Slightly OT - how do you protect your audio computer?

First, as fast as you can get a UPS system (that has the power needed to power all of your equipment in case of power problems).  A "power conditioner" (depending on which model Furman you have it can be just a "surge protector") may help for some power line condition but a UPS goes a step further with the battery backup.  I have been in computer systems and network management up til I retired and short duration AC power dropouts are the prime cause of computer failures and hardware problems.  A UPS system will prevent these problems.   A power failure/surge/momentary dropout can cause many PC problems including corruption of hard drives to the point they must be completely rebuilt (reformatted and everything reinstalled). 

One other issue with a UPS system.  If your PC's power supply is one of the newer "Active PFC" type power supplies you MAY need a UPS that has a "pure sine wave" output when on battery or at least one with a very fast switching time.  Not all the Active PFC type supplies require this, but many do.  The Pure Sine Wave models are not the low end consumer models and considering you need enough power for your PC and the recording "rack" you will need a commercial/business UPS.

I don't know much about the AMD CPU's so I can't really comment on them.  However, on board Video can be an issue as it takes away from CPU resources and also uses more memory.  Although you have XP and probably a 32 bit version, I would upgrade to 4GB of RAM as some Sonar projects with a lot of tracks and MIDI tracks can use a lot of memory.  A 32 bit Operating System cannot fully address 4GB but you will still wind up with 3.2 to 3.5 GB of useable RAM (how much depends on the hardware and video).

If you are considering reinstalling an OS, if all the hardware and software are compatible Windows 7 is what I would recommend.  That was the general agreement when this question was recently asked on this forum.

The Furman may be a "power conditioner" but that can have many meanings and can also be a marketing name.  I have a $69 Furman Model M8 "power conditioner" in by equipment rack (and the Furman is connected to my system UPS so it's not directly on the AC power line) and it is only a better grade "surge protector".

The Coirsair VX450 is an Active PFC power supply.  SOME of these power supplies must have a UPS with a true sine wave output (on battery) and SOME will work on the less expensive modified sine wave types as long as the switching time is less than 4 ms.  Cyberpower UPS makes two true sine wave models but I'm not sure of the power handling capability.  It depends on your entire system that you want UPS protected (the PC and whatever else - I have my small recording rack on the UPS along with the PC as I don't want a momentary power dropout to ruin a recording session).  I have an Active PFC XFX 750 watt power supply but it is one that will work on a regular UPS that has the fast switching.  I have a 1000 watt commercial model APC UPS.   APC has a couple of true sine wave UPS' but they are "commercial" models and in the $500 and up price range.

I have an ATI Radeon HD4850 video card with 1GB memory.  Along with Sonar I also use the PC for other things and I needed a new Video card and this particular card was "on sale".  There was no other compelling reason I got it.  But, it does work well and even has an HDMI output if I wanted to connect to an HD TV.  I don't have any fan noise to speak of.  I've recorded with the singer 3 ft from the PC tower and there was no fan noise.

I have both 32 bit Vista and 64 bit Win 7 and that was done initially as I wasn't sure if Sonar was going to work OK on Win 7.  But, as it turned out I've never needed to fall back to the Vista 32 bit system for any reason for Sonar.  The Vista 32 bit is basically history.  When Win 7 came out several on here commented they were doing the same thing, having both, but they also reported they didn't need to fall back to the 32 systems.

There was a recent thread about Windows 7 64 bit or 32 bit and the overwhelming majority said 64 bit, as long as you have hardware that will support it.  64 bit OS' are becoming the standard and most new PC's are coming with Win 7 64 bit. 

Those are the commercial type UPS systems.  I had that in my computer room but it was much bigger - 300KVA at 480 Volts AC (grin).

fireberd


Those are the commercial type UPS systems.  I had that in my computer room but it was much bigger - 300KVA at 480 Volts AC (grin).

are you sure? 300kva/480v? really big. how long it will last after start?
whre do you use 480v? for factory?

reader1

NoKey


One reason why I like Laptops is because they are inherently powerfailure protected (with the battery).

My music laptop, though, is always running on AC, and it is pretty much "desktop like" installed, I use a wireless keyboard and mouse, so typically of all its hardware I basically only touch the on-off switch.

I do have a 1-KVA pure sinewave UPS, but I don't use it for years. To those "transfer time" does not apply, since the equipment is always connected to the synthesised output. ..They are rathe expenssive, though.

you may select another ups which work all the way even power on. it quite like you laptop works.
no transfer time. it can supply 5--10minutes or 30minutes power when power off.

