Protect your gear!

Surge suppression, power conditioning and battery backup are often the most neglected but most critical parts of any technology investment. In this article I'll discuss the necessity of having them.

For my computer, I use a Belkin F6C1500 1500VA 830 Watts 8 Outlets UPS. It runs my high powered computer, wireless router, 22" monitor, etc for at least 5 minutes in case of a power outage.

Uninterruptible Power Supply (UPS)
A UPS is important because most PCs have problems if they are not turned off gracefully. This is especially so because information is constantly being processed in volatile memory (RAM) before being stored to the hard drive. There are chances your critical system files could become corrupted, your game files, etc if it happens in the middle of a write operation. What if it happens while the computer is updating the file allocation table (FAT)? I have had computers require a repair of the OS in order to run again but you never know what open files have lost. I hope you saved that MS Office or OpenOffice document before the crash because it might not be recoverable.

The UPS isn't designed to run your system for 2 hours. You would need a generator for that. What the UPS will do is give you ample time to shut down your programs and turn off the computer system before your battery runs out...assuming of course you are at your computer, or with software that can be installed, you can tell your computer to initiate a shutdown when you have a set amount of battery time left even if you are away.

What to look for in a UPS and how much do I really need?
That will be determined by the power rating of each component inside your computer, your monitor, router and anything else you are plugging into the UPS. There are devices you can use to measure this exactly and it will change depending on how heavily you are using your power supply and video card and processor especially in heavy graphics oriented games. The Power Rating on the individual components is very conservative and can be a good place to start.

If you can get a UPS that conditions the power coming in as well, you are good. Most UPS's will handle power surges and brownouts, etc.

I recommend this beast which will run even a high-end system for about 3-5 minutes. It is currently on sale for $30 off with free shipping. Shipping on these things can be very expensive because of the weight of the batteries so that is very nice.

CyberPower Intelligent LCD Series GreenPower UPS CP1500AVRLCD UPS

3D Gaming Rig

As a follow up to the 3D Vision article on NVIDIA's new 3D stereoscopic technology, I have compiled components for a mid-range system. I have not built it, but this is merely my idea of what an ideal game system would be at this level. Of course, this is just a list of parts and would need to be assembled. If you don't have experience doing that, you shouldn't be building your own system as some of these parts can damage very easy if you don't know what you are doing. I have been building my own computers like this for over 7 years and know about the "gotchas" associated with doing that. Perhaps there will be a follow-up article on that if you guys and hot gamer chicks are interested in building your own custom gaming rig. :)

Here is a mid-level system, which will run great for most games, under $2000. I have included gaming keyboard and mouse, which are of course optional if you want to keep cost down.

Item	Description	Quantity	Unit Price	Total
Motherboard	ASUS M3A78 AM2+ with Gigabit LAN, 8gb max ram	1	$79.99	$79.99
Power Supply	OCZ GameXStream 1010-Watt Power Supply	1	$189.99	$189.99
Memory	8Gb OCZ Reaper (2 dual-channel 2x2gb kits) on ASUS QVC list	2	$57.99	$115.98
CPU/Processor+Fan	AMD Phenom X4 9950 Quad Core with 4000 MT/S Socket AM2+ on ASUS QVC list	1	$149.99	$149.99
Video/Graphics Card	BFG GeForce GTX 260 OC MAXCORE w/dual DVI and full HDMI support with supplied adapter	1	$159.99	$159.99
Mouse	Logitech G9 Gaming Mouse	1	$66.99	$66.99
Keyboard	Logitech G15 Gaming Keyboard	1	$76.99	$76.99
Operating System	Windows Vista Ultimate, 64-bit OEM	1	$189.99	$189.99
DVD/CD/BR player	Lite-On Blue-Ray/DVD/CD Reader/Writer with Lightscribe	1	$89.99	$89.99
Hard Drive	1TB Seagate Barracuda drive	1	$89.99	$89.99
Monitor	NVIDIA 3D-Vision Bundle – Samsung Syncmaster 120Hz 22” LCD + 3D Vision Glasses	1	$599.99	$599.99
Case/Tower	Apevia X-Telstar ATX Mid-Tower	1	$89.96	$89.96
Cables	XION SATA II 1.5' (18”) cable (90deg to 180deg locking cable for hard drives)	2	$4.99	$9.98
				$1,909.82

I have not included speakers, but if you do not have surround sound, I highly recommend you invest in it, especially for a realistic 3D gaming experience. Onkyo offers a great product with 7.1 surround sound for under $500, the HTS5200.