Dear Steemit Friends,
Most of us probably pay a good amount money for our PC and everyday electronics. When you think about all of the money you spend on your electronics, wouldn't you want to make an investment to protect all of that equipment you bought?
How many of you have ever run into an experience where you have been working tirelessly on something using your PC (let's say a post or a document) and you are nearing completion when all of a sudden there is a power surge and your PC is restarted. Thankfully in most cases we have autosave and other features that protect at least some of the content we are working on. What about those instances when those features don't work or kick-in and you end up losing hours of hard work.
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I recently purchased a new XPS (which I unboxed and reviewed in a previous post) and have been using it to code, create my Steemit posts, and on occasion play online games. I spent a good amount of money on this PC and I definitely wanted to protect and increase its longevity. Because I also run a number of cryptocurrency miners I tend to occasionally overload a circuit once in a while and trip the power when testing new hardware. This usually leads me to lose some of the work I have been doing and/or lose connection during important events of a game. Not only is doing this bad for my equipment but also annoying and disruptive to whatever I am doing at the time.
I decided to buy an APC Backup UPS at my local Best Buy in order to give me a buffer that allows me to not only save my work but power down my system properly or complete the task at hand in case of a power outage. I didn't need anything overly expensive - just something that would buy me enough time and protect my equipment at the same time.
I ended up buying the APC Back-UPS 425VA UPS Battery Backup & Surge Protector (BE425M). The reason I chose this unit, aside from the fact that it had pretty good ratings and reviews because it was compact enough and priced cheap enough to accomplish everything I wanted in a UPS. Below is the unboxing
As you can see in the above video, it's fairly simple. It has no big packaging, no crazy amount of features and displays, and a fairly simple design - It is your ordinary UPC. Priced at about $39.99 USD, it was not too expensive compared to other options available.
Its design allows it to sit upright and for you to plug your devices in at the top, eliminating the usual odd cable configurations that most surge protectors end up causing. The plugs are also spaced far enough apart allowing you to utilize every outlet no matter how big your devices plugs are.
The unit has 6 outlets - 4 of which protect + surge, allowing 4 devices to continue working if there is a power outage and 2 surge outlets which protects devices that you just want to protect from surges and not necessarily needed to continue operating during a power outage.
The device has a runtime of about 37 minutes at 50 watts. Allowing you just enough time to save your work, exit any applications and shut your devices down properly. The pre-installed PowerChute software, allows you to adjust the sensitivity settings, as well as specify what hours you want to disable the alarm and other features. You can configure the entire unit by connecting the device to your PC.
For those of you who have higher power needs and more information on how much power you are using as well as any digital readout of surge data, this is not the unit for you. This APC device is for users who need a simple device to protect their electronics from any surge and provide them that small window of time to allow them to shut down their devices properly. In some cases, you can also use this to power your router in order for you to continuously operate for a fair amount of time.
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As someone who has a fair amount of gadgets, electronic equipment, and devices. I highly recommend that everyone makes the investment to purchase at least some sort of surge protection and redundant power source. The APC Back-UPS 425VA is a good and fairly priced entry-level device that satisfies that need and comes highly recommended not only by myself but other consumers who have also purchased it.
I hope you enjoyed my unboxing and review of APC Back-UPS 425VA. I would recommend that you consider purchasing one and If you have any questions, inputs, or feedback, please feel free to post a comment below. I would also appreciate support in the form of Upvoting, Following, and Re-steeming my post if you found it informative.
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