What is a UPS
A UPS is a backup power unit that provides continuous power when the normal power supply is interrupted. UPS systems can be stand-by, only supplying power when the regular supply is interrupted, or fulltime, relying on regular power and/or batteries to supply it while it supplies power to the protected device. A UPS is not always necessary on most computer systems, but can be important on systems that need to be up 24 hours a day, such as servers. Bearing this in mind, UPS's are a necessity if you live in an area prone to electrical storms, brownouts, surges or outages. There are three levels of power protection available to the home computer user. The levels are:
1.Surge Suppressor (These are basically a fancy fuse between the source and your hardware; they clamp down spikes, but can't fill in a low voltage level or dropout. This is a bare minimum level of protection that any piece of expensive electronics should have);
2.Line Conditioners (These devices filter noise out of AC lines. Noise can degrade your power supply and cause it to fail prematurely. They also protect against short voltage dropouts and include surge suppression.), and
3.Uninterruptible Power Supplies ( Firstly it filters the power your machine sees, smoothing out spikes and voltage fluctuations that can stress or even damage your electronics. Secondly, it provides a certain amount of dwell time in the event your power goes out entirely — this can often get you through brownouts and short blackouts. Third, when the UPS is about to run out of power it can arrange a graceful shutdown of your computer so that no unpleasant things happen to your disk filesystems).
