Are people really in 2026 having a multi-thousand dollar computer not plugged into a UPS? That's crazy to me, they're $150 for an OK one and it could save your computer.
I know, but a simple power outage isn't what kills your hardware, its the current spikes that comes with it, and a surge protector protects you against that very much. Within reason of course, I mean something like a lightning strike can still kill your hardware under bad circumstances, but that's also the case with most desktop UPS as well.
Same here, there's been 1 in the past 2 years and it was only for an hour.
But it can pay to be prepared. And if you have thousands of dollars of computer and network equipment, a little bit more to protect it and the data on it is worth it.
I also have a separate 1500VA device for my internet gateway and wifi router, so we can continue to have wifi for phones and tablets if we have an outage. It runs them for about 8 hours which is not too shabby.
That's kind of what I started with but as the home lab and networking grew I upgraded.
I went a little over the top and now I have about 40 hours of backup to the majority of the basement hardware which includes the gas water heater and fridge.
That would be nice to have yes but I'm not sure that's something we get here in the US. And surge protection is really only half the picture of course, in the posted video a total power outage would still likely brick the PC if it happened during a BIOS update or Windows update even potentially.
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u/ToplessHarpist 22h ago
Are people really in 2026 having a multi-thousand dollar computer not plugged into a UPS? That's crazy to me, they're $150 for an OK one and it could save your computer.