Power spikes, brownouts and power cuts are quite as insidious as they sound. The pain that any one of these phenomena can dish out is most acutely felt on your pocket. Electrical interference literally wreaks havoc on hardware, destroying CPUs, hard drives and any other component you can think of.

Having been through the ordeal of losing good hardware we highly recommend that you invest in an uninterruptible power supply (UPS). UPS devices come in all sizes (power sizes that is) and, as the name alludes, are specifically designed to deal with manic-depressive electrical supplies.

We recently received the Nova AVR 1250 which is quite rugged, and rather reasonably priced. The device features automatic voltage regulation and offers four AC outs and data line protection. It’s capable of providing 660 W of power, which in power cut situations can provide you with up to 15 minutes of power for two PCs.

One of the more impressive features of the device is that it takes just 8 hours to fully charge, which means you can start protecting your hardware within a day of purchasing the device. You are even able to manage your power via Eaton’s Personal Solution-Pac software. The software offers a real time view of the device’s on-site power quality and gives you the ability to set-up automatic actions like the automatic shutdown of your PCs during a power problem.

Setting up and using the device is incredibly straight forward, although it must be noted that while it offers four AC outs, only two IEC cables are supplied in the box. The AVR 1250 is available for R1881 from Axiz on 011 237 7007 or visit www.axiz.co.za.