question about battery back-ups...

Hello I got a question about those battery back-up blocks(the ones like APC make)

I ve got an old house so i figured it would help smooth out the voltages etc. so...

1. do you use them/and have they helped you (smoothing out the flow, help during brown outs, etc)

2. office max has an APC brand 500a for 39.99 after instant rebate and this seems like a good deal ...is it??? it has room for 3 slots of battery back-up and another 3 of just surge protection plus the stantard 3 ports for phone/fax/dsl (this deal ends saturday so any comments would be greatly appreciated)

3. i could really care less about the computing when the power goes out, all i care about is the voltage regulation/as i have a surge protector.

1) Very helpful in brownouts. It means the difference betweena total shutdown and smooth operation. In a blackout, it'll provide the opportunity for a nice shutdown, although most modern hard drives have auto-headpark features.

2) It really depends on your load requirements. Will you be powering a monitor on it? What kind of CPU do you have? Vid card? Etc. I personally use a 900va unit from conext (found it at CompUSA) which works quite well and provides a decent amount of up time.

3) Not all units will have AVR (automatic voltage regulation. Generally, you need a BackUPS Pro-type model to get it from APC. The Conext model I mentioned above has some rudimentary AVR.) Also, some UPS makers will require that you DON"T use an additional surge protector to fulfill their equipment / warranty guarantees.

I hope this helps. -- Paul

I got the APC 350 and it did help smooth out voltage a bit and it has also kicked in during brownout or power flickers.

I paid $40 for the 350 a few months ago so I would say the 500 for $40 is a good deal

Deez is right there -- for small flickers especially, the VA rating isn't so very important. I'm impressed that it does line regulation ... -- Paul

PS: Hey, deez! The PIII-S is working great!

thanks everyone for your replys, i really appreciate it( old house=old wiring so i was hopeing this would help.)

thanks again

Paul...The 350 I got is a BackUPS type unit (and the 500 should be) but I'm not sure it provides true line regulation. My theory is that it is simply a better quality surge protector than the cheap one i was using and that helped clean things up a bit

Paul...glad to hear its still working for you and I see you've got it at 156FSB too I got bored with my Tualatins and switched over to AMD last Dec. Now I just need one of those 2100's people have been talking about so much