I'd like to find the most cost effective UPS for my main and backup computers, as I am on a VERY limited budget now with my wife back in college. Of course, after she gets out and into a job in Radiology, it wont matter, . I'm considering brands I've seen in Walmart, as they have good prices, but I havent researched them yet. All it would need is about 5 minutes of battery life to shut one down. Thanks to all!

chris

The cost is generally related to the amount of power the unit is capable of sustaining, measured in VA (volts-amps), which is somewhat higher than wattage for a typical computer.

If you're mainly worried about brief power outages lasting just a second or two (these are common where I live) then you can get by with a low-power unit, strictly to keep the system unit running without a glitch.

But if you're expecting longer outages then you'll have to have the monitor on the UPS as well, so that you can see what you're doing as you manually shut down your system. This means you'll need a bigger unit.

For more info click here or here.

Thanks Professor, that helps alot!

chris