What are the things to look for when buying a good surge protector? I just bought one, and it appears that it is not good enough for my power consumption. It starts beeping (the UPS that is) as soon as I start playing a game, whining that I am using too much power. Whimpy little thing. So I am going to buy a new one. What do I look for? How do I know it can handle my needs?
Look at the APC collection of Surge Protectors: http://www.apcc.com/products/category.cfm?id=12 If you can not find it there, they don't make what you want!
Sounds like your are hunting for a UPS, not a surge protector. Go to here http://www.advizia.com/tripplite/Configure.asp?User=TrippLiteUPS and enter in all your equipment. Fill it all out. It will give you a list of TrippLite equipment. That's not really the important part. Look at what VA (ie... 550VA) or such that it suggests. Then go shopping for a UPS with at least that much VA.
Avoid using your computer until you get a new UPS, it can kill your computer when under-powered for your requirements for example. Buying a new UPS - Totaling your power usage in WATTs, add 30% (due to majority of consumer level UPSs didn't use sinusoidal outputs) to convert to VA, add another 25% (+3dB fudge factor) to the determined VA value for final nominal required UPS VA rating.