Anyone use a UPS and can suggest what to look for?

While playing FTL a few minutes ago the power in my place just flashed on and off and I lost a good hour of progress in the game. After the rage had subsided and I had successfully glued the hair back onto my freshly made bald spots -I was doing super well and had an awesome build going!- it dawned on me that this is something that seems to happen a lot around my place. So I was wondering if anyone could suggest a good UPS, Uninterrupted Power Supply, that I could get and what are some of the things I should be looking for in finding one? I'm doing some research online but can't find a handy guide as to what to look for and what to avoid other then a general "You get what you pay for" motto being thrown around. As any sane person, I would like to spend as little as possible but I'm willing to pay if it means avoiding situations like the above mentioned and just give me time to hit save and quit and to avoid possible power fluctuations that might fry my computer or TV. Obviously I'm not going to go buy some $500 made for server room behemoth, but a $50-$150 one seems about right to me; or are they the equivalent to junk in the UPS world?

One general question that I had about them however, if the power just goes on and off for a split second will I still need to power down my computer and restart it or will the UPS just keep it going on battery for the 1-2 seconds that it's down then switch back to the power from the wall? So far I'm eyeing this guy. The "CyberPower CP1000AVRLCD"

If it's a common occurrence it's probably worth getting an electrician to have a look at your place instead.

@EVO said:

If it's a common occurrence it's probably worth getting an electrician to have a look at your place instead.

It's not common, but it seems to happen every other month. It's enough to notice it and want to have a safe guard.

It never hurts to have a UPS. They're a very handy thing to have and important if you've invested a good amount of money into your PC. Among acting as a back-up, they also condition the power; which means it's less taxing on your power supply making it last longer. Not to mention all UPS's have surge protection, my house got hit by lighting once and I could've lost my entire rig had I not had one.

In terms of getting one I've had good luck with the brand APC, a good one will run you $80 and will give you around 10mins of power under moderate use (while gaming). I do recommend making sure the wattage of the UPS matchs or exceeds the power supply in your computer as it might hamper your system other wise. (My Power supply is 750w hence, my UPS is a 780w)

Hope that helps and good luck.

@Farley_Lives: Thanks for the tips. That's pretty much where my line of thought on them were. I'm impatiently sitting here waiting for the delivery guy to drop off my new PC so I can get to building it and that combined with this power outage this morning is what made me want to invest in one. Would be very upset to blow a $1700 PC because I didn't get a good UPS. The PC is going to be getting a 850 PSU, so I will try to get a similar powered UPS to match with it. If I can find a good one on the cheap I may also grab one for my consoles/TV, but with them I think I will just stick to a a good Surge Protector as I don't use them enough to warrant a UPS.

I've been using a Cyberpower 1350AVR for a couple years now, and I've been very happy with it. I don't think I'll ever go back to not having the protection of a UPS.

On each of the many occasions that my power has gone out, the UPS hasn't missed a beat and kicked in as it should, preventing any interruption in operations for my computer and other devices connected to it. During a power failure, the UPS will activate its backlit LCD displaying the remaining battery life and trigger an audible warning alarm.

The UPS can also be connected to a PC with a USB cable, letting Windows monitor its battery level. This way you can set power settings in Windows to automatically reduce power consumption while running on UPS battery power as well as setting a battery life threshold at which to have Windows safely hibernate or shutdown the system.

@Savage: Dam, those are some fancy/handy features I did not expect. Looks like I'm getting me a UPS for sure now.

@Farley_Lives: @Savage: Just wanted to say thanks for the information. I ended up going with the CyberPower CP1500AVRT 900W. Will be interested to see how it works.

http://www.amazon.com/CyberPower-CP1000PFCLCD-Compatible-1000VA-Tower/dp/B00429N192/ref=wl_it_dp_o_pC_nS_nC?ie=UTF8&colid=OGNP9HIHHFQM&coliid=ILR32GHLHTGLT

is currently in my Wish List and will be ordered soon. I have outdated electricity outlets in my apartment and frequently have power outages. I am not concerned about losing game progress but having hardware in my PC fail cause of abrupt "shut downs".

I didn't find it was worth it. For online games usually there is a switch on your block that will lose power so online games are lost anyway. Also the battery on mine stopped working after a couple of years and the replacement batteries are crazy expensive. Not worth it. Better to just hard save more and be OK with losing some progress.