[wplug] What do you think? a $99 computer

[Bobbie Lynn Eicher]

On Jun 1, 2007, at 3:03 PM, Zach wrote:

> On 6/1/07, terry mcintyre <terrymcintyre at yahoo.com> wrote:
>>
>> If you "sizzled" all those components, one wonders if there was a  
>> decent
>> surge protector, or what?
>
> I had all my power cords plugged into one of those $5 surge strips.
> What would you recommend?

Poke around online for surge protectors rather than power strips.   
Surge protectors often have guarantees from the makers that if it  
fails they'll replace equipment that was damaged by the power surge.   
(If it's a $5 unit, it seems likely to me that it's more just a power  
strip than a proper surge protector).

In some cases people prefer an uninterruptible power supply that both  
provides the surge protection and protects the system from a sudden  
loss of power as well, but considering the budget that you mentioned  
I think that the cost is likely to be more than can be justified.

Also, keep in mind that some power supplies can damage other  
components when they fail.  I actually had a (cheap) power supply in  
a (fortunately also cheap) computer fail recently and take the  
motherboard out with it.  It had a power supply without any kind of  
safety features to protect against that because it was a cheap  
computer and the company who built it was cutting every corner they  
could.  (I ought to have replaced it at some point but I was never  
terribly attached to that particular computer and didn't want to be  
bothered with it.)

- Bobbie