I played the power conditioner game, but then I just got fed up and bought a
APC 1500 UPS and called it a day.
I primarily needed a UPS, because of the shutdown cooling my DLP display requires. I even had a salesman state a power conditioner would alert me of impeding power outages. :rolleyes:
I've had the APC for going on two years and it's held up perfectly. It has endured probably the worst conditions possible a suburban electricity grid can dish out.
Last year a transformer several houses down from mine exploded and caught all the lines it was feeding on fire. They literally burned down off the poles and several that weren't a tar puddle remained hot until the power company arrived. By the afternoon of the next day everything was replaced and the power restored. Even though all of that drama occurred while my DLP, receiver, and DVD player where on, all of my components were perfectly fine once I fired everything back up.
The APC has noise filtering of outlets as well.