If I leave my PSU power switch on, and use a ups and surge protector, will my pc be damaged by a power surge or outage

[Adamadon13]

Hello, thinking of getting a UPS to protect my PC, just wondered will my PC actually be protected. If so, what problems will I have and what could I do to stop them. Thank you

[Bishop Crane]

It really depends on what you're protecting yourself against.

For power surges, you want to check two things on a surge protector, the Maximum Joules and the Response time.
Most power surges that are made by the power companies are under 1000 joules, and as such most modern surge protectors are fine.
For protection against the big stuff, lightning strikes and the like, the bigger the better, but being honest if your withing a certain distance of a direct lightning strike, there is nothing a surge protector will do.  A billion or so Joules, is after all pretty large.

Now adding a UPS to that can help, it will almost act like a sacrificial lamb, it goes pop, but your PC is ok.  However that being said you need to make sure that it is not a pass-through UPS, meaning that the "dirty" and "clean" sides of the unit are not connected when AC is ok.
Also remember if you use a wired connection to the internet, that is more likely to be the source of any damage than the power itself.  A modern PSU will kill itself first to restrict the overcurrent, whereas a network card (likely attached to the motherboard)  has almost no overcurrent protection whatsoever.

[Turtle Rig]

46 minutes ago, Adamadon13 said:

Hello, thinking of getting a UPS to protect my PC, just wondered will my PC actually be protected. If so, what problems will I have and what could I do to stop them. Thank you

You don't even need a UPS, once power goes out the surge protector saves your PC.  I have had soo many power outrageous and PC turns off at once,, it sorta scary but never has my hardware gotten messed up.  I just wait until the power outage is fixed and boot up PC and what not.  Your worrying about something that will never happen even without a UPS, but since you do have one, there is absolutely no way you can damage your hardware with a power outage and what not.