How important is a UPS?

[MrSimSim]

I'm building a bonkers pc with a RTX 5090/4090 and heard a UPS can help protect the pcs parts, is it true and if so how important is it? its gonna be a expensive build but since its also a high wattage build any UPS I find with enought Wattage are up towards 1k$. Am I fine without it?

[Donut417]

16 minutes ago, MrSimSim said:

Am I fine without it?

How's the power coming in to your home? If it's stable then sure. I own a UPS because about 10 or so years ago we had dirty power caused by loose wires between the transformer on the pole and our home. DTE has since fixed the issue. We loose power 1 to 3 times a year, so not often. 

 

A good surge protector would likely provide the bare essentials of protection. Just keep in mind that if you loose power while your PC is on you could corrupt the file system and require a reformat reinstall loosing all your data. Happened to my friend, though he was dual booting so he had a Windows install to fall back on. As long as you're not dumb and keep backups of critical data you should be fine. 

[NumLock21]

An UPS is needed if you've encounter frequent blackouts/power outages, but it doesn't hurt to get one, since you've already spent a good chunk on that GPU. UPS does not mean continuous use of your PC during an outage, it's there for you to quickly save your work and safely turn off your PC.  

[MrSimSim]

6 minutes ago, Donut417 said:

How's the power coming in to your home? If it's stable then sure. I own a UPS because about 10 or so years ago we had dirty power caused by loose wires between the transformer on the pole and our home. DTE has since fixed the issue. We loose power 1 to 3 times a year, so not often. 

 

A good surge protector would likely provide the bare essentials of protection. Just keep in mind that if you loose power while your PC is on you could corrupt the file system and require a reformat reinstall loosing all your data. Happened to my friend, though he was dual booting so he had a Windows install to fall back on. As long as you're not dumb and keep backups of critical data you should be fine. 

Just moved into a new apartment 4 months ago but have only had one safety go off so far and no other electrical problems so I persume my electricity isn't dirty but idk about that stuff

 

[manikyath]

if your area has no regular blackouts or brownouts (brownout is when your lights go flickery..) there isnt much a regular home desktop UPS will do for you.

 

the only reasons why i've started putting UPS'es on everything are

- my dad's lawn mower was electric.. but not modern day battery, it ran off a long extension cord.. you can see what happened there every summer.

- there's a mistake in power company documentation in my area, and exactly my house specificly often doesnt get notified of planned outages.

[Dutch_Master]

2 hours ago, Donut417 said:

We loose power 1 to 3 times a year, so not often.

I lost power twice in this house. In 22 years

[Donut417]

16 minutes ago, Dutch_Master said:

I lost power twice in this house. In 22 years

Well. We generally loose power due to storms. As trees fall on the power lines, because people wont allow the utility to trim or cut these trees down when they are on private property.