UPS....w/power conditioner..need it?

[HogansHiro]

The power in my part of Hawaii is crappy...drops out rarely but enough to piss me off...so....I was looking to by a UPS for my studio setup. I was looking at some pretty big size ones $200 (1,500 v-milla-something?). I noticed that some also were power conditioners as well.....should I spend the extra bucks to get the one that says it cleans and regulates your power as well or is that just a scam to get you to spend extra. IF its worth it I don't mind dropping a couple of bucks to have clean juice to my gear. kill two birds with one check.
Any thoughts....computer/office equipment UPS with power conditioner....good/bad idea?

[drstawl]

I swear by my Tripp-Lite. (It's the Internet Office 500) I also have an APC for another less critical circuit. The power sucks here due to the cheapskate landlord refusing to replace the 30+ year-old electrical sub-panel that has weak, burned contacts for the circuit breakers installed. Lighting (I don't bother putting them on the UPS) in this place looks like a haunted house. I'm convinced the funky power killed a TV, 2 stereo receivers, 2 VCRs, 2 printers etc before I went for the protection.

The APC is noisier.

When I do on-location direct to cdr recording I bring the Tripp-Lite so that if some jerk yanks the plug on my rig I'll have time to either fix the problem or shut down the CDR recorder without losing any of the pre-power-failure recording.