Do I need a surge protector or UPS with the HX750W?

[TurnUpTheDaft]

Ive built a computer, and pretty much spent all my cash getting it running.

I used an HX750 for the power supply.

(Heres a link to the product page: http://www.corsair.com/professional-series-HX750-80-plus-silver-certified-modular-power-supply.html)

 

Now, I havent actually begun gaming on my computer and such because someone brought to my attention that I should get a surge protector or UPS.

 

But on the products page, it says that it has "Over Current/Voltage/Power Protection, Under Voltage Protection and Short Circuit Protection provide complete component safety".

 

Will those features adequately protect my computer components, or would I still need an external device? And if it will not protect my components from surges or brown outs, then what do those features do, what is their purpose?

 

Obviously I'd like to buy a device to protect against surges and the like, but at the moment Ive literally spent all my money on the computer and parts. Hopefully if this PSU will protect against electrical current issues, then I can start using it now, instead of waiting another 2 weeks.

 

Thanks for helping me.

[peanutz94]

No, you do not need to use a UPS or a surge protector with the PSU. Although a surge protector is a good idea for the rest of your components . Monitor, speakers, ect...

[parsec]

As peanutz suggested, a surge protector is always a good idea to protect all of your PC components from AC line problems. A UPS is another story, IMO unless you must have back up power for your PC due to frequent power outages, a UPS is more trouble than it is worth. Most if not all UPS units modify the AC waveform in a way that is actually more difficult for a PC PS to work with. Some PC PS's will not work with a UPS at all, or only at a fraction of their rated output power. I won't use one for those reasons.

 

The Over Voltage, etc, safety features in a PS are there to protect the PC from faults with the PS itself, not with AC power line issues.

 

There is no reason to not use your PC for gaming, etc, if you don't have a surge protector. Actually, your PS has one built into it. A UPS is certainly not required for using a PC whatsoever.

[Garvin]

Yep, supplies come with there own built in surge protection. However most surge protection works by sacrificing a bit of themselves to redirect the surge. If you're only talking two weeks, you should be fine. Tip on surge protecctors, avoid the absoloute cheapest ones, they usually only have one or two varistors protecting from surges and the set point for when they'll engage is rather high. They usually don't last more than a year, year and a half before they're junk. Most of the time you can find a decent one in the 25 to 35 dollar range. Technically you don't need one but which would you rather take the surge a relatively cheap surge protector or your expensive power supply? As to UPS, if you don't get many power failures in a year, you probably don't need one. Since I get between 6 and 10 outages a year, I have four seperate APC Back-UPS XS line of UPS protecting all of my electronics (1100-1500VA units). Never had a problem plugging any computer with any power supply into any of them. This includes any of the PC's I'm repairing. As far as PC components go, Corsair and APC products are the only brands I recommend ever.