There doesn't have to be a storm for a power outage here. I goes out almost once a day. I'm going to move as soon as possible but till then I must be cautious. I've never used a true UPS system before and my DAW is for personal use. Still, I've completely lost whole projects in the past because of this. My main concern is damage to the PC. I'm used to saving work now on a regular basis but and outage always seems to happen in the middle of something. I figure the more info I learn the more I can get a UPS that works for my situation

I'm in the "lightning capital of the US" area (Tampa area) in Florida.  I'm also on an electric co-op and their power is not the best.  A UPS is a must for me, a "power conditioner" won't get you the backup needed.  Power outages, especially the momentary type are killers on PC's.  Anything in the PC or peripheral equipment can "fry".  A good UPS will help to eliminate 99% (nothing is 100%) of the problems.
 
I run my desktop PC, monitor, MOTU 896mk3 hybrid, Behringer X-Touch, headphone distribution amp and JBL LSR308's off of the UPS system.
 
 
 
 

As long as my UPS has enough battery to complete a safe shutdown I'm happy.
 
Clean power is a must for hardware & data protection.  Battery backup is a must for data protection.
 
Add a good backup strategy and you should be in pretty good shape, Bill.

fireberd
 A UPS is a must for me, a "power conditioner" won't get you the backup needed.  Power outages, especially the momentary type are killers on PC's.  Anything in the PC or peripheral equipment can "fry".  A good UPS will help to eliminate 99% (nothing is 100%) of the problems.

Well, there are "power conditioners" and there are "power conditioners". 
 
An $8 power conditioner from Walmart is not the same as the higher-end power conditioners (ie. Furman units that cost  $500+) that will protect your gear through most brownouts and spikes.  
 
And no, not even the better PC's will keep your system up if the power goes out - that's not what they do - but they will protect in a much more efficient way than any of the pro-sumer level UPS's.
 
Ideally, you will have a quality power conditioner with UPS.
 
As I stated earlier, we don't get many outages here, so I haven't found a need for a UPS, but I'd trust my Pro3500 to take a bullet (surge) for me over a $50 Office Depot UPS any day of the week.

We are talking two different units.  A UPS (Uninterruptable Power Source) and a Power conditioner.
And, the UPS I have is not the $50 model. 
 
I could go back to the UPS I had for my computer room.  400 KVA  with 1 hour full load backup.  That was total isolation as it took the incoming 3 phase AC power line and converted it to DC voltage, then used the DC voltage to keep the 60 2V batteries charged and the DC was also fed to an inverter that converted it back to AC.  It didn't matter what the AC power line did or how "dirty" the AC voltage was.

This is my unit.  I don't bother with commercial AC.  The fuel truck stops by every other day to top me up.
 

 I could use that when the Hurricanes come through.  Last time we had one in my location, power was out for two days.
 
Could have used that when I lived in KCMO, too.  We lost power during an ice storm and it took KCP&L 5 days to restore power.

I used to tow one similar for cell sites and remote switches.

You mention the CyberPower unit(s) but what are your opinions about any of the APC Back-UPS Pro models?
I've read good things about them.

You live by a river don't ya? Just get one of these, hook it up to a turbine, run 3 wires from it across the ground to yer van and yer set.

Check it once a day and you'll have dinner too... just try not to trip on the wires carryin' all that fish back to the van.