UPS suggestions

Recent thunderstorm (Dennis associated) made it obvious that I need a new UPS. Was checking out the Opti ES800C at NewEgg. Looks great on paper. Does anyone have any comments and/or suggestions on the subject? Would appreciate any "voice of experience" input. Thanks, guys!
-Sgt Ron-

 

Personally I like the UPS selector tool APC offers ( http://www.apc.com/tools/ups_selector/ ). You tell it what you need the UPS to run and for how long and then they suggest one that meets your needs. Of course they only suggest APC UPS. But it still gives you a pretty good idea of the specs you require and then you can look at other brands too.

In my experience most UPS tend to do exactly as advertised. Just be careful when you buy them,because many places list battery run time but the thing is it's more of an estimate since the battery run time veries greatly depending upon how loaded up it is. Which is why I like the selector tool APC offers since it takes that into account before telling you.

At any rate the one you suggested looks fine. But remember it's only a 480Watt. Which is pretty much just enough to run a standard gaming computer these days. So that might sound like it works, but you've got to remember, monitors, speakers and printers are extra. Which means that UPS most likely can't keep a gaming computer running. Or if it does it would run without a monitor or speakers.

So make sure you're taking everything into account or you might find yourself either sitting without a monitor or sitting there with a 2-5 min run time, which is just enough to shutdown and wait for the power to come back on.