Good UPS/Surge Protector for PC

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

UPS: APC SY12KEXBX120 UPS ($70.36 @ Mac Mall)
Total: $70.36
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-08-06 18:22 EDT-0400

Surge and power dips are two completely different anomalies. The UPS is for power dips - temporary and dirty power so that unsaved data is not lost. Power loss does not damage any properly designed electronics.

View surge numbers for a UPS. A typically destructive surge may be hundreds of thousands of joules. How many joules does the UPS claim to absorb? Hundreds? A near zero number means advertising and hearsay can claim it is 100% protection. UPS is not a surge protector ... once you include their specification numbers.

Surges must be averted where wires enter the building. Using a completely different device that connects hundreds of thousands of joules harmlessly to earth. Even the protector is not harmed.

Protection already inside all appliances already does what a plug-in protector claims to do. Protection that also makes 'dirty' power from a UPS irrelevant., Protection from a surge that may overwhelm protection inside appliances and may destroy that power strip protector must be located so that a surge does not even enter the building. You have asked for two completely different solutions to two completely different anomalies.

plug your ups into a surge protector.

... that does not even claim to protect from destructive surges.

Why would anyone recommend something that costs $70 and does not provide that protection? Especially when products from other companies with integrity (ie not APC) do that protection for about $1 per protected appliance. More numbers that challenge other posts that refuse to even quote one manufacturer specification number. Why? Even APC does not claim to provide the protection he recommends. Be wary of a recommendation based only in what advertising says.

you didn't let me finish plug the ups into a surge protector into another ups into another surge protector. You get 5X protection, and it prints free money. But all in all it's kind of unrealistic to expect to get a "really" good ups/surge protector for 100-130 dollars.

You do not get any more protection. In fact, UPS manufacturers quietly say to NOT plug a surge protector into that UPS. That becomes obviouis once one learns what a UPS outputs and how a plug-in protector works - by learning from specification numbers.

Furthermore, a UPS connects the computer directly to AC mains when not in battery backup mode. This is when power is 'cleanest'. So where is this protection that a UPS provided? It only exists in speculation and hearsay.

Again, protection is always about where hundreds of thousands of joules harmlessly dissipates. How do two power strips (maybe a thousand joules each) absorb surges that are hundreds of thousands of joules? How do 2 cm parts inside those power strips block what three miles of sky could not?

Protection adjacent to appliances can even make appliance surge damage easier. More power strips does not increase protection. But it does makes the risk of fire higher. After all, these ignored numbers are damning.

What happens when a hundreds of thousands of joules surge is blocked by that surge protector? Energy increases on a weakest device in that link. Either the fuse blows to protect protector parts (and leave the surge connected to computer). Or catastrophic failure (ie fire) results. But again, these conclusions are completely different because they are based in how a UPS and surge protector actually work.

OP is strongly encouraged to install something that is completely different, that unfortunately is also called a surge protector, and that says where hundreds of thousands of joules harmlessly dissipate. A useful answer also includes numbers.

Best surge protection (what is always found in facilities that cannot have damage) costs about $1 per protected appliance. Others who never learned this stuff will foolishly spend $100+ because hearsay recommends near zero protection. And because others never learned how protection was implemented even 100 years ago. So that direct lightning strikes cause no damage - not even to the protector. But again, that means one must learn this well proven science and experience before denying it exists - and them recommending near zero protection from a power strip or UPS.

Westommuat work for a company that sells or installation house surge protection as he reply basicly every single thread that mentions sure protection

Sarcasm, but realistically, unless you live in an area with constant power fluctuations i'd be hard pressed to recommend the use of a ups in the first place. Maybe call an electrician power fluctuation because of rain could be the root to an even bigger problem. It could be a number of things power lines are faulty to just wiring in the house.