Motherboard, Low voltage in household

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dgss1

Geek Trainee
First post and looking for Answers and suggestions-

Purchased a dell 620 inspiron w/i-5 2320. Ran great for 8 months then Lightning hit(all usb devices connected were toasted & several other items in the hours). Replaced mother board, Ran great for 1.5 months, then another motherboard. Ran Great this time about 5 months and I am faced with....Another mother board only this time dell will not "give me" one as I am just out of warranty.
Other Factors;
After the lightning, I did upgrade the video card to Nvida gtx 550 ti and put in a 400 w ps to supply the card. Of course dell was not informed of lightning or the system changes.
So...
now for 200.00 I could get another mother board from dell Or, I can use the processor and build my own pc which is the direction I am heading.
My ultimate question with one other factor....I have double checked household wiring and wires "meg" good. But monitoring voltage, I have noticed where I plug into, I can be as low as 113 when the household electric heat & other items turn on. Mostly the volts are around 120 but kids, wife cooking....I have seen this 8.5 volt flux in our Mountain home.
Prior to the dell I had this Old pc plugged in the same outlet for 2 years(which its plugged in now)with no issues. Now, learning stuff about pcs I know the new board and stuff needs a 600 w ps
Will a alternate power supply like this;
http://www.apc.com/products/resource/include/techspec_index.cfm?base_sku=BR1000G

Protect my new pc from unwanted voltage drops/brown outs and such. I do not know voltage is what took out those mbs after lightning. Yet I want to eliminate any possibility of it being the case. Also I do not know if I was over exceeding the dell mb with system changes.
I realize that should a big thunder boomer come by, to unplug everything! btw, we were at home and all electronics had been powered down and plugged into "nice" surge protectors but direct hit is nfg.
So...will a unit like the link above do the job of low voltage and protect the devices connected to it? I am by no means a pc guy or geek, just a user looking to protect an investment and pc I am planning on building.
Thxs,
dg
 
Lightning Strikes are the worst for ANY computer, If it fried the Motherboard, Then it fried Everything... It would be better to just buy Another USED DELL..
Since Dell uses a proprietary System, You will have to replace most everything with dell parts.. But after a lightning strike or a power surge, If ONE thing got fried, then it is possible that the whole system is bad..
 
True enough and thank you for your reply. the only item I want to use is the processor....Where I did put that processor into the other dell mother boardS and everything did work great. my thought is the processor is probably good(perhaps I am wrong but from what I read a processor is not likely to wipe out a motherboard compared to voltage issues) which is why I have been monitoring the voltage at the outlet. I found the right mobo for the socket. New Ram will be in the new mother board(faster ram & 6gb with ssd). I do want to move beyond a name brand set up. I am ready to move on....
I am not dishing dell. I am sure I could get an extended warranty and keep replacing mother boards. Though, to get what I would like costs $$ and I can build for LESS and have More. It would also be frustrating to keep replacing MBs if the root of the problem is household voltage drops, even perhaps dirty power. I live at 8600 ft and power does go out with our common 80 + mph winds So, I believe low volts can take out a mb, but is 121 volts down to 113volts an except-able flux for a mother board ? And would an item like the link above work to correct a fluctuation of almost 9 volts from time to time? Trying to balence the cost reward of a $50 surge protector to a 200$ unit that also of course has a battery back up but that is not something I Truly need, its the power filters and picking up on low voltage or even spikes that is what I believe the trouble is, again I am no pc guy.
dg
 
Ghostman 1,
Just been surfing threads and found you replied to a while back-
http://www.hardwareforums.com/threads/new-psu-computer-randomly-shutdown.36331/

Is this true? I mean, I did put a Nvida GTX 550Ti into my dell inspiron 620 and since needing the 6pin ps for that card, I put a dynex 400w ps into it and the mobo goes, again and again. Could the psu and video card be the trouble with the boards AFTER the strike? You should know that the hard drive and front usb's of the inspiron Nor my external hd were taken out by the strike.
dg
 
Dynex isn't a particularly good brand. I don't remember what OEM they use, but it's junk. I know Best Buy has Corsair and Thermaltake units available and both would be worth the price you pay.

With voltage, the voltage is the difference between the positive and negative terminals. In the US it's 115/120V, so a drop to 113 isn't going to be detrimental. If you were reading under 100V, for example, that would be worrisome, but a few volts discrepancy isn't something to worry over. Also, unless you have a high-end model from the likes of Fluke, then the accuracy may not be spot on, so take that into account.
 
Thx for your Reply BigB-

Yes, I did it with a fluke. And I do understand electricity but not motherboards or hardware to a pc.
That said, the new motherboard for the pc I am building, should be here today with a corsair ps, Instead of Dynex. I did do some reading though with input from some pc friends, I should of ordered a better name brand mb than I did. Biostar is what I got, Vs my friends saying Asus. The board I got shows good reviews & friends don't have recent experiences with biostar and have been using asus for the past 10 years. Back then they say they were junk. Anythoughts on that subject?
Though another friend thinks biostar's are fine, just not top end.

So it would seem, that I may of killed the dell myself by upgrading the ps and video card?? Though hard to say why two motherboards so quickly......Seems likely with the feed back here and via same friends and not my household power so I should be fine with a household good surge protector. (Not that any are going to prevent damage from a direct hit by lightning, which is what we had).

Your reply and any others opinions are appreciated.
(still following this)

dg
 
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