UPS Recommendations and questions

[AssaTM]

Hi all, sorry if this is in the wrong forum, but since it's power related I thought i'd ask in here, if not could someone kindly move it please thank you

I have come to the realisation like a lot of people do when they spend a lot on hardware that perhaps a regular socket/extension isnt adequate protection for my PC (Especially if the electric runs out if I dont hear it beep ) so I think a UPS that can give me enough time to safely shut down the PC would be a good investment

Now my questions are, is a UPS better at protecting from surges etc than a regular plug socket extension unit (I'm guessing yes of course but in what ways? what is the extra benefit)

and also I have a 1200w PSU so i'd need a UPS that would have enough juice to keep it powered for long enough for me to safely shut it down in the event the power goes out etc, it doesnt need to be flashy at all, just to serve it's purpose and to offer that kind of protection

Any recommendations and advice would be greatly appreciated, thank you!

 

[Rroff]

Bare in mind that in terms of protection from things like local lightning strikes there is a limit to what protection a UPS can offer unless its really high end stuff - a UPS is better than nothing but not a guarantee and you'd also have to make sure other paths are isolated such as LAN connections, etc. against other conditions like loss of power or moderate voltage spikes/drops they offer good protection.

The UPS rating will need to stand upto the peak current draw of the PC not the PSU max rating to provide seamless failover which would typically be around 500 watt or so for an average gaming system and potentially a lot more if you have like SLI graphic cards and so on.

I usually go with APC as they are pretty tried and tested but I've found lately a lot of their more basic models don't seem to survive transit so well - doesn't seem to take much knocking around to cause them to fail.

Most UPS come with a USB interface that can be used to automatically shut down connected devices that support it (i.e. a PC with the appropriate software) after the mains power has been out for more than X minutes.