Surge protector or ups i dont know the difference and which one to get i live in Florida so lots of power outages due to hurricanes and just storms

[shokoji]

Budget (including currency):  150

Country: usa , florida

Games, programs or workloads that it will be used for: 

Other details (existing parts lists, whether any peripherals are needed, what you're upgrading from, when you're going to buy, what resolution and refresh rate you want to play at, etc): my pc has a 600W powersupply and 3070 and i7k 12th 

how do i know how many joules or W they should handle should it be the same as my PC or less is fine or has to be more 

[GeorgeMKane]

Surge protector would probably be your best bet for now, until you can save up more for a really high performance UPS. The UPS just allows you to save your work and shut down your system properly within so many minutes. Surge protectors work differently.

 

https://www.cdw.com/content/cdw/en/articles/hardware/surge-protector-vs-power-strip-vs-ups.html

 

I would probably recommend something like this for now.

 

https://www.amazon.com/APC-11-Outlet-Protector-SurgeArrest-P11U2/dp/B017VXU6GG/

 

You want a higher joule rating, especially for a gaming setup, whether you have just a pc or even a gaming handheld/console hooked up to it, as well.

[Alex Atkin UK]

7 minutes ago, shokoji said:

Budget (including currency):  150

Country: usa , florida

Games, programs or workloads that it will be used for: 

Other details (existing parts lists, whether any peripherals are needed, what you're upgrading from, when you're going to buy, what resolution and refresh rate you want to play at, etc): my pc has a 600W powersupply and 3070 and i7k 12th 

how do i know how many joules or W they should handle should it be the same as my PC or less is fine or has to be more 

If you have a lot of power outages then a UPS, and you'll need one able to output about twice as much power as your system is likely to use to at best get 10 minutes of time to safely shut down the PC when power fails, especially when you consider ideally you'll need your monitor plugged into it too so you can see what you're doing.

[SorryClaire]

Youre going to need a UPS but youre not really getting anything good at 150$ without it just immediately dead within 3 minutes. You could try to find a Back UPS 900VA BVN900M1 model also from Schneider Electronics APC. It has surge protection only up to 490J but honestly i wouldnt go for it especially when 40$ more would get you BVK1200M2 which would give you theoretically around 7-10 minutes.