What UPS do I need?

[neowin]

Hi there,

Having alot of power failures lately.Am a home user. Want to buy a UPS have been reading alot of articles online and am becoming very confused.Didnt realize ups were so technical.Could somebody recommend a ups for me. Do i need online, offline, voltage regulation? Is the surge protection from a ups good enough?
110watt cpu max
19" Lcd monitor 50 watt.

David.

 

[fs483]

How long uptime do you want ? Don't bother plugging a laser printer into the UPS if you have one. Go to APC or any other UPS manufacturer and you'll probably find a UPS selector tool. If you need just enough time to do a clean shutdown (save documents and close your machine), then a simple 500VA sold is most computer stores will do fine. In North America running on 120VAC 60HZ with a standard 15A circuit, you go as big as 1500VA (SUA1500VA). These units are pricy but will give you at least 2 hours of uptime for a standard home computer. As an indicator, I have large servers (very power hungry) connected to 1500VA and they can last around 45 minutes.

 

[neowin]

hi,
just need enough time for a clean shut down. Was looking at the surge protection provided by UPS and they seem to be around 320joule is that enough protection? Was looking at belkin gold pro and they have automatic voltage regultion (AVR)built in.
the reason i posted here is that i emailed APC and they suggested a smart UPS sc400i i think. Costs about €200. thought this was an overkill as i,m a home user at this is aimed at retail/business. Not sure if AVR is built into APCs cheaper UPS, they seem to be standby types.