- Power Surge Protector and Surge Protector are the same thing, problem is that nearly every board says it's a surge protector these days so they can sell....but if it's less than $50 then it's not. - UPS prevents ur PC from shutting off instantly if the power goes out. You have to ask urself though, if it's not a server, how often does the power go out in ur area to see if u really need one. - Cloud Storage there are a few options, I recommend CrashPlan (http://www.crashplan.com/). I've done extensive testing on all of them and CrashPlan is still the best for cloud backup. They are not free but they are the best.FelipeInside

if I were to use Crashplan, just to take care of stuff like voice recorder files, papers and handouts from school, what plan would i use?

I don't think the power goes out much in my area.

Also, this hasn't been answered, but does not having a UPS mean that my computer could get shut down suddenly due to an outage, causing the computer to possibly get damaged? From your previous post, you said, "With modern computers, a power outage usually doesn't damage anything. They are made with technologies that prevent that." But you also said, "Some times, specially when there are electrical storms or power outages, comes a "surge", which means too much voltage is going through the cord. This means too much power goes into ur PC all at once and can damage components. If the PC is roughly new, the Power Supply is equipped to handle these surges, but can "die" in the process." It seems you said outages aren't a real problem, but you later said it could be.

Ok, let me break it down for you even more simpler. First, both Jiggs and I know more about this stuff than you do. Don't take that the wrong way, but I've been in IT for the past 20 years and Jiggs knows his stuff too, so when we say something don't think we are lying or that you know more about the subject than us. POWER - If you want your PC to go for a few more minutes in case the power goes out, get a UPS - If you want your PC to be protected 90% of the time from surges and brownouts, get a good higher priced ****** Power Surge Protector Board. Don't buy those that say Surge Protector but cost $20. - If you buy a UPS with a Surge Protector Board included then you get the best of both worlds. BACKUP There are 4 ways (generally) to back up: 1- To a USB Flash Drive. Don't do it, simple. I worked in a computer shop for years and if you just could see the amount of people backing up to Flash Drives and their drives failing, leaving them with nothing 2- To an External USB Hard Drive: the most common and easy way to backup. They are more reliable than Flash Drives and you can turn them off (unplug them) so if a super surge destroys ur PC, the external wasn't connected and is safe with ur data. 3- To another INTERNAL Hard Drive: Some people have a second hard drive inside their PC for backups, which is fine but you might loose the data in the case of a super surge. 4- To the cloud (or internet): now there are ways to backup to the internet. Problems here are they are slower than the traditional ways (backup and recovery) and u are also putting ur data out there which some people don't like. I suggest you print a copy of this post for further reference.FelipeInside

[QUOTE="Deathscythe777"][QUOTE="JohnF111"]That's why you have a surge protector, so that the surge won't reach your PC. Granted they aren't fool proof and a lightning strike can make a surge reach your PC through a surge protector but lets face it, if that happens then you will have bigger problems than simply a damaged PC.JohnF111