Hi Reader1,

The laptop can run about 1 hour on battery, depending on what's their use, maybe more, and also depending on the life of the battery.

The pure sine-wave UPS are meant for critical equipment, the bigger ones for bigger computers, of course, and in critical installations, like computer rooms or hospitals, then an emergency generator takes over.

For most home applications, though UPS are meant to cover for a short duration of power failure, often only seconds or minutes, and also meant to allow time for turning off the computer, in case the power does not come on rather immediately.

I think the way a laptop power supply is built now days, it has quite a bit of built-in surge protection also.

I don't recall reading or hearing of laptops failing due to lightning..If it happens, it is rare, seems to me.

480 volts AC is available in some commercial buildings, and for sure in industrial facilities that run large loads, and that is in three-phase power systems.

There were some "always on" UPS for office or home use, also, that had square wave output, good enough for the pc's of the time, but also meant basically to shut down the pcs, not meant to run the pc's.

So, laptops as we know them, still have the edge in that sense. Do notice that when ac power fails, laptop screens go dim, and its volume goes down, if using is soundcard.

For home-studio, though, I'd say that all UPS is still to be considered to allow time to shut down the pc or laptop, and avoid data loss, or even worse, disk corruption.

The Video Card that I have is a "Sapphire" model. 

In ref to my comment about the large UPS.  It was for a federal goverment computer room, not something for my PC.   The UPS was located in the sub basement level of the building and my computer room was on the 10th floor, thus the use of 480 volts.  I had a "power room" that had transformers that converted the 480 volts into 240 vac 3 phase for my IBM comm processors and 120vac single phase for the equipment that used that.   This was the type that had a rectifier that converted the incoming AC line to DC.  The DC fed an inverter that converted it back to AC and also charged the sixty 2 Volt C&D wet cell batteries.  With this configuration whatever happened on the commercial AC power line was not seen in my computer room - and if the AC power was lost even for a milisecond the DC batteries would take over and provide the DC power for the inverter.  I had about 30 minutes of operation time on batteries with this system - basically time to do an orderly shut down of the systems if needed.  However, there were only a few times we had power failures or failures that lasted over 5 or 10 minutes, 99% were the momentary droputs. 

Always use surge and battery back up UPS protection.

 
Yes...
 
BTW, If you get hit by a close lightning strike, it can go up the ground wire.
The only 100% sure protection against this is to unplug your gear.

Jim Roseberry

Always use surge and battery back up UPS protection.

 
Yes...
 
BTW, If you get hit by a close lightning strike, it can go up the ground wire.
The only 100% sure protection against this is to unplug your gear.

No, not really.

When the utility service is properly grounded and so is the premise and its receptacles, lightning can not travel through the ground wire. It can travel via the hot wire or wires, though. So if the equipment has an ON/OFF switch, turning it OFF is sufficient.

It's OK to disconnect the equipment if so wanted, though...But a more convenient way is to use an outlet strip with a switch and turn its switch ON/OFF for use....By the way, though, that switch does not, and should not disconnect the ground when it is OFF.

One thing is to have equipment that does not use a ground plug, and another is to have a service that does not have a proper ground.

Sometimes we may have to cut a grounding prong to avoid an audio ground loop, or use an adapter; or some audio components have a ground-lift switch,  but that does not mean that the service or receptacles are not to be properly grounded.

Hello again, fireberd. I greatly appreciate your input.

I read your last cautionary post and it occurred to me: I have no idea how do I determine what the wattage is on what I want to protect. If I have a computer (AMD 5200 dual core CPU) with 2 GB memory,  onboard video, two hard drives and two DVD drives with a 19" LCD monitor connected to a firewire audio interface, two studio monitors and a controller keyboard (Kurzweil PC1se), what type of power requirements am I talking about here? I would be using the Furman we discussed earlier and I also have a 4 channel microphone distribution amplifier (Presonus HP4). How would it change if I add a second monitor and more memory? How does a CRT monitor compare with an LCD monitor? If there is a website that has this information, point me toward it. It occurs to me that I am an absolute novice in this area.

BTW, I never buy the most inexpensive model when I am purchasing pro audio related equipment.

Thanks for any information you, or anyone else who is contributing to this thread, can provide.