How important is a UPS - back up power?

J

Joab

I've just bought my most expensive rig to date and I have never used a UPS because I've never really understood what it does other then supply power in the event of a black out, which I really don't care about too much because I can pick up the phone and call my broker and close anything I need to in 30 seconds.

Is there any other "real" reason I should get one ?
 
Quote from Joab:

I've just bought my most expensive rig to date and I have never used a UPS because I've never really understood what it does other then supply power in the event of a black out, which I really don't care about too much because I can pick up the phone and call my broker and close anything I need to in 30 seconds.

Is there any other "real" reason I should get one ?
More...
Yes, a good one keeps your power from suffering hiccups like brown-outs and under/over-voltage situations which can really do a number on your PC.

Having your hard drive lose power while its updating critical data can really mess it up and take a long time to recover from (short of reformat/re-install).

Its cheap insurance. I have them on all of my PC's (and networking gear, and home theatre gear).

Even the low-end APC ones that go on sale for $25-$50 are better then nothing.
 
Has their working life improved? Seems I read before the battery lasts only a couple of years then the unit needs to be replaced. That right?
 
Quote from gnome:

Has their working life improved? Seems I read before the battery lasts only a couple of years then the unit needs to be replaced. That right?
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Yes, that seems to be a funciton of lead-acid battery technology (they only last 2-4 years). Not surprisingly if you keep them in a place that gets warm the battery life is greatly reduced.

I buy replacement UPS batteries off of ebay - they are much cheaper that way (even with the shipping)
 
Lightning was causing me some problems which the ups seemed to help. My ups has a replaceable battery, but it is nearly the cost of a new ups.
 
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