So a nearby lightningstorm just crashed all my eGPUs

Posted by milpster@reddit | LocalLLaMA | View on Reddit | 24 comments

Yeah so i was inferencing at home when lightning hit nearby, taking out our internet connection in the process. Along with that i was stunned to discover that both my eGPUs which sit left and right to my laptop have also crashed.

Did you ever encounter things like that with your setup? Did you take preventative measures? I am considering putting copper grounding tape on the inside of the gpu cases eventually.

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waitmarks@reddit

That's not going to help you, just get a proper UPS. That is literally what they are for.

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fizzy1242@reddit

seriously, a small price for enormous protection and peace of mind

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DelKarasique@reddit

I recently discovered that decent UPS for 1500+w is actually not that cheap. Also, they are loud and look like another ugly midtower pc. Not ideal for home use imo

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Shot-Buffalo-2603@reddit

Localllama users will have this sitting on their bedroom floor then draw then line at a UPS

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spyboy70@reddit

And then wonder why they have tinnitus as well

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lemondrops9@reddit

😂 no kidding.

Seriously get an UPS people.

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Nnyan@reddit

What are you using? I have two rack mounted units and they are very quiet. All pcs in the house are also connected to little tower cyberpowers.

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DelKarasique@reddit

Humble 5090 paired with r9 9950x3d - 1200w psu + 30%margin and suddenly very few UPS are suitable for me. And most of them are for server racks.

I also invested into water cooling, so hate to buy loud ugly tower for my near silent PC :(

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lemondrops9@reddit

lots of options for desktops and they are very quiet.

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lemondrops9@reddit

Loud ?? wtf are you looking at.? I have 4 UPS the only time I hear them is when they daily test and when the power goes out. I disabled the beeping on them as well because its not hard to tell when the power is out.

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tomByrer@reddit

I wound up using 2 separate UPS: 1 for monitors, internet & old laptop, other for desktop & laptop.

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natermer@reddit

Put the GPUs and the UPS in a different room then yourself.

If you are spending many thousands of dollars on hardware that sucks up kilowatts of power then that is well beyond typical home use.

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Formal-Exam-8767@reddit

You need surge protection.

But usually people forget to also surge protect Ethernet cables so equipment gets fried through that.

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wind_dude@reddit

yea, I had some PSUs cook in a power surge from a windstorm when I was mining, had a cheaper surge protector in front. Now I always run quality UPS and surge protectors in front of all my computers.

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Robert__Sinclair@reddit

Don't listen to people suggesting a UPS (that is useful but for other things) all you need is a surge protected powerstrip or you can yourself put a varistor (cheap component) in parallel over the mains. In case of a lightning strike that flows into your mains, the varistor will absorb the excess power or just BLOW as a fuse.

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Robert__Sinclair@reddit

what eGPUs are you using for inferencing?

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Operation_Fluffy@reddit

UPSes can’t usually handle much excess power on a line and won’t generally keep you safe from electrical storms. They do fine with relatively minor fluctuations though.

I use surgeX surge protectors BEFORE my ups (and the rest of my rack) and it has saved me from many electrical storms, living in an area with a ton of storms that knocked out electronics on a yearly basis before investing in them. (These don’t operate in the same way as the common surge protectors and are fine to use inline with an ups.) They’re not cheap but they work really well and don’t degrade with age either.

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maxpayne07@reddit

You need several things: first, if a thunderstorm is real close, 1 or 2 km, shut down the power at your home, wait 15 minutes. Seriously. You will save a lot of money by not getting burned stuff. 2 -surge protecions , on power entrance ( at least 40 kV) and near sensitive equipment. 3- ground real good your electric system.4- good UPS with surge protection also . Picture is from a surge discharger, 40kv. I got after this one other small surge dischargers, 15 kv each, just in case something past from the first one. All must be ground connected, a good ground .

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sob727@reddit

My guess is you were actually inferring.

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natermer@reddit

grounding copper tape isn't going to do anything.

UPS is the most affordable protection you can have.

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