Do you use an UPS (Uninterruptible power supply) for your computer setup?

If I had the money to spare, I would.

Value depends a lot on how much you depend on the computer. If all you ever do is check email once a week, it's probably not worth it. If you're running critical software for a business, it's probably a good thing.

As a college student who lost half an essay to a short blackout, I kinda wish I had one. And had saved more often.

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Yep. Considering that the genius powerco engineers have the transformers at the local substation loaded to and beyond capacity, my UPS has saved my machine from a number of flickers and short outages during storms as well.

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I have one for each of my two computers, complete with power conditioning. It is definitely worth it.

I learned the hard way that the most dangerous route for lightning to zap the computer, is the telephone line. My Tandy 2000 got it twice that way and no UPS, along with 2 destroyed modems. The 2000 is long gone.

Even so, for severe Lightning storms, disconnect everything from wall, phone line, and/or cable/dsl.

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yes i use one, in fact i have two. one for my pc and one for my wifes pc. They are very much worth it. It can save you some money in the long run by not having to buy burned out parts. My area went through a period where there were daily outtages and it cost me a motherboard and powersupply. The ups software can shut down your pc safely when power stays out too long.

It also gives your pc a nice power signal. It cleans up the electricity coming out of your outlet to give your pc a stable and steady flow of electricity. It protects from brownouts and those dips when things like the air conditioner kicks on.

The bottom line is it can save your 'puter from a world of problems. Especially if you just bought a $300 video card and it bombs out from a power outtage. so yeah, it's worth it.

However, make sure you do your research on them. On the box it will say "30 MINUTES OF BACKUP TIME", yeah, only if you have a laptop plugged in. If you have a powersupply over 500w you'll probably be spending over $100 for a ups.

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Here in Germany i don't need one(No black out in 10 years), but when i lived in Canada a few months ago a UPS would have been great. In Montreal we had around 10-15 black outs in just one winter...
In the end, i exclusively used my notebook for any important work. For my desktop i bought a high voltage/high current-fuse for 15C$ to protect it from lightning.

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(No black out in 10 years)

Can you come zap the people at my power company?

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I think the problem is the power supply grid. I saw so many rotten wood-posts standing around in unsave-looking angles with dozens of carelessly attached mid-voltage cables...
The one in front of my window in Montreal made terrifying noises when the wind blowed.
I never parked my car in front of it

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Regulations kill. The usual standard is that the power company will be allowed to charge enough to meet a certain percentage in profit. Since they don't gain anything by having a better product or avoiding high maintenance periods where they get to spend two weeks replacing downed poles in a big storm, they don't bother.

Regardless, a UPS is most definitely worth it. Even in Germany, power fluctuations are going to be an issue. Perfect load balancing is simply impossible, every time you flip an appliance on or off, the power fluctuates. It doesn't bother most things, but computers are tight enough on the specifications that even slight ones can cause an issue in the right circumstances. A very nice power supply will help with those, but I doubt many of you buy $200 versions. For 50-60 bucks a year you can protect a $1-2k machine from any major oopses and guard against data corruption and other annoyances from the minor oopses.

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Jafo

Join Date 03/2001

+1831

Do you use an UPS (Uninterruptible power supply) for your computer setup? And do you think it's worth it/does it work?

Yes....and yes....and yes.

Mine has kicked-in 3 times in the past few months...2 ELCB trips and a blackout. The first two went uninterrupted...and the blackout allowed a controlled [normal] shutdown. [Power was out for about an hour]...

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One guy on a forum said that his UPS (the white thing that all the cables are connected to I think) cleaned the electricity so his speakers weren't buzzing anymore. Can that be true? I'm thinking of buying one then.

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I have a small UPS connected. It does not have shutdown software, and is just enough to let me shut it down. Couldn't afford anything larger at the time, but power outages are very rare here.
Short interruptions are what I am most concerned with.

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One guy on a forum said that his UPS (the white thing that all the cables are connected to I think) cleaned the electricity so his speakers weren't buzzing anymore. Can that be true? I'm thinking of buying one then.

That sounds like a simple surge protector, not a UPS.

