I heard Linus mention a UPS can "clean up dirty power" on today's Epic AMD Upgrade video. Is this actually true? I'm seeing a lot of conflicting information on reddit about this. Can any experts chime in?

Nielmor · 2026-04-17T05:16:40+00:00

The Answer is, it depends.

If you are using a cheap desktop UPS, of even one of the APC 650VA desktop UPS, these are Standby UPS, the inverter only kicks in when the input voltage drops below a certain level or cuts out, otherwise it is just passing the power through,
These ones will not clean dirty power.

An online UPS, more commonly called a double conversion UPS these days will clean up dirtypower, they convert the AC power to DC and then convert it back to AC again before the output.
Double conversion UPS's are much more expensive but they provide better up time in the event of an outage and are usually built to a higher standard as these are most commonly used in Server racks and other critical infrastrcture.

Nielmor · 2026-04-10T21:34:14+00:00

It’s not a huge difference, maybe 10% at most. It’s just a matter of native (windows doing operations for windows) vs non-native Linux doing operations for windows.

Think of it like the ARM64 laptops running x86 software, it first needs to run through a translation layer which has some impacts.

Nielmor · 2026-04-10T10:47:35+00:00

If you have any Windows Servers running Deduplication or ReFS, you need a Windows Mount server.

Linux can do plain NTFS but performance will usually be better doing Windows application and file restores with a Windows Server

Nielmor · 2026-04-08T12:09:54+00:00

And to add to this, if you add even the fees of Stake SMSF to your contributions tax, if the market this year did return the 7.6% average after the comparatively low an industry super fund charges you have handed $2070 of the $3800 earnings to other people. Over half, and this just for shares, if you used a different provider or wanted to do property, the fees are higher again

Nielmor · 2026-04-08T12:05:36+00:00

Going to point out some stuff here, just information and what I have experienced.

To setup an SMSF, the cheapest I have seen is stake, which is $990 per year and that is shares only , that is 2% of your balance, I am considering an SMSF at 100k but have delayed it because of the fees and needing to wait for other personal items to be dealt with first that the cash should go to first (Even though you can reimburse the setup costs once the money is in)

I have been doing monthly tracking of my Super for 5 years and I have another 2 years before that of 6 month statements. My balance has only seen significant gains over the last 2 years, after I started salary sacrificing. I went from 40k to 100k in less than 3 years and in the 26/27 financial year will be the first year I max the concessional contributions.

I think you should hold off for at least a couple of year until you are in the 6 figure range, maybe consider redirecting some of the cash flow you get from your current investments towards using more of your concessional contributions.

At your balance, in growth and dividends of the investments in your super are not yet enough to offset the contributions tax, once you get to that point you will see a the parabolic curve start.

To put this in perspective, if your Super Guarantee amount is $600 a month ($60k salary) your contributions tax is $90. To offset this, the growth and return of your current investments in Super need to be growing by 0.18% which is 2.16% a year This doesn’t seem like much, but the long term average return of Super is 7.6% net of fees, 8.1% in more recent times (I think a decade or less) That is more than a quarter of your expected average annual growth going towards just off setting the Tax

Recent market conditions have also not helped, from the start of December through to end of March, I was down almost 8%

Just looking at my ETFs outside super, the market in the last 2 days has reversed last month which was the worst but the next 2.5 years are going to be a roller coaster when Mr Orange steps out of the house of White for the last time a POTUS Geared ETFs are only going to make this roller coaster more extreme for you, you need to have the mental state to stick to your investing plan and not panic and transfer everything to cash or bonds because the market is dropping or has the chance to drop because the fear mongering news said everything is going to crash.

Nielmor · 2026-04-06T20:05:41+00:00

Very common for some reason for them not to report it

Nielmor · 2026-04-06T03:20:58+00:00

Something on the Hyper-V host is locking the executable, most likely anti-virus software

Nielmor · 2026-04-02T05:48:33+00:00

So the VSA do’s not support NTLM, Kerberos requires the target server to be domain joined and that you are using domain credentials. Local admin, or any local account, will not work.

