Power

If you recall from my Console Picture Guide, I was able to show what the difference between Monster Cable and regular cable did for the Playstation 2. Trying to document the benefits from a line conditioner is much tougher. Here’s what we tested:

The PC900 looks tame, though it quantitatively reduces line noise more than a regular surge protector

The PC1000 is clearly better designed

These conditioners are designed for PC use and have separate wideband and low noise filters

It is possible to measure AC line noise and EMI noise and then compare the difference with a line conditioner. In fact, we have the equipment to do so and we have done so, and yes, there is a measurable reduction in line noise with a line conditioner. The more expensive the conditioner was, the greater the reduction in line noise. The problem is that we don’t know if the noise in the AC signal is going to matter, or if we’re going from insignificant AC line noise to even more insignificant line noise. In other words, is it like going from an unnoticeable 1500fps to 3000fps or is it like 15 fps to 30 fps? All I offer at the moment is this:

When I had 3 hard drives fail over 2 weeks, my troubleshooting turned me to the power issue. I had two drives connected to two separate IDE controllers crashing simultaneously. This meant that the problem must be the power supply or the motherboard power regulation – or ghosts were messing around with my system. I’m pretty sure it’s not ghosts, so it had to be something “before” the IDE cable.

After changing the motherboard/power supply/hard drive, I still noticed that my system was uncharacteristically unstable, crashing multiple times a day. The only thing left was noisy AC power as the cause of system problems.

The HTS3600 is designed as an audio line conditioner, but it can also be used as a hardcore PC line conditioner. The line conditioner itself uses 0.4 amps

My first step was to measure AC line noise quantitatively, and indeed it turned out that the outlet my PC was connected to was noisier than the other outlets in the room. I then tried a Monster Power PowerCenter PC900, a $99 line conditioner. My system still crashed within the next 24 hours. Seeing a small improvement in stability, I tried the next line up, a Monster Power PowerCenter PC1000, a $150 line conditioner. 1 week later, the system was still running fine. Changing back to a generic surge suppressor brought back regular crashes. I returned to the PC1000 and the system was stable. Then I went back to the generic surge suppressor – and it was still stable – but this time, the AC line noise measured from the wall was lower than when I had first began. Hmm…