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Ultra ULT31502 600 Watt Backup System UPS

About a week ago I was working away on my new PC.  While working, a technician was performing a duct-cleaning on the household furnace system with some equipment running from his truck parked outside.  He then started power sweeping the heating ducts with some machine that caused a momentary power outage.  Needless to say, I lost my data. 

This wasn't the first time this happenned.  Why oh why must I let this happen every now and then?  It was time for my first ever UPS / backup system. 

I headed out to Tiger Direct and found various power supplies with differring features such as surge-protection, and with different power outputs from 250 Watts and up.  Prices ranged from about 50 bucks to several hundred dollars.  How much should I spend was my primary concern -- I didn't want to spend more than I needed.

Considering that my current PC configuration (power supply output is 700 Watts, Asus M2N32SLI deluxe motherboard, ATI 1950 Pro 256MB GDDR3 graphics card, a few case fans), I figure I'm not using more than 600 Watts. 

This led me to the Ultra - ULT31502 - 1000 VA - 600 Watt - AVR Backup System - UPS, which was on sale for $99 (from $120).  I confirmed with a tech in the store that this sounded like the perfect match for my system.  It comes with 4 UPS outlets and one extra just for surge protection.  I didn't need a digital readout, even though they look cool, it wasn't enough to get me to spend the extra $20 - $30.  It also comes with software -- but I won't be using any of it.  All I want is some power backup for those times when the power unexpectedly goes out, while I'm working.

Man, this thing is heavier than I thought.  It looks sweet next to my Klipsche subwoofer box.  The power switch is illuminated.  What more could I want?

Today was my first test.  Lightning caused the power to go out for about a second.  My new UPS beeped to let me know it kicked in... and I continued working.  No data loss.

In the words of Cartman... "kickassss."