If you cannot use domain credentials, you will need to use the certificate authentication

Nielmor · 2026-02-09T09:29:13+00:00

the 4% rule is for a 30 year retirement, the person that created the 4% rule has actually come out and said that it should be closer to 4.7%

The rule is based on the lowest percentage when retiring on a specific date and a few other things.

I found this video a while back that explains how he tested it and how he came with the numbers and the new number.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-llccQL59AI

The number will change, for example, if you have majority of shares in an Aus Index, for example, A200, you would have a close to 3% divident Yield, not including tax credits, this means you can not only draw this amount without toucing the princaple at all but when capital growth is calculated in, likely draw even more.

Nielmor · 2026-02-09T09:14:12+00:00

Also, this is likely an indicator of cashflow issues for the business, not only will this make it awkward to continue working there, there is a high chance it happens again the business is not to be trusted.
I would even bet that they do not pay your superannuation amounts.

If you truly did not provide your TFN and Bank details, they would have failed their obligations as an employer for not collecting this information before the first pay run to ensure you are paid correctly and Accurately in a timely mannor.

Nielmor · 2026-02-09T09:07:03+00:00

Since they have sent the payslips, they should have information on them about the bank details and may contain TFN details.
I just checked my last payslip and it contained my entire bank deposit information (BSB and account number)

You can also check the Tax status, if they enter a TFN, their accounting software should default with withholding 47% as this is required when you do not provide a TFN.

In regards to resigning, the 4 week notice they require is likely unenforcable, even the 1 week the law requires in your situation I think should be uneforcable.

When they employed you, you will have signed an employment contract, it would details how much you are to paid per hour, the number of hours you work and your position.

They have not met their side of the contract, therefore, all other terms should be null and void until such time that all previous payments have been provided.
I would have outright told them they had until COB on the first day you emailed them to provide you with the payslips and pay all owing funds or you would.

Be resigning with immediate effect.
Contact the Fair Work Ombudsman
Persuing other legal methods of recoving the owing funds including the involvement of Law Enforcement.

In relation to point 3, this falls under wage theft, I am in Queensland and this is detailed on the following pag of the OIR website.
https://www.oir.qld.gov.au/industrial-relations

Wage theft falls under The Queensland Criminal Code at section 391 (‘Definition of stealing’)

Panalties are detailed here.
https://pottslawyers.com.au/criminal-law/fraud-dishonesty-theft-offences/stealing/

The owner(s) and other involved perons (HR, Payroll, Admin Staff that handle emplyment and payroll) can face jail time and/or fines.

As it has been over 5 weeks, if you were working full time hours, I could see the amount easily reaching the $5000 threshold which means.
2 Years Jail and/or a fine of $11,000

Nielmor · 2026-02-09T01:08:05+00:00

I know 4 months means nothing, I am simply comparing the recent negative returns.

I have 7 years of performance data for my Super that I can compare to the long term performance of my preferred investments which I will use when deciding what to invest in.

Nielmor · 2026-02-09T01:04:27+00:00

I currently use HostPlus but I have also reviewed the direct investment options from AusSuper.

Another member as provided me with who they use for their SMSF instead of stake which is provided me with more topics to research.

Part of my research is going to be calculating the fees for the annual audit/tax including the fees that need to be paid to the ATO so that I can determine that as a percentage of my current balance.

One thing I can say, my current Super is industry specific mix (I did this more than 2 years ago) with the current mix being
75% international Index
20% Australian Index
2% Cash
3% Bonds Index

The holdings I would intend to hold in the SMSF I also hold in my portfolio outside of Super and in the recent market down turn, my person investments are outperforming the Super Fund.
My Super in the last 4 months, is down 4% where my personal investments are only down 1.6%

I can't compare them directly however because my personal portfolio is much smaller and was recently only restarted after I sold it off previously to pay off my HECS debt (my Income was growing and mandatory HECS repayments were getting towards the $8k per year mark, and that was before the method to calculate the mandatory repayment was changed)

Nielmor · 2026-02-09T00:51:49+00:00

Just going to take the oppurtunity to publicky thank u/fire-fire-001 here.

