Should you have a UPS for your computer?

 

APC Computer UPS
APC Computer UPS

Should you have a UPS for your computer?  Absolutely!

The obvious reason is that it will provide power to your system when the power goes out, but what are the other reasons or benefits?

A stand by UPS places a battery between the equipment that is plugged into it, and the power grid.  This battery and associated circuits can also monitoring the incoming power, and correct some issues with it like power blips, making for a cleaner and more stable power supply for your PC and other equipment.

A Standby UPS
A Standby UPS
Stand By UPS image by Dale Mahalko, Gilman, WI, USA -- Email: dmahalko@gmail.com

This is often referred to as regulation and smoothing.  Most UPS’s will also indicate issues with grounding or polarity at the outlet.

Some PC’s have a performance enhancing option called write behind cache to can be enabled to improve storage speed.  In order to do this, data is held in memory on the PC and were a power failure to occur with the option enabled, there is a risk of data loss and corruption.  On my system this option was OFF by default and there was a warning NOT to use it unless the computer was connected to a UPS system.

If your cable modem and router/wireless access point are located with your PC, you should also plug them into the UPS.  What use is a PC that stays on if your internet access goes out?

Smaller UPS
Smaller UPS

If your cable modem and other stuff are in a different location, there are smaller UPS options that are a good fit.  These devices will also benefit from a cleaner source of power and protection from bad power.  Some of those times you had to reset that equipment because it was acting up might have been after power blips.

I live in Florida and it’s unusual for the power to go out and stay off for more than minute, unless there’s a hurricane.  What happens a lot is power blimps, or momentary flickers of power during a thunderstorm.  The size of a UPS needed to provide protection for these doesn’t have to be particularly large.

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In the event that a power outage might be longer, the need is for enough power to save any unsaved files and shutdown the operating system on your PC.  This might take 5 to 10 minutes at most.  There are tools on the net that help you pick the correct size for your equipment.

I’ve personally had good result with APC brand UPS’s and my most recent purchase was a CyberPower brand unit.  Typically the battery inside works fine for at least 3 years and then as some point after that, will lose capacity and the UPS will alert you that it needs to be replaced.  Amazon and other retailers also sell drop in replacement batteries that can make an old non-working UPS function properly again.