No Little Storm's Gonna Get Me Now!

Author's Rating:

Pros: safety features, fairly easy to set up, automatic shut down available

Cons: none

Author's Review
I bought my APC Back-UPS 500 because I had experienced loss of a hard drive due to a power surge and/or lightening during a storm. The technician wasn't for sure which, but nevertheless I am not risking it anymore. My APC Back-UPS 500 is not the Pro 500, but I could not find this exact one listed here. I think the only difference is that the Pro is more for an office setting. Mine is more suitable for the home computer owner.

The APC Back-UPS provides powerful battery backup outlets to provide surge protection when utility power is used, and provides battery power and surge protection when utility voltage is outside of acceptable limits. Any data sensitive equipment such as monitor, computer, or external drive should be connected to these outlets.

In addition to the battery backup outlets, there are accessory surge protection outlets. These are for equipment that need surge protection, but do not need power during a power outage, for instance a printer or scanner.

Blocksafe outlets, which are corded sockets, accept the "block type" plugs and without covering other outlets, in other words they don't take up a lot of room.

A Fax/Modem line surge protection feature guards your PC from "back-door" surges. When you are connected to the phone line you have that risk of exposure to damage from the line, this feature eliminates that risk.

Some of the other features are:
Audible alarm when connected equipment is running on battery power, when there is a low battery, or when overloaded.
Building/site wiring fault indicator automatically detects potentially dangerous wiring problems in the wall circuit that could disable the effectiveness of any surge protection.
Option switches that enable you to customize transfer voltage and alarm settings.
Diagnostic test/alarm disable button that performs testing to ensure that all internal components are working at peak levels.

The best feature is the APC PowerChute PLUS software that will actually save open files, close down all applications, and then gracefully shut down the operating system, EVEN when you are not there. This is software that you send for with a coupon that you get with the system when you purchase it. It took about 3-4 weeks to get mine. It was the main reason I wanted this system, not all have this feature. A person can't always be lucky enough to be sitting in front of their computer at the right time to catch a problem with the power supply. How many times have you come home to find blinking lights on your clocks, microwave, or vcr?

Even if you don't get the PowerChute feature, the APC Back-UPS 500 will keep your system running for up to 17 minutes so you can shut it down yourself, by closing your files, and properly shutting down.

I set this up and installed it myself, so if I can do it, you can too! This is a person who three years ago, would not even turn a computer ON, much less do anything technical to it.

If you want a little peace of mind, during storm season, or if your area is prone to power outages, or brownouts, I would recommend this system.
It only takes losing a hard drive once to make a believer out of most people!