Suggestions for a UPC for PC

[Crusader]

Wondering if anyone could recommend either an APC or Trip Lite UPC . I would be having the PC , Cable Modem , Router(Wireless) , monitor , on it . I read an article that recommends you do not put your printer on the backup battery because it pulls a lot of power . At the first sign of a storm I usually the PC , TV and other electronic gear off anyway but would like to have a little protection ,

Rich

[Tako_Kichi]

I have been running a pair of APC ES550 units for about 18 months now and they have saved both me and my wife a couple of times when the power has kicked out. They do what they say on the box and we have been very pleased with them so far.

[Crusader]

I have been running a pair of APC ES550 units for about 18 months now and they have saved both me and my wife a couple of times when the power has kicked out. They do what they say on the box and we have been very pleased with them so far.

Thanks for the reply . I wrote the models down you stated and I'll check it out .

Rich

[Tako_Kichi]

The units have eight outlets, four are on the battery back-up side and four are not. All are surge protected as are connections for phone lines.

I run my main PC tower, primary monitor, powered USB hub and a halogen desk lamp (so that I can have light if the power goes off at night) off the battery back-up side. The other side carries my second monitor, my old PC tower (I use that as a file server/file back-up storage) and the powered 2.1 desk speakers. That leaves me one outlet to use as and when required but lately it's getting used a lot to charge my Blackberry Playbook.

The battery is replaceable and simply slides out of a door, no dismantling of the unit is necessary nor do you have to return the unit for a battery replacement like some other brands out there. The UPS connects to the PC via a USB cable so that you can monitor the battery status and it will alert you to any issues. I just checked my status and I can currently run my connected equipment for an estimated 12 minutes on battery power.

[srgalahad]

Wondering if anyone could recommend either an APC or Trip Lite UPC . I would be having the PC , Cable Modem , Router(Wireless) , monitor , on it . I read an article that recommends you do not put your printer on the backup battery because it pulls a lot of power .
Rich

As most UPS have two "sides", the normal plan is to have only operating equipment plugged into the "Battery backup" side as those are the ones that either need to continue running or properly shut down. Other equipment should be connected to the "Protected, no battery" side. Most people think of lightning as the main culprit, but most rural and urban power systems have their ups-and-downs ( poles getting hit by cars, careless digging, etc.). Yes, a total power failure is a PITA but the other concerns are drops in voltage (maybe even not noticed) and 'surges'. A UPS almost universally will provide power "conditioning" to dampen the effects of these small deviations and you also get the bonus of buying time to save data and shut down the CPU. Many of the new ones also have auto-save-shutdown software that you can install which will be triggered by the UPS in the event of a power failure.

At the first sign of a storm I usually the PC , TV and other electronic gear off anyway but would like to have a little protection

In fact, turning stuff off, while a good idea in general, does not protect it from external large surges such as lightning. With all the connections (power, cable, phone) coming into a house that are often routed through a couple of locations, a discharge of that magnitude can enter the house and find it's own way to any connected equipment. Two options: get a UPS that has protected connections for a phone line, LAN and Cable (depending on your computer wiring); unplug everything.

Like anything else, you get what you pay for.

[Tako_Kichi]

I will agree with unplugging things during thunderstorms but let me give you a little word of caution.

I live in the thunderstorm capital of Canada, we get more 'thunderstorm days' per year than anywhere else and we can get several severe thunderstorms on any particular thunderstorm day. In the past 12-15 years I have had electrical/electronic equipment fried at least four times and on one occasion it literally blew capacitors off their bases in one computer power supply. After that event I always unplugged the computer equipment including towers, monitors, router and DSL modem at the first rumble of approaching thunder.

However, the last time I got hit (before getting the UPS devices) I had unplugged everything in terms of power leads as usual but I still got blasted! The lightning hit a phone distribution box at the corner of the street and came surging up the phone lines for the entire street! I had three out of four phones fried plus the phone company's DSL modem. Unfortunately the damage didn't stop there, the surge passed through the modem and into the ethernet cables connected to it and took out the ethernet section on one computer motherboard and a plug-in ethernet card on a second computer!

Even though I had disconnected all the power leads from the wall I still got hit thanks to the phone line connection to the DSL modem! You can bet I always unplugged the phone line from the modem after that episode!