Do I really need an UPS?

I leave my PC on 24/7, summer is coming up with a few thunderstorms of cause (last year we got a lot)...and possibly some blackouts as well.

I know that hardshutting Vista can corrupt the HDs and Vista itself, so maybe a UPS would solve this?



The UPS has an USB cable that tells Vista that it's on a battery backup...and Vista will automatically shutdown when the battery level gets low.

If you are afraid of that happening then get a UPS that will make the computer shut down normally unless you want one that will power it for hours on end which.... are very expensive

Yes, a UPS is the way to go if you have regular storms. I love the higher end APC units because they have true sine wave output, but step wave seems to be "sufficient" if you need cheap. Watch your VA rating though, the actual wattage it handles is lower.

For my overclocked Q6600 with a 560w power supply, I use a 900va APC unit. Works great. For my 42in LCD tv, digital cable box and HTPC, I use a 1000va smart-ups unit. That dude is pure BEEF, it's heavy as hell. My wife's computer has a 900va unit like mine, and the fileserver, since it only has a celeron D, uses a 500va unit. My cable modem has a little 350va to keep me online, and my routers piggyback off the 500va for the fileserver.

This way I have the peace of mind concerning a clean shutdown, and I don't have to worry about lightning as much either

quadcore86 said:

I leave my PC on 24/7, summer is coming up with a few thunderstorms of cause (last year we got a lot)...and possibly some blackouts as well.

I know that hardshutting Vista can corrupt the HDs and Vista itself, so maybe a UPS would solve this?

Click to expand...

That's one thing that a UPS does, keeps your PC going when the power goes out. A quality UPS will also prevent damage due to surges, brownouts and spikes. A unit with AVR, or Automatic Voltage Regulation will ensure that the voltage going into your PC remains constant regardless of line voltage, a very desirable feature.

APC and Cyberpower both make quality UPS units with AVR; the Cyberpower AVR series is an excellent value. Of course, if you really want to go all out, you could get one of these.

quadcore86 said:

The UPS has an USB cable that tells Vista that it's on a battery backup...and Vista will automatically shutdown when the battery level gets low.

Click to expand...

Virtually all modern UPS units have a USB link for system software interface. You can use the built-in Vista software, or if you choose a Cyberpower unit, you can use the Cyberpower Power Panel Plus software, which provides a wealth of information and logs all events in addition to handling shutdowns based on user-entered values.

hafa said:

if you really want to go all out, you could get one of these.

Click to expand...

WOW, imagine the EMF output of that! If you took a Gauss meter to measure it, it would probably say "error" lol.