheaper to install RCDs in your fusebox if you don't already have them.

*Speaking as somebody whose father was a BT engineer for 30 years, and who said that surge protectors are bollocks

 

[Danya]

I have one, but only cos I wanted a load metering strip and they come with surge protection or not at all.

 

[tris-]

Tom, i noticed a lot of spikes latley, the tv gets a fuzzy line through it and my PC speakers also pop. thats why i thought i would probably need one

 

[Tom]

It could be that somebody in your street has a dodgy appliance, or it could even be that you have an oven or washing machine on the wrong circuit. Check with the local electricity board, they can be helpful with things like this, especially if you have an unsafe appliance in your house.

Try turning the fridge on and off, and also the lights. If you detect any problems from this, then your household wiring needs looking at. Realistically, the lifetime of household wiring is about 15 years anyway, most people neglect this. Lighting should not under any circumstances interfere with stuff plugged into wall sockets.

I wouldn't worry too much though. You'd need something significantly more powerful to damage any of your equipment.

 

[RandomBastard]

I use a surge protector as matter of course, better to be safe than sorry in my opinion, especially as i'm a student so can't necesairly trust my accodmodations elec supply Oh and surge protectors do protect against lighting strikes to telephone poles/electricity pylons, as I went through a hd and 3 modems back home cause of thunderstorms which a surge protector then stopped any more loses.

Dodgy power supplies can also affect your computers stabilty so a surgeprotector can help to keep a computer stable, although if your in that much need of stability you should also be using a ups, most of which have surge protectors built in.