do you have a UPS?

[Rakehellion]

if so, what's plugged into it?

I actually don't worry about my computer too much, since it's rare for me to be on my desktop doing anything other than playing video games or surfing the net... I did just buy a UPS, though.

planning on hooking it up to my DVR and NAS array, both of which are in my living room. not that either are super important, but I live in an old house and all the outlets in my living room are wired up to be turned off/on via the light switch.

I know well enough myself not to hit the switch, but it seems like at least once/month, one of my friends or a contractor or someone accidentally hits the switch. I'm thinking that all that crashing can't be good for the spinning disks.

thinking about buying a second one too just to use for charging my cellphone in an emergency (ie: if we have another Sandy and power goes out for a week), but I'm still debating with my paranoia.

Wouldn't it be easier just to remove the switch from the wall? Or at least tape it down.

 

[Pardus]

A ups is good for areas where there is a lot of power disruption, however, like others have said, the main reason for getting a ups is that whatever your working on doesn't get lost, really only an issue for a business, not your average consumer.

The CyberPower CP1500AVRLCD is one of the the best ups imho, they do cost $130, however, the more you plug into it, the less time you will have to shut down your pc/save your work. The alternative is to get a heavy duty power protector, something like the Belkin Pivot-Plug Surge Protector which offers 4320 Joules and Belkin Lifetime Warranty and $300,000 Connected Equipment Warranty.

I have 2 of these that protect my pc's, monitors, printers, router, modem, phone, tv and cable box...to date never lost any hardware due to spikes, surges in the line.

http://www.amazon.com/BELKIN-BP11223...dp/B000JE9LD4/

If you regularly backup your data to a offline hard drive or some other form of cloud based backup, you should be fine and when there are t-storms, shut down your pc. If your house is hit directly by lightning, chances are nothing will stop it.

 

[arch113]

I have 2, one for the server & network gear and one of the media (dvr, networking equip, tv, etc)

New batteries should be here for the server one today. The media one should need new batteries too, but it hasn't 'complained' yet

 

[who?]

Do modern HDDs have the ability to autopark the head after a power failure to avoid disk damage or do you need a UPS to give you time for a proper shutdown?

 

[rsutoratosu]

I have like 20 ups in the house... basically when my last place went out of business they were going to throw them away.. i pull the batteries and took the empty ups home and pick up new batteries.

Almost everything is plugged in.. alarm, xbox, ps3, pc, tv, vcr, dvd, , chargers are plug into the surge only side of the ups

I have a whole house surger protection wired at the breakers..

 

[JBT]

Had one with my main PC, monitor and then networking gear. I would usually just shut down the PC and monitor, then my wifi, and phone were good for awhile if the outage lasted.

It started CAUSING my desktop to restart so I got rid of it. Now I have nothing.

 

[ViviTheMage]

I have one for my server at home ... runs all my NAS disks, if there is a power outage, it will run about 45~ minutes or so, then tell the server to shut down gracefully if the power doesn't come back on.

 

[Nintendesert]

A ups is good for areas where there is a lot of power disruption, however, like others have said, the main reason for getting a ups is that whatever your working on doesn't get lost, really only an issue for a business, not your average consumer.

The CyberPower CP1500AVRLCD is one of the the best ups imho, they do cost $130, however, the more you plug into it, the less time you will have to shut down your pc/save your work. The alternative is to get a heavy duty power protector, something like the Belkin Pivot-Plug Surge Protector which offers 4320 Joules and Belkin Lifetime Warranty and $300,000 Connected Equipment Warranty.

I have 2 of these that protect my pc's, monitors, printers, router, modem, phone, tv and cable box...to date never lost any hardware due to spikes, surges in the line.

http://www.amazon.com/BELKIN-BP11223...dp/B000JE9LD4/

If you regularly backup your data to a offline hard drive or some other form of cloud based backup, you should be fine and when there are t-storms, shut down your pc. If your house is hit directly by lightning, chances are nothing will stop it.

UPS are good for more than just computing. Like others I use it for my projector, having the power go out and the fans shutdown before the unit cools could be problematic and cause damage.

I wish I had them wired up to every clock too, I hate the short power outages that cause me to reset every clock in the house.

What I really want is a backup generator though!

 

[JulesMaximus]

Nope. Complete waste of money IMO.

 

[ControlD]

I have one for my file/media server. It will automatically do a graceful shutdown if the power goes out and the battery gets to 25% or less (which isn't uncommon around here). That saves me from having to rebuild my parity on the next power-up which takes 8 hours or so. That makes it well worth the small investment to me.

