Rene-- If all you're going to do is run the system and the monitor, you can get by with a smaller unit. Depending on your monitor, a 500VA UPS should be plenty adequate to keep things up for 5 minutes. (A 2500VA unit would be considered serious overkill.) I just bought an APC ES 500VA Battery Backup for $42US for an AMD XP2200+ system and a 17" monitor. It comes with a USB interface that, in conjunction with APC's Powerchute software, will safely shut the machine down if the power fails or drops for more than a few moments. I have had good experience with APC and would rate them the top in UPS protection. They have a connected equipment warranty that is also very good and which they have, in my experience, always honored. There are also Tripplite and Belkin but I have no direct experience with them, but hear they are considered good products. Tom -{ Rene Brehmer }- wrote: > X-posted: AltCPU, CHAD, Chadfree > > ok ... so it's summer again ... and with summer comes brownouts ... this is > a really old house, so it's hard to avoid ... not sure if it's the fuse box > or the wiring that overheats ... but when it gets just a little warm, I > start to have problems with brownouts ... barely noticeable to the eye (as > in lights dimming) ... but big enough that the computer cuts out for a > fraction of a second and restarts ... > > last year I had it happening several times a day because we had a 3 month > heatwave ... now I'm just sick of it, especially because I loose data > everytime... > > SOO ... I figure I gotta bite the sour apple and get a UPS ... but, how to > choose? ... They're not exactly cheap ... and I don't need a whole lotta > juice ... I only need it to run the machine itself ... which means a > possible 480 W drain ... + 50% overload ... > > But I dunno how to read the UPS specs ... as I understand it, I need a 2500 > VA UPS for it to last 5 mins ... I don't need one that can keep the computer > running on battery for eternity ... I just need one that can keep the > machine up during the brownouts, and give enough power that the machine can > do a proper shutdown in case of a longer outage ... but occasionally it > takes several minutes for windows to offload the memory cache... > > Any advice please ... ? ... Also on brands and models... only one I know is > APC ... and I think, Liebert ? ... can't remember the name ... > > I'm not a hardware person ... so I'm not all that much into all this > stuff... > > > Rene -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Was this forwarded to you? Want to subscribe? Send an email to chadfree-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx?Subject=subscribe. For a complete list of email commands for our list send an email to ecartis@xxxxxxxxxxxxx with a subject line of "info chadfree" without the quotes. If you wish to unsubscribe from our list send an email to; chadfree-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx?Subject=unsubscribe To contact the list moderators send an email to chadfree-moderators@xxxxxxxxxxxxx -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-