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I use one for my rig. It's kicked in a couple times when there were some brown-outs and it's allowed me a clean shut down during one black out so far. Well worth the investment.

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3 times in the past few months?

I weep! Mine kicks in more than that each day. Loads drop to inadequate levels on a regular basis, when the AC starts up there's a guaranteed drop.

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That sounds like a simple surge protector, not a UPS.

Aaah that's it. Thanks

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I have one, but it was dropped recently, and the power supply is no longer uninterruptable.

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yes and definitely worth having.

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Do you use an UPS (Uninterruptible power supply) for your computer setup? And do you think it's worth it/does it work?
Yes....and yes....and yes.
Mine has kicked-in 3 times in the past few months...2 ELCB trips and a blackout. The first two went uninterrupted...and the blackout allowed a controlled [normal] shutdown. [Power was out for about an hour]...

Must - not - agree with JAFO . . .

Okay, except when he's completely right- UPS's are definitely worthwhile -{G}

Jonnan

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Do you use an UPS (Uninterruptible power supply) for your computer setup? And do you think it's worth it/does it work?

Wouldn't even turn a 'puter on without one....

Aside for Jaf......I don't think that "blackout" was your computer.....

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Mistralok1

Join Date 05/2006

+22

My computer went down twice last year, due to lightning strikes. The first took a motherboard, the second, a hard drive, even through a surge protector. You bet I own one. I live in the countryside, and the Laurel and Hardy Electrical Company we use gives rather spotty service. The power goes down for some period of time about every two weeks. You can't believe how tired I am of resetting clocks. The storm season has been worse than ever this year; a tornado touched down less than a quarter of a mile away. Through all of that my ups held up like a trooper, with nary a glitch.

Buy one. Really. It is some of the best money you can spend on your rig.

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Yep, I consider it essential.

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Philocthetes

Join Date 10/2003

+153

I live in North Central Florida, lightning capital of the world. Our local, publicly-owned utility is way more stable than it was when I started computing back in the 8088 days, but I still love my UPS *lots*.

Plus, a good UPS is like a good monitor--should get you through at least two CPUs, maybe more.

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My USP's are portable. Actually, they are not USP's but batteries cause I have 2 laptops. I use them connected while at home and already had one power outage due to a store and only my laptops were one in the house.

I did however use one before and it came in handy many times. I also use power surge protectors (good ones) just in case. I remember I had a TV connected to one once and had my light disconnected due to not paying the bill. We didn't figure it out at first since the TV was still working when the power went off, but the heat from lack of air and the TV eventually powering off gave us the hint.

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Lantec

Join Date 07/2003

+346

One guy on a forum said that his UPS (the white thing that all the cables are connected to I think) cleaned the electricity so his speakers weren't buzzing anymore. Can that be true? I'm thinking of buying one then.

That sounds like a simple surge protector, not a UPS.

Could be a power conditioner/ups

Yes, several...Yes they are worth it and they work.

First time you DON'T lose a couple hours of work due to a power flicker, you make your money back.

I live in North Central Florida, lightning capital of the world

me too....I believe we're just the lightning capital of the US.....I read somewhere there's a place in Africa that beats us out.....barely

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First time you DON'T lose a couple hours of work due to a power flicker, you make your money back.

Try saving your work every once in awhile.

I use a surge protector but no UPS. But then I also have an inline switch on the power supply cord that I throw once I've powered down my PC to *really* cut the power to it.

I hate those annoying leds that stay on all night and I've mostly cut them out (motherboard, power supply, disk drive led, even fans for god's sake, etc) but the one in the ethernet connector is built-in and I didn't want to risk munging the connector.

Occasionally if the PC gets hung up on a power up or down I have the switch available to perform what I call a "red button reset". The power switch used to be red and actually used to physically cut AC power to the unit as opposed to simply being a "power off request" button.

Throwing the switch while the PC is on can cause write back disk data to be lost and possibly munge some data on the drive but usually chkdsk (or the equivilent Dr. Watson) can fix up the lost clusters and if not you can just mark them as bad and get on with your life.

I believe that periodically pulling the PC power cord out of the wall "builds character" and shows your PC who's boss. Real men aren't afraid to simply pull the plug.

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