 

[jaqie]

I have an APC lineR 1250 plugged into the wall, it's a stepped voltage corrector line conditioner combo for up to 1250w of stuff. All my electronics in my comp room are plugged in through at least that.

From there, I have an APC Back-UPS NS 1050 which powers my mini file server (core2 duo 2.33ghz mini itx with 3 hdds) and my main pc (right now a q9650 with hd6850). No monitors go through the UPS, the computers are set to hibernate when the batt reaches 50%.

My notebook (turion64 x2 1.9ghz) I use for chat is on 24/7, and has it's own battery which again is plugged through it's power brick into the lineR 1250.

Other things in my house such as my classic gaming consoles (everything from an atari 2600 and magnavox oddysey 2 to an xbox original and playstation 2 fat) go through an APC surge arrest circa 1998 or so, before they started making cheap ones.

 

[KaOTiK]

Have them on my 2 computers and on my consoles/tv. Our power flicks a fair bit due to so many nasty thunderstorms we get. I work on my pc so that time to be able to save stuff is vital. Doesn't hurt to have some extra power for when a hurricane rolls through even if I do have a generator.

 

[Aikouka]

Yes, I have... five UPSs I think? I use one at each TV because there's a HTPC on each. I have three in my computer room. There's one on my desktop, one on my server, and a smaller one that only powers the cable modem and router. I decided to try out the newer CyberPower pure sine wave models recently, and they seem to work fine. Although, from what I read, they're not so much of a pure sine wave, but more like a very, very finely-stepped wave that's "close enough."

 

[Scarpozzi]

I'm tempted to get one for my gas tankless water heater. I just don't know how long it'd last in standby mode.

 

[JamesV]

Yes. I've used an UPS for every build I've made for the past ten or so years.

It's buying insurance for your PC, and that two seconds or half hour of runtime when the lights go out (which they do here often, sometimes for only a couple of seconds) are priceless.

If there ever is a huge surge, or issue with my hardware after an electricity failure that the UPS failed to stop, I get a free new computer. The UPS also has many power saving features, which they claim pays for it entirely and more, which I can attest to from comparing electric bills.

Sams club had my latest UPS on sale for $119; a 740 Watt backup with a nice little LED screen and kind of standing Xbox shape. Worth every penny.

 

[Zargon]

I have........5 or 6

a couple 1kw+ ups's. one for server and network rack, one for my main machine, one for my HT setup

smaller ones for the DVR's at each tv to save the discs from being fubared during storms

one smaller one on the HTPC, wifes computer, my spare computer



last thing I need is my raid array crashing because of a power blip

 

[CDC Mail Guy]

I need a new battery replacement for mine, but I just have my DirecTV DVR and my router into it. Would probably be easier to buy a new one instead of just a battery

 

[jaqie]

I need a new battery replacement for mine, but I just have my DirecTV DVR and my router into it. Would probably be easier to buy a new one instead of just a battery

www.refurbups.com

 

[Imp]

Thought about getting one a few months back, then realized that I didn't want to deal with the battery maintenance (yes, once every few years still counts as "maintenance".

Instead, I bought a bunch of overpriced Tripp Lite surge protectors. They're supposed to be the best!

 

[BUTCH1]

No, and wrong forum..

 

[nageov3t]

No, and wrong forum..

I disagree

 

[OGOC]

I think UPS are mainly important for quick power surges during storms and things. Those little one-second outages/surges that can make your computer reset. They're not intended to let you keep using your PC for 30+ minutes, though the bigger ones can.

 

[KlokWyze]

No

UPS are a waste and in general are there to give you time to save your work and shutdown.

They are NOT a power source like people think.

They also have a very high rate of failure and are very expensive.

When there is a need, use your car for charging.

:thumbsup:

By tonnage, UPS make for the largest amount of scrap/waste by far. Modern OS's have auto save features built in, a lot of stuff is done on the cloud, most computers contain batteries now, etc., etc. Quality UPS's are very expensive as well.

Also, I heard that UPS's actually pull/waste more power than if you had your PSU alone. Some as much as double than the power draw of your backed up components.

I think they are best just serving the data center environment to keep everything online until the gennies kick in. Everyone is replacing those heavy, faulty, wasteful batteries with smaller footprint flywheels.

 

[Engineer]

Didn't have a UPS for years until last month. Picked up 2 of the APC 450VA units for $20.xx each on a deal from SlickDeals. Good enough for what I'm using them for.

 

[tynopik]

never had one and never had a computer break on me because of this.

consider yourself lucky

during some power dips my power supply blew and took the motherboard, cpu and 3 hard drives with it

so so so not worth it

granted the crappy quality of the power supply might have contributed, but it's always a ups for me now.