Modern computers can be fairly robust, but one very vulnerable aspect of any gaming rig is power regulation. If your computer gets too much juice or not enough, you can end up severely damaging your expensive components. That's why you need to invest in the best uninterruptible power supplies for gaming. Essentially a surge protector on steroids, an uninterruptible power supply (UPS) are big, heavy and ugly devices meant to protect your PC and other devices against events of sudden power loss.
Besides your gaming PC, UPS can extend their protections to anything that's plugged into them, including the best gaming monitor or other electronics. They may not necessarily be at the top of anyone's list when shopping for accessories for their next extreme gaming PC build, but this relatively small investment can pay big dividends. Their robust nature means you'll likely only ever have to buy a single one, and the versatility of the protection they offer means that you don't even need a gaming PC to enjoy the benefits.
Put simply, UPS' are basically just large car batteries strapped to surge protectors. They charge via your wall outlet and switch to battery power in the event of a catastrophic power loss. This is meant to keep your PC and other appliances running long enough for you to save whatever you were doing and shut things down properly, not to wrap up that Destiny 2 raid. There are few things you can buy for your rig that'll help protect against acts of god, but a good uninterruptible power supply will do just that.
The CyberPower CP1500PFCLCD 1500VA is one of the best UPSes on the market. Several factors contribute to it being our top pick for most gamers. First, the CP1500PFCLCD 1500VA has enough juice to handle the majority of gaming machines on the market, even if you're running dual GPUs. Unless you've got systems with ten hard drives, quad-way GPU, and other accessories, the CP1500PFCLCD should have enough juice to last 10-20 minutes (longer if you have a more moderate rig) if a power failure occurs. Given its ample power reserves, the CP1500PFCLCD is also a great pick for a 900 watt unit.
One of the most important features of the CP1500PFCLCD is its true sine-wave output. Most UPSes in its price range only provide simulated sine-wave output, which is a stepped sine-wave that approximates what you get out of your wall outlet. Some electronics are sensitive to simulated sine-waves and will behave abnormally. Having true sine-wave output is basically unheard of, so kudos to CyberPower for delivering on quality power output.
For smaller accessories and network equipment, the CyberPower EC650LCD is the best pick for most people. The EC650LCD has enough power reserves to keep the average home network alive for well over 15 minutes, which is enough time to exit your game/applications, save all your work through the network, and shut everything off gracefully during a power outage.
The EC650LCD is also small enough to hide away, taking up very little desktop room for a 390W unit. One of my favorite features of the EC650LCD is its array of ECO ports. Essentially, these ports can be managed and timed to turn on or off depending on your schedule or use case. The ECO ports will also power down accessories like your speakers and displays if your PC is asleep or powered down.
There are four surge-only sockets, three of which are ECO mode sockets, and four battery backed up sockets. I also like the fact that two of the ports have extra clearance around them for devices that have huge wall warts. The best use case for the EC650LCD is for connecting your displays and your network equipment. During testing, the EC650LCD successfully powered off both my display and my speakers when I powered off my PC. Power was promptly returned to both devices when the PC was turned back on.
The name APC is synonymous with high-quality UPS products. I myself use three of the company's Smart-UPS professional level units at home: two 1000VA units for my network and NAS gear, and one 1500VA unit for my PC and displays.
Out of the units that APC sent me, the BE600M1 Back-UPS was my favorite and one that is perfect for most users who want to protect their accessories and lower powered products, such as routers and peripherals. The BE600M1 is small and is made for sitting on a desk, where ports are in an arm's reach for conveniently plugging in a laptop, tablet, or mobile phone.
APC's BE600M1 is great at providing both battery and surge protection for the devices you use most every day. That is, your phone, and possibly a tablet. However, it has enough power reserves for you to plug in at least a router and a single display. If you only plan to use the BE600M1 to power a wifi router, the unit will have enough juice in it to let you browse the Internet in peace for several hours while you're deprived of electricity in the rest of your house. Priorities.
The best part of the BE600M1 is its size. Most UPSes are large and belong on the floor, but APC encourages you to put the BE600M1 on a desk. The unit provides a single 1.5A USB port for charging a phone or tablet so you don't have to use your device's power adapter, which is inevitably a wall wart that potentially overlaps another socket or two, so you free up sockets for other devices.
