Most UPSs don't provide much more protection than a power strip. They have a cheap "surge" protector, if you look it's often just running the tower through a f

Most UPSs don't provide much more protection than a power strip. They have a cheap "surge" protector, if you look it's often just running the tower through a ferrite ring. Generally the input it directly connected to the output, through the ferrite ring. Only in cases of a power outage does a relay trigger and switch to the batteries. But that doesn't prevent a surge from going through the UPS. You can hear the relay trigger when you disconnect it from the wall power, the latency is high enough to allow plenty of damage. There do exist UPSs without this problem, but they are more expensive, heavier, generate more heat, and consume more power. Look for double conversion UPSs that in the normal state go from AC -> DC -> AC. Kinda weird that while computers are 100% DC, they are fed with 100% AC. I was pleasantly surprised that pretty much all ham radio stuff is DC fed. MUCH easier to do UPSs, solar, wind, or have multiple pieces of equipment share the same power supply. Imagine racks with a big power supply on top (and getting rid of all the AC -> DC conversion heat). I've actually seen these, but they were unfortunately cost prohibitive.