Whenever my dad is working on the house he shuts down the power to certain parts of the house, without warning. So I'm always afraid I'll lose something important, I figure I'll get a decent UPS.

I believe at most I'll be using 500W including PSU, monitor, etc...
What should I be looking for?

Get an APC with 750-1000Va. It's not going to run your rig for hours, but it will definitely give you enough time to shut down the PC if power will be out for a while.

I have two of those. I think they're essential, living in FL with the storms and power outages. Plus, they "smooth" out the current - a power conditioner.

http://www.zipzoomfly.com/jsp/Prod [...] =270718-OP

Would this cheapy be worth it? I need protection from dodgy hawaiian electricity.

I can't honestly comment on Powercom. I have this APC BE750BB that I love. It gives me clean power and protects me well from the common surges and not-so-common brown outs in my area. That and I love the placement/amount of receptacles. To me it is worth the extra $30 for the APC.

Probably out of your budget, but this is the UPS I'm planning on buying. 'Course, I'm going to have 2 towers, 2-3 monitors, and a laptop plugged into it.

This has been bugging me for a week or so now. I've seen good surge suppressors with joule ratings of 4200+, and most of them cost $60-70, yet I've seen $500+ UPSs rated for a thousand or so. WTF? The higher the rating the better, right?

I was thinking that exact same thing today. My guess is the ratings for the surge suppressors are either inflated or it isn't necessary for it to be so high.

I have two 1200VA's (700watts) - Every year Compusa has a big sale on these after New Years (don't know why). One I got for $100 and a week later, Office Depot had the same unit for $50 ... so hell, I have two now.

I'm liking these two

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6842107113
OPTI-UPS Enhanced Series ES1000C 1000VA 700W 8 Outlets UPS

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6842101140
APC BR800BLK 800 VA 540 Watts 7 Outlets UPS

The OPTI-UPS seems to have better numbers (higher VA, more watts, 1 more outlet) although it doesn't say which outlets are protected by the UPS and which just bypass.

I'd probably get the 1st one - just for the free shipping. A word of caution ... most coaxial cable surge protectors really cut down your bandwidth - at least, it did mine. I talked to my ISP and they told me that there are enough "connectors" between me and the outside cable (not to mention the modem) that any major surge (lightening) would probably not get to my machines - so I don't use it. Personal preference - but it killed my normally excellent bandwidth when I tried to connect thru it.

A good UPS (standby) from APC would be great. Online APC UPS protects more but it could be expensive. I think RS and smart UPS from APC are online. please correct me if i'm wrong.

Did you even read the thread (those posts above you)?

I never understood why they put them in the first place, I always thought coaxial cable don't transfer electricity so how could they be damaged?

I had a direct lightening strike on my outside coax cable (just where it comes into my house) about 6' from my machine - the whole house (electronics) were fried (knocked me off my chair) - my phone survived, but my modem and PSU were fried also.

I'm a big UPS fan after that.

If you don't care about PC monitoring of the unit this one is pretty good APC Back-UPS ES 725 Broadband for $70 keeps one of our office PC up for 20-30 minutes.
http://www.cdw.com/shop/products/d [...] DC=1141363

Also in Florida and we once had direct strike take out a $100K building surge protection system. Blew 3' whole in the concrete block while it was at it. My point being that nothing consumer level is even close to 100% against lightning.