RE: UPS vs. NStar (fwd)

[Sven Franklyn Weil <sven@gordsven.com>]

---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Mon, 17 Dec 2001 21:06:00 +0000
From: Chuckigo@att.net
To: Sven Franklyn Weil <sven@gordsven.com>
Subject: RE: UPS vs. NStar

Sven asked:
>> Chuck, shouldn't the entire computer be plugged into 
the UPS, not just the
> hard drive? I'm not much of a computer user, but it 
seems logical to me
> that it would be more effective to plug in the actual 
computer AND hard
> drive instead of the monitor, into the UPS.<<

and being as much a computer user as the rest of us, my 
use of the word "hard drive" was meant to indicate "the 
computer."  my pc here at home, and the big ol' MAC my 
buddy uses has two primary power cords associated with 
it: the power cord from the "box" that contains the 
actual guts of the computer, by which "guts" 
includes "hard drive," and the power cord for the 
monitor.  unlike my home pc, my buddy's MAC does not 
have a printer associated with it, as it a dedicated, 
super-duper, digital studio.  so to actually run that 
computer, one plugs in the power cord from the back of 
the "box" that contains the guts, and then to see what 
the machine is doing, one would plug in the power cord 
from the monitor.  so, again: whereas the hard drive is 
contained within the usually off-white box that one 
would call "the computer," the "computer's" power cord 
and the cord from the monitor are plugged into the UPS, 
leaving the UPS to ONLY worry about providing enough 
back-up power to safely shut down the computer.  now, if 
your computers come with power cords for every little 
thing... oh well.  nothin' i can do about that.  i mean, 
my pc does not have a separate power cord for the hard 
drive.  yes, my pc has a separate power cord for the 
little speakers on the side of the monitor, but i'm 
being very specific to the UPS at my buddy's studio.  as 
others have pointed out: by minimizing the potential 
power draw on the back-up power system, one would hope 
to have a better chance of successfully shutting down 
the computer before losing everything prior to the last 
system save.  and again to reiterate:  the UPS on which 
my buddy spent big bucks was professionally installed 
(see previous note about separate electrical dedicated 
circuit/outlet installed to accomodate the UPS/Computer 
tandem) and then did not work.  the power went out, and 
so went his MAC with many hours of work.

- -Chuck Igo