Power Surge or UPS?

[ren3gade]

I run a high-dollar gaming PC here in my apartment. As well as another laptop, a modem, a wireless router, a nice TV, etc. I want to keep it protected against power surges, and lightning strikes as well. I'm currently just using some cheapo power strips.

1.) So my question is, should I use a high quality power surge protector or should I invent in a UPS?
2.) Do UPS's use electricity/will they up my electric bill at all?
3.) Which brand/which Power Surge or UPS?

Thanks guys.

 

[Lmah]

UPS is nice if you like to have time to save your work before losing power or disable write cache buffer flushing, a surge protector will suite you well if you don't need those extra seconds. I would probably look at APC's selections for both, we use their surge protectors on all our PCs at work and UPS (which is much bigger than a standard consumer UPS, it uses 64 batteries) for all our servers, everything they make is very reliable although they do have some quality control issues every once in awhile, though I've never ran into them.

 

[JackNaylorPE]

UPS provides power conditioning, batter backup and surge protection. A high dollar gaming PC will need 1500VA all by itself.

http://www.overclock.net/t/1452998/good-upses/10#post_21440989

 

[ren3gade]

UPS is nice if you like to have time to save your work before losing power or disable write cache buffer flushing, a surge protector will suite you well if you don't need those extra seconds. I would probably look at APC's selections for both, we use their surge protectors on all our PCs at work and UPS (which is much bigger than a standard consumer UPS, it uses 64 batteries) for all our servers, everything they make is very reliable although they do have some quality control issues every once in awhile, though I've never ran into them.

I think I will be purchasing a couple of these: http://www.amazon.com/APC-Performance-SurgeArrest-Splitter-Protection/dp/B0012YLTR6/ref=cm_cr_pr_product_top

Thanks

 

[JackNaylorPE]

I use something similar for non PC applications .... though gradually moving away from APC since the sale to Schneider, service and quality has gone downhill.

Might want to consider this type if you want ON / OFF control at your fingertips

http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Delectronics&field-keywords=Under%20Monitor%20Surge%20Protector