Korean Job Discussion Forums

[Voyeur]

Are expensive surge protectors important?

I have been having problems with my computer for a long time here at my apartment. It is a very expensive investment for me - $3,000+ and full of sensitive, high end parts. But I have it plugged into a $10, old, power strip. My understanding is that the cheap surge protectors will stop a surge once - but that you have no way of knowing when they have done their one-time surge stoppage and are now useless.

My old CRT monitopr started flickering. I replaced it with an LCD monitor that is now flickering. I got this one serviced, and the guy said that the power supply on it was damaged and replaced it. But he did this via sign language as I don't speak Korean. Everything seemed fine. 4 days and some heavy gaming + a thunderstorm later, it is flickering again. In fact, the computer tech I sold some of my old parts to said my old PSU for my computer was damaged. Also, the CMOS on my old motherboard fried twice. All signs of bad power.

Is there a pattern here? Is it possible I have bad power and worse surge protection and it keeps frying the power supplies on my monitors and computer? Should I keep doing what I am doing? Or should I protect my big investment by actually getting a decent surge protector? If so, where can I find one? Lotte and Homeplus both only had ones for about 20,000 won. Are they enough? How much should I be looking at spending?

Also, someone else suggested that I might not only have surges, but also fluctuating, dirty power and I should get a line-conditioner or UPS? What are those about? Where can I get them?

I've been through thousands of dollars of repairs, upgrades, and new parts at my same location just to get a computer to work consistently - thousands of dollars of upgrades, but always using the same 7-year old, dirt cheap power bar - or just plugging right into the wall. Was that a mistake? Should I invest in power protection?

How do I know if it is the power? Also, can you draw too much power off a circuit? I have a 1000watt PSU on my comp. Could I be getting too little power? I'm ranting now. I bought a hugely expensive computer in a country where I don't know the language and where I know nothing about computers myself. And ever since I did, I have been having non-stop problems. I am so frustrated I want to kill somebody. And most techs can't handle high-end stuff. Or they can't communicate with you. It is a nightmare.

[spliff]

[hanguker]

Why not just buy a nice, fancy surge protector, just to be on the safe side. Heck, money is obviously not a problem.

[Voyeur]

I was ranting and whining there. But I guess what I'm really asking is whether dirty power and spikes are really a common problem, or if I am just inventing a disease based on too much web surfing combined with no practical knowledge. Also, surge protectors won't stop minor fluctuations in power that can cause flickering so I am wondering if I need a power conditioner or UPS. And where do I get top-end power bars or conditiorners etc...?

Anyways, the Samsung monitor man is coming again Sat. maybe I'll get lucky and someone can actually fix it this time.

As for the price, I don't know anymore. In Oct. 2006 I bought a a whole new system for gaming:

E6700 CPU
TWO 1950xtx crossfire GPUs
ASUS P5W DH Deluxe board
Enermax 620watt liberty PSU
Logitech G5 mouse
Logtech G15 gaming keyboard
Soundblaster X-fi soundcard
Creative Inspire 5.1 speakers
HP 22" trinitron CRT

since then I have upgraded to:
Gigabyte P35 d3sl mobo
nVidia 9800GX2 GPU
E8500 dual core cpu
1000watt Zalman PSU
Samsung 26: 2693HM LCD monitor
and the rest is the same.

Between 4-5 week long stays at repair places and many service calls I no longer know how much I have sunk in the last 18 months. 4-5 Million won+ maybe.

It seems like something is always broken.