UPS for home pc? required or overkill?

[Urbanite]

Sorry if this is not the correct forum but I'm thinking about buying a UPS for the new machine I have just ordered. Now for Servers UPSs are a MUST but what about home PCs?

I mean you cant justify the cost of a UPS if you have some crappy £299 dell, but If you have spent £1200+ on components and spent a load of time getting everything running how you want, it seems a bit silly to run unnecessary risks.

So is a UPS for a home pc a worthwhile investment or just overkill?

[kalniel]

Depends what you're using it for. If you can afford for a power cut to occur when you're on the PC then you don't need one. If you're worried about components then a good surge protector is just as much protection - UPSs are so that you can continue working, not component protection.

[b0redom]

Overkill IMO, and I'm sitting in front of a 27" iMac, a T410 Thinkpad and a couple of servers. In the very unlikely event you get a power spike, I would expect the fuse to pop or at the very worst a bang from a PSU.

UPS is only really useful for power smoothing from a generator, or other really ropey power supply, and elegant shutdowns when the power goes out.

IMO of course.

[Urbanite]

Depends what you're using it for. If you can afford for a power cut to occur when you're on the PC then you don't need one. If you're worried about components then a good surge protector is just as much protection - UPSs are so that you can continue working, not component protection.

Yeah protection against surges is more important to me than battery backup, hence why I am thinking its overkill.

[Urbanite]

Overkill IMO, and I'm sitting in front of a 27" iMac, a T410 Thinkpad and a couple of servers. In the very unlikely event you get a power spike, I would expect the fuse to pop or at the very worst a bang from a PSU.

UPS is only really useful for power smoothing from a generator, or other really ropey power supply, and elegant shutdowns when the power goes out.

IMO of course.

The problem I have is I live in an area that has expanded rapidly with no change to the really old infrastructure. I mean there are several office blocks round here which are now a number of multi-bedroom flats, and I assume each person has there own TVs, Computers, Kettles, etc which increases the load on the power network.

We get flickering lights regularly, and I can remember chatting to the power engineer when we had our last major powercut who told me that everything needs to be upgraded, but it wont happen 'until things start breaking'.

[jim]

If your PC is cutting out every time the lights flicker, then I guess it would be a logical purchase. And you wouldn't need a very powerful one at all, just enough to hold on for a fraction of a second.

[smargh]

The last power cut I had, about a year ago, involved a "fuzzing" (of-on-off-on very quickly) for 10 seconds prior to a low voltage (~ 100V) supply for 30 mintes or so, then a complete outage. I can imagine that killing hard drives or power supplies. It destroyed a component in a boiler in a house a few doors down. My APC UPS coped perfectly.

FYI, a microwave can work on around 100V, but just spins very very slowly.

They're worth it for the reassurance. Just for kicks I might try an online UPS when I replace my APC Smart-UPS 1500 - perhaps a Dale E201: http://www.dale-online.co.uk/product...products_id=33

[GoNz0]

The last power cut I had, about a year ago, involved a "fuzzing" (of-on-off-on very quickly) for 10 seconds prior to a low voltage (~ 100V) supply for 30 mintes or so, then a complete outage. I can imagine that killing hard drives or power supplies. It destroyed a component in a boiler in a house a few doors down. My APC UPS coped perfectly.

FYI, a microwave can work on around 100V, but just spins very very slowly.

They're worth it for the reassurance. Just for kicks I might try an online UPS when I replace my APC Smart-UPS 1500 - perhaps a Dale E201: http://www.dale-online.co.uk/product...products_id=33

since my online ups blew and i went to the smart ups 2200 my leccy bills have dropped by 15%!!!

yeh it was good but total overkill in a household environment, the powerware9125 i had came out of sainsburys petrol station so i guess it had its use there

my ups is hardwired to the sockets in my PC room (i did the rewire when i got the house) and also runs the combi boiler so we can grab a shower if we wake up without electric and get off to work.

(that 3kva dales a great price!)

[peterb]

Good UPS is worthwhile as it will condition the power supply against brownouts, overvoltage and spikes as well as enabling a graceful shutdown in the event of a total power failure. However you need an on-line or line interactive UPS to get these benefits, and they cost more than off-line UPS. That said, they are still useful in protecting data. If you have a power failure before data has been committed to the disk, there is the risk of data loss/corruption, the risk depending on the type of file system your system is using.

I am not convinced about passive surge protectors. They are used industrially - they are not cheap! So how good are the inexpensive consumer types? Depending on the type they also degrade over time, as they absorb spikes. There effectiveness is hard to measure. I regard them with much the suspicion as Gold plated oxygen free power leads sold for some nebulous improvement in audiophile applications.

[GoNz0]

have you seen the price of those dale units peter ? they are on par with offline APC smarUPS !

wish i had seen that when i bought one

[peterb]

Yes, that is good! I am tempted!