An essential piece of hardware that you may not have
The thunderstorm season is in full swing where I live and I am very glad that I have an uninterruptible power supply (UPS) for my computer. The power has been flickering quite a bit but my PC has never noticed. Although many home PC users have surge protectors for their computers, far fewer have a UPS. Surge protectors guard against spikes in the line voltage but do nothing when the voltage suddenly drops or the power actually dies.
A UPS is basically a battery that steps in to provide power when the house current falters. They come in various sizes, depending on how long you want the battery to run if your electricity goes off, and what load you are putting on the battery. Critical facilities need big batteries so they can run for many minutes but the average home PC user only needs something that will run for five minutes or so while everything is being turned off. Most UPS systems have a USB connection that will let it turn off Windows automatically if the power goes down.
Important as it is to be able to turn your system off in an orderly fashion during a power failure, I think that the protection from intermittent drops or loss of the line voltage may be even more important. Even a short glitch in the power can cause loss of data or damage to a PC. I can’t imagine how many times my computer would have gotten zapped in the last few months if I didn’t have a UPS.
A UPS sufficient for most home users can be bought for around $40- $50. Buy one. It’s cheap insurance. APC and Tripp are two of the better-known manufacturers. Staples, CompUSA , etc. all carry them.