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Desktop emergency power source?



vinyl
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Submitted by vinyl on April 7, 2008 - 4:36pm.

The area I live in seems to suffer from prolonged power cuts through sheer incompetence on the power company's part. We had a blackout today for four hours, and my computer was on when the power went. When I eventually got to turn it back on, the primary disk was corrupted and stuck in an infinite boot loop, powering up and bsod'ing and restarting ad infinitum.

My brother came over to fix it by taking out the disk and hooking it up to his laptop and fixing the errors, and he mentioned something about a possible emergency power source for the desktop to give me enough time to shut down when the power cuts out.

So, any recs for me? I'm in the UK, and want to keep it cheap as possible. Am on a PC, custom-built.

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Isaac
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Re: Desktop emergency power source?
April 8, 2008 - 4:24am

do standby UPS systems actually offer any hardware protection? Or is it just data protection?



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Hot2na
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Re: Desktop emergency power source?
April 8, 2008 - 6:29am

yes! the UPS system provides battery backup for your home computers in case of power failure. they also protect your connected equipment from damaging surges and spikes that travel over utility and phone/fax lines.

during the monsoon season here, we shut the MACs down completely and break out the laptops and run off battery.

 

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Isaac
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Re: Desktop emergency power source?
April 9, 2008 - 2:52am

but a standby UPS system doesn't protect from surges any better then a standard surge protector. Actually, it uses the exact same mechanisms to do so. And though I know that the battery backup will kick in quick enough to protect data in most instances, I'm not sure if it will kick in quick enough to prevent hardware damage in all instances. rotary and inline UPS systems would provide execellent hardware protection, but also cost more.



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smartmom
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Re: Desktop emergency power source?
April 7, 2008 - 7:19pm

OH I live in FL where we have power surges all the time (and black outs). I can tell you that for me they are a must. Every PC in my house has them along with the plasma. I have ones that when the power goes out or surges doesn't screw up my electronics. What happens is it starts to beep so that you know you are on battery backup. I basically have 15 - 20 min. to shut down - plenty of time. You can get them at about any office supply store - I got mine at office depot - this is what I have:

APC™ Back-UPS ES 650VA Battery Backup, BE650G, 650VA/390 Watt

they do make cheaper models but since mine goes off alot I like having larger ones.  Plus I have my monitor and other items plugged into it. 

 

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Hot2na
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Re: Desktop emergency power source?
April 7, 2008 - 4:48pm

we use UPS systems (UPS = uninterrupted power supply) on all of ours.  anyone who uses this type of device will certainly be partial to one particular brand. just be thorough in your research.

 

Tuna ><((((*> the other white meat!

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vinyl
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Re: Desktop emergency power source?
April 7, 2008 - 5:02pm

Thank you, will check them out!



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Hot2na
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Re: Desktop emergency power source?
April 7, 2008 - 5:46pm

when i was a pc user, i lived by the pc magazine (bible)!

here is an article on the different types of UPS devices:

Different Type of UPS Systems

 

Tuna ><((((*> the other white meat!

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