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I'm just starting out as an independant developer, mostly Unix stuff with some Windows thrown in occasionally. I've been running two machines, a linux and a windows dev machine.

Long story short, we had a bad storm come through last week and I unplugged one machine, forgot to unplug the other and the p/s and mobo ended up dead. Luckily I backup to an external service religiously (rsync.net for anyone interested), so there was no loss in data, but it did show me a glaring hole in my current setup, namely, lack of UPC and Surge Protection (this has honestly never been an issue before).

Can anyone recommend a UPC/Surge Protector for a home office? It only needs to support a single machine (I opted to use vmware instead of rebuilding that machine), but it's a quad core Phenom 2 with a 1k watt p/s.

This is outside my experience so I thought I'd get some input from others. I'm looking for something that's reasonably priced and does the job reasonably well. I don't need absolute 100% uptime, just something to protect my PC better than it is now.

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APC has a UPS selector tool to help you choose the right UPS for your needs.

http://www.apc.com/tools/ups_selector/

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I have good experiences with Tripp Lite, but then I really haven't had any major surges. It is a good idea to buy a bigger UPS than what you need for the equipment you have when you purchase the device. Purchasing a larger UPS will mean that you have either some growing room for future equipment or a longer run time when you lose power.

I personally prefer a UPS with some smarts since I always leave my computers on and I want the UPS to be able to shutdown my equipment if I am away from the computer and there is an extended outage. If you don't leave your equipment on then this probably isn't necessary.

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I have one of these - http://www.apc.com/products/family/index.cfm?id=21

I have recommended it to lots of other people as well. Being a UPS it will also condition the power as well. Depending on your service you may find drops in power (brownouts) as well.

If you are after strickly surge protection you might want to look at getting an electrician in to inspect your setup. IMO the cheap surge protectors you can buy at an electronics shop aren't anywhere as sensitive as a trip switch or circuit breaker.

I am interested in what other people have to say?

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    You really need to read the specs of the UPS. Only some UPSs will condition the power. The important you are looking for is line-interactive UPS.
    – Zoredache
    May 19, 2010 at 23:22
  • according to the specs most of the es line (as linked to) provides power conditioning
    – Jim B
    May 20, 2010 at 4:01

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