our power (whether its voltage or current being affected) has been fluctuating since yesterday. By that I mean our lights and things like that are flickering here and there. Anyone know if this bad for a computer with a decent quality psu and surge protector? Or should I tell energex to fix it fast?

a switch mode psu can handle low voltages, they are usually rated 110-240volts at 50-60hz.

they can just continue on like nothings happened during a brown out, but voltage spikes etc would be a different story.

well you'd be better off with clean power obviously, but any decent psu should be able to provide 'clean' power to your system
so long as you have the surge protector the other components are (or should be) designed to deal with fluctuations

yay for technology. yeh its def not spikes rather 'under' spikes.

On a related note, I was reading some anecdotal story the other day about hard drive failures - the dude was saying how on unfiltered power (or with a s*** power supply) you can expect a lot less life out of your hard drives. I can't remember the reasoning behind it but I thought it was interesting as I never really factored quality of PSU into my PC purchasing decisions before.

By that I mean our lights and things like that are flickering here and there.

Have you thought to check for poltergeists?

trog a PSU with saggin power rails will kill your hard drives nicely.

Is there any way to check if a PSU is starting to die, or lose some of its mojo (if such a thing actually happens)? Or does buying a decent PSU right from the get-go obviate most of those issues?

Is there any way to check if a PSU is starting to die

You can buy simple PSU testers that will show the voltage coming through on each connector, but I'm pretty sure most bios' display that information anyways. Usually you will know something is happening when the stability of the system or some parts come into question.

Or does buying a decent PSU right from the get-go obviate most of those issues?

It won't eliminate the chances of it dying, but decent power supplies nowadays are sort of able to take these fluctuations quite easily (sort of like an inbuilt surge protector). Add a quality surge protector and there shouldn't be any issues.

Another thing to take into consideration with PSU's is airflow, lack of will also kill a PSU.

yeah as a simple thing you can just load up the PC doing something both cpu and disk intensive. Then wack a digital multimeter up one of the molex plugs and measure the voltage. The 12V and 5V should stay within +/- 5% from nominal ideally - although the spec says 10% for 12V, I find that can give significant instability.

PS. Checking with one of those software monitoring programs isn't a real good indicator.

Ive got a Thermaltake Toughpower 750W Modular PSU
http://specialtech.co.uk/spshop/files/detail/thermaltake-toughpower-modu.jpg

Have you thought to check for poltergeists?

Yeah we did but shooting it didnt affect the power surges..

last edited by ³dee at 12:37:52 21/Apr/08

Not that I have one or need one but would putting a UPS in front of the pc help smooth out the power or do they just bypass that stuff until the power goes out completely and then a UPS will kick in? I've been told where I live has really dirty power and a filter would help a great deal but I've never had a problem with my PC's dying early except for my old Abit kt7a-raid mobo but anyone in tech knows all about those horrid things :p

I do have a surge protector although I don't know if it also "filters" the power.

Not that I have one or need one but would putting a UPS in front of the pc help smooth out the power or do they just bypass that stuff until the power goes out completely and then a UPS will kick in?

The really expensive ones always smooth and clean the power. The consumer ones generally kick in when the mains is off or below/above a certain voltage, which is generally enough and much better than running straight out of the wall with no UPS.

I've been using a UPS for the last year and loving it. I did some research for a good brand and model, and ended up getting a Powershield 650VA (not to be confused with Powerware), delivered for $149. Damn good quality, they really know their s*** and much better compared to the s*** you see in the regular stores (e.g. Powerware or Laser). I can run 2xPCs + 1 LCD + 2xModem/Routers without overloading it, whereas with previous crappy UPSs I've had were not able to kick in quickly enough to keep a single PC running when the power went out.

The developers/supplier: http://www.powershield.com.au/
The QLD distributor: http://www.qldpp.com.au/newshop/index.php?cPath=55