Help with power strips

[ptcqs]

I remember reading somewhere that we should not connect everything to the same power strip, if having a six outlet one we should not use all of it, instead distribute to other strips or use smaller, such as a x3 outlet.

 

Is this information accurate? I'm having some problems with my computer and i do use a x6 outlet + x4 outlet both full. Wondering if this could be the reason.

[WereCatf]

That's...a kinda flawed advice you've gotten. You can perfectly fine use all six sockets in a strip, if you don't connect several high-power devices to the same strip, like, say, three 1200W room-heaters -- they'd be drawing so much power through the strip that its cable would probably catch fire. A PC, even a high-power one, plus monitor, some speakers and such is still just fine; a monitor, speakers, a desktop light and such don't draw a lot of power.

 

It's all about the amount of power that goes into the strip, not specifically about the number of devices in it: lots of high-power devices? Yes, spread them over different wall-sockets. Lots of devices that don't draw enormous amounts of power? You're fine.

 

The cheap power-strips usually don't mention their rating, but the better, slightly more expensive ones do mention somewhere on the packaging how much power they can safely handle. You could buy a power-meter and plug your strip into it to see how much your 6 devices actually draw -- the power-meters don't cost much on eBay or similar, something like $20 or less.