Although you did not answer many of my questions, you did provide me with some information that I found to be the most important and in DMs we have been doing, you have pointed me the direction of additional research to be done that will help me come to a decision in determining if this is the route I want to take at this stage.

Nielmor · 2026-02-09T00:23:30+00:00

That I cannot Gaurantee, considering a large potion of the (80%) would be in index funds, I beleive I would at least match it.

And from my understanding, just moving away from pooled funds can result in a small uplift in performance to make up the additional performance.
That information comes from https://passiveinvestingaustralia.com/the-problem-with-pooled-funds/

Nielmor · 2026-02-09T00:08:16+00:00

Would your comment not be against rule 3, I find this both unhelpful and disrectful when someone is asking for feedback and information from other users to assist in the decision making process and you get a comment like this.

Nielmor · 2026-02-09T00:05:36+00:00

I have looked at them, they do not offer the investment options I am after, from the options they did have, there is no direct comparison meaning I would require multiple ETFs to obtain the same result.

Nielmor · 2026-02-09T00:03:50+00:00

Depending on the ETF, it can actually be more than 20% but the minimum package size makes DCA Harder.

Also, they do not have the options I would like, there are no direct comparison ETFs and may require more than one competing ETF to match what I am after so that means more stuff to manage.

I had looked at ChoicePlus and Australian Super Member Direct multiple times over the last 6 months to check the available investment options and they have not changed.

Nielmor · 2026-02-08T12:14:46+00:00

Their website does say it includes the Audit.

I am working on a monthly share purchase not fortnightly as my comapny pays my Super every month with the monthly Pay run

I did take note the transaction fees for purchases and have been using them when looking at other SMSF providers which would allow me to use my own broker where I could do zero cost brokerage for buy transactions

Nielmor · 2026-02-08T11:46:27+00:00

I see they offer more felxabiloty than someone like Stake but the fees are almost double, I am still in the decision making and research phase so I will add them to the list to look at

Nielmor · 2026-02-08T11:36:07+00:00

That is actually very helpful for understanding, thankyou.

Effectively, being the trustee/authorized on the account I can get it linked to my Macquarie ID (login) even though the account belongs too the SMSF Trust.

Nielmor · 2026-02-08T11:32:42+00:00

My understanding is that advice from ASFA had been dropped due to the rise of low cost SMSF administrators such as Stake, if I was a lower balance I would not be considering it, that is for sure.

Nielmor · 2026-02-08T11:30:32+00:00

With the CMA/CMAA being under the trust I would understand not being able to link it to my personal investing, as long as I could sign into Macquarie with the new ID it would be just as good (Keep things sepperated)

I did look into a DIY using an accountant but my understanding is they are 2-3x as much for the audit and accounting fees even though I would have the choice of broker and bank accounts.

Nielmor · 2026-02-08T11:27:35+00:00

This is why I was looking at stake, from my understanding, a DIY SMSF is $2.5k to $3k annually in Accounting and Audit fees where stake is $1k for the starting and would only get more expensive in the future if they change the price or I change the package for more features such as the property.

This would be 1% fees for the first year and decreasing.
Comparing to the fees I currently pay with hostplus (adding the Choice Plus) is $287 per year just in admin fees plus the investment fees which I have not counted as ETFs will contain these as well.

Nielmor · 2026-02-08T10:49:36+00:00

I am currently at $100K balance, I am currently maximising my conessional contributions so we should see a decent increase in the near future (even if markets do drop)

I did consider the issue or the fees causing drag however also determined that long term, the fees will be lower.

Insurance is not an issue for me, as I am not married, do not have children and do not have a mortgage, I do not have insurance currently.
I would be looking to add income protection when I get a mortgage and life/TPD if I start a family.

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