When I first started looking it was just for UPSs since I was just looking for something to get my computer shut down properly and save anything I may need to at times the power goes out. Some time we have to happen frequently in the spring and other years only 2-3 times a year so I guess it's not always that big of a deal, but still liked the idea of having one (I've recently moved to having a desktop pc vs just a laptop for the past decade or so and am not fond of not even having a few min to save stuff and shut down normally). I also seen some UPSs listing surge protection slots so then was more for getting one. I've never had anything noticeably damaged by such a thing, so it wasn't something I had even thought of getting, but most of my life/time is on my computers and the new one was expensive so adding another layer of protection sounded great.
Then I started reading about different brand of UPS and various things about them, got into reading several discussions people had and a lot of debates and now I'm just unsure of what I want. From everything I read it seemed like maybe the surge protection in the affordable range UPSs (<~300$ for me (are ones of that price range even worth while?)) weren't worth much and that if you wanted any protection there then you should just get a good surge protector strip or something along that line. Although a a hand full of things I ready made it see like plugging a UPS into a surge protector would would fine as a combo solution, a lot of other things I read made it seem like it's just a case where you have to choose of have either surge protection or the short time of backup power the UPS gives, hardware protection vs unsaved data, with no way to do both.
As I said, based on past experience I've been fine so far with out the surge protection and having a bit of remaining up time when power goes out has been the only seeming relevant concern for me, so I think maybe the UPS is still what should be looking at. But now after al that I'm a bit paranoid/over protective of my hardware and thinking well, maybe I can keep dealing with not having a few min of power to finish up and maybe I should just go full/only surge protector even if I may never need it just I don't ever have to find out the hard way that I did since the results of damaged hardware would be a way worse result than occasionally dealing with some unsaved data loss and improper shut down.
So what I'm now wondering is....
Is surge protection in UPSs of that price range really not worth much of anything?
Is combining them actually fine?
Is it really one or the other?
Any suggestions for brands/models of either UPS or surge protector for I have can have some good options to start with once I figure out the above questions and what I'm getting (currently have a pc with a 750W PSU though not used at full load as I left a lot of room for upgrades)?
Any other advice?
Then I started reading about different brand of UPS and various things about them, got into reading several discussions people had and a lot of debates and now I'm just unsure of what I want. From everything I read it seemed like maybe the surge protection in the affordable range UPSs (<~300$ for me (are ones of that price range even worth while?)) weren't worth much and that if you wanted any protection there then you should just get a good surge protector strip or something along that line. Although a a hand full of things I ready made it see like plugging a UPS into a surge protector would would fine as a combo solution, a lot of other things I read made it seem like it's just a case where you have to choose of have either surge protection or the short time of backup power the UPS gives, hardware protection vs unsaved data, with no way to do both.
As I said, based on past experience I've been fine so far with out the surge protection and having a bit of remaining up time when power goes out has been the only seeming relevant concern for me, so I think maybe the UPS is still what should be looking at. But now after al that I'm a bit paranoid/over protective of my hardware and thinking well, maybe I can keep dealing with not having a few min of power to finish up and maybe I should just go full/only surge protector even if I may never need it just I don't ever have to find out the hard way that I did since the results of damaged hardware would be a way worse result than occasionally dealing with some unsaved data loss and improper shut down.
So what I'm now wondering is....
Is surge protection in UPSs of that price range really not worth much of anything?
Is combining them actually fine?
Is it really one or the other?
Any suggestions for brands/models of either UPS or surge protector for I have can have some good options to start with once I figure out the above questions and what I'm getting (currently have a pc with a 750W PSU though not used at full load as I left a lot of room for upgrades)?
Any other advice?