Need some advice on a UPS

[Interitus]

As title states, I'm looking into getting a UPS soon for my main PC. I have no idea what "VA" or amp rating I should be looking for or what features I would need. If anyone could help me out a bit here, it would be greatly appreciated.

I'm basically looking for power droop protection the most. My apartment has really quirky electrical issues so I'd like to make sure my PC is protected as much as it can be. Any tips on what should be on the UPS and what doesn't matter would be appreciated as well.

A few things to consider here:

1) This building is old and so is the wiring. I have 3-prong outlets in the office but they are NOT truly grounded. Pretty sure they're just grounded to the box. A circuit tester shows no true ground on these outlets. I know that this is limiting surge protection, but will a UPS function properly for droops? Honestly I have no options with this unless I run an extension from a grounded outlet which would be pretty ridiculous in length.

2) I'm really looking for something with logging capabilities so I can see how much the UPS has intervened. Im suspecting it will be a lot.

3) I'm not really needing to run the battery a long time, just enough to save and shut down and probably not even the save part, mostly just gaming, do work on a laptop.


And finally, relevant rig info and what will be powered in the room:


Canon All-in-One printer (figure surge is fine for this)
Linksys wifi router and Cable modem (a big reason for the UPS, i'm suspecting voltage droop is causing modem reboots)
20" Dell LCD (upgrading to 22" or 24" soon though)
5.1 speaker system for the PC (not a hardcore one, it's a budget level, maybe 150w)
Receiver for wireless KB/mouse

and my PC's specs:

Seasonic s12 600w PSU
Abit IP35 Pro MB
Intel e8400
2GB DDR2 (2.1v Crucial)
eVGA 8800GTS (G92)
SB Audigy 2 ZS
TV/FM tuner card
Seagate 320GB SATA2
Samsung 500GB SATA2


Thanks for any help!

 

[Elstupido]

When you say you have no true ground, does that mean you have no voltage between your hot wire and the ground with a voltage tester? You really do need a ground.

I have an APC 900VA I bought on sale at Office Depot a while back for around $80. It does a fantastic job when I have very brief power outages. I was surprised to see that my system only draws 125 watts at normal usage, and 180 watts under load. The unit is rated for 500 watts. As a general rule Divide the VA rating by 2 (or a bit less) to give you rating in watts.

 

[Interitus]

You'll have to excuse my terms, I'm a country boy and I get stuck on our lil hillbilly'isms sometimes

By no true ground I meant that the neutral isn't dumped to a grounding pole or the breaker box, it's basically a 2-prong outlet with the 3rd pin present. If I understand correctly how it's set up, the third pin is actually just screwed to the outlet box. I've heard from quite a few people that this really hinders a UPS' ability to dump excess current during a voltage spike (or even a surge protector for that matter) since there's basically nowhere for the excess to go.

Correct me if I'm wrong here, I'm the furthest from an electrician it gets, lol.

 

[Elstupido]

If the box is grounded, then the yoke (the metal part of the outlet) and part of the ground terminal on the plug, is screwed into the box, then the plug is grounded, through the outlet screw.

To get this up to code, we use what is called a self grounding outlet, which is basically a small metal clip on the outlet screw to give it good continuity from the grounded box to the yoke. In real life, if the screw is tight to the box, it should be no problem. If the screw to the box is loose, then there is a problem for proper grounding. In other words, a loose or incomplete termination.

 

[Interitus]

Well this outlet should be ok then.

Thanks for the help

 

[KaOTiK]

http://www.apc.com/tools/ups_selector/index.cfm

Go through the thing here inputting your system and wants and they will tell you which model you should be looking at. I only use APC myself, great products.

Personally for me, I have my cable modem, router, and external drives all plugged into their own smaller UPS. My 2 monitors and older PC that doesn't take much juice on another UPS, and my workstation on its own UPS.

Also have them in the living room for tv/ps3/360

 

[p1tin]

I don't want to get into much of electrical stuff you had stated: grounding, earthing etc etc.
I am in India and in a Metro City. I had lived in some houses with earthing not done properly (does'nt pose a great danger), occasional power droops, minor rare fluctuations, frequent power cuts are dailylife here.
I am protecting my PC with APC UPS which I have found reliable, rugged. I bought one 20 months ago--> still going solid with back up time= around 10minutes.
If your purpose of buying a UPS == basic protection from power droops, surges, having enough time to save data (during power outage) I recommend a 550-600VA UPS as I assume you are in USA ( i m using 500VA APC). It gives around 10-12 minutes backup with 17" CRT monitor.
I have assembled around 10-15 PCs for my friends, relatives over past 2 yrs...have seen local make UPS, APC, AEON (indian brand i think-pretty good), microtek, Zeon etc etc.
Winner is APC.
see here: http://apc.com/products/family/index.cfm?id=21

 

[vickmu]

The APC link was very helpful Ka0TiK. Thanks!

 

[Navid]

You have already got good advice to use the APC calculator to get an idea what model you need, and that APC is a good product.

With no Ground, a UPS will still protect your device against black-outs (loss of power) and brown-outs (lowered voltage on your power wires).
However, not having a correct Ground will jeopardize your safety and anyone else who comes to your apartment.

http://amasci.com/amateur/whygnd.html