After my PC was killed by a blackout last night (or at least, a component has been, can’t figure out which bit yet!), UPS’s are suddenly on my mind… just wondering how many people actually use one for home PC usage? And if so, what one?

Do you need a full UPS or just a power surge protector? UPS will give you enough time for a safe shut down – which is a lot of capability and cost for a home computer.

Well, I have a surge protector (a Belkin Surgemaster powerboard), but it didn’t seem to stop my PC being killed last night 🙁

Got an APC UPS attached to my NAS. Works well and keeps the NAS (and my ADSL router) running during power cuts.

Im rather glad Im not that dependent on my computer / internet at home.

I’ve got an APS Smart-UPS 1400 attached to a projector as they really don’t enjoy having the power cut when the bulb is hot. Got it cheap (2nd hand) on ebay. Seems to do the job (tested it with other stuff, not the projector).

Only one desktop PC, our oldest and least used of 3. Laptops with the battery are UPS of a sort. Might be nice to keep interweb going a few minutes to finish stuff off in a power cut though. Oh and an old fashioned phone with a cord to the wall is handy as DECT stuff doesn’t work either.

When my mum worked as a journo she had one, invaluable in my opinion. I’d have one too if I could get one cheaply (in Eire). My mate bought a few from ebay/amazon 2nd-hand and was happy with them. heavy means larger capacity IIRC. Heavy as hell – lock your bike to it.

All of my machines are laptops so don’t bother, do have everything going through a surge protector though!

I have a Belkin 1200 here. Powers my main server (that runs a bunch of VM’s), ADSL router, GB switch & a monitor that’s normally off. It’ll power that lot for about 20 minutes. If power isn’t restored by the time power on the UPS hits 20% a script on the hypervisor gracefully shuts down the VM’s before shutting itself down.

Workstation, other PC’s, printer etc are on a surge protector.

I just use surge protector … hmmm … might invest in those UPS.

Used to use one on my HiFi, cleaned up the sound no end.

I’ve got 2 APC in my office (at home), a big rackmount one which keeps the servers running for about 40 mins and a smaller one for the network switches, router and a web server.
APC are good stuff. If buying make sure you get one with a usb port in the back – your pc will then get told by the UPS that it’s running low on power and the pc will shut itself down nicely (if you’ve set it up to do so anyway)

I’ve got a couple as well, one that runs the NAS (x2) and one for the stereo gear. Quite sad that I have more vlans on my network than rooms in my house !

one NAS for family one NAS for porn perchance? you don’t live near a school do you? 😀

One NAS for music (FLAC on a 2x2tb Raid-1)
One NAS (2x1tb Raid-1) for backups of p0rn , wifes pictures (she does phtography) and general file storage.
So cheap now.

My wife…unstoppable. perpetual motion could learn a thing or 2 from here…can’t get a word in edgeways…uninterruptable indeed.

Just take care with second hand ones. Lots of energy stored so potential fire source if the charging goes wrong. But lots in use so I’m sure they’re well designed etc.

Component death won’t have been caused by a black out (any more than switching it off would have caused it), if your surge protector is properly functioning good quality one then it would have died anyway ,only in “mysterious” circumstances.

UPS only really brings extended off-grid run-time to the table, pointless for most home PCs.

We get ded short power cuts round here – few seconds, but several per week

Buggers up all the clocks on machines etc & I have to go round resetting

How big a UPS to run a house for 20 seconds ?? 😉

Not particularly large, most smallish UPS’s would do the trick fairly happily to be honest. (Though wiring it in would be a bit more of a trick).

Component death won’t have been caused by a black out (any more than switching it off would have caused it)

I had a Network switch that died a few weeks ago when it was switched off (and yes it plugged into a UPS).

Not particularly large, most smallish UPS’s would do the trick fairly happily to be honest.

Apart from the oven!

my PSU prevents surge damage. But then it ought to at that price!

Apart from the oven!

🙂 Or the electric shower. But the point stands!

Not the topic I thought it would be, was going to say I used to have a 2-cylinder Lister diesel generator that was uninterruptible, as long as I kept it in diesel anyway, no mains connections in that place.

I just use a laptop 😀