• Welcome to Overclockers Forums! Join us to reply in threads, receive reduced ads, and to customize your site experience!

Why doesn't somebody build a pc with a ups instead of a conventional PS?

Overclockers is supported by our readers. When you click a link to make a purchase, we may earn a commission. Learn More.

macawgumbo

Registered
Joined
Jul 14, 2002
Location
Indiana
How about somebody integrate a UPS into a pc case. It would be much simpler and no need for a surge protector or battery backup. Use a mini modified version of an APC battery pack that gives you 60 minutes uptime at 20% load on a 500W psu? Why wouldn't this be efficient? I hear no noise coming from my ups?? Plus, it doesn't need much cooling. I think this could be a big improvement in PC power.
 
It would be a lot like other things that belong together. It would make to much sense. And you know the corporate world can't make sense or the little people would see how we are being treated.

Seriously though my power supplys produce quite a bit of heat and they are just the small 500 models form APC. So fi they were in the case I think it would just add to the heat load. Not to mention that heat reduces the life span of batterys so the added lack of ventilation in the case would shorten that span more IMO.
 
In very briefest:

Heat and cost.

UPS power supplies are extremely expensive, and also generate a lot of heat. They also take up considerably more heat.

Quite a lot of people do use them for PC's, but they are seperate units, sitting beside the PC. It's a bit like saying why doesn't everyone cool their CPU's with liquid nitrogen...
 
The problem I would have with it si the same problem I have with integrated motherboards. If one part breaks, then they both will need to be replaced, and that makes things even more epxensive.
 
A better questoion might be why don't they have built in surge protectors. They wouldn't generate heat, and would only add $8-$20 to the cost.

The reason is money. The parts companies want your comp to fry so you can buy more parts from them. Most warrenties are exempted from power problems. If you blow your PS, Mobo, and scramble your hard drive cuz they get fried, or run on low juice for too long they make more money.

Go find an old 8088 IBM PC somewhere, and put a meter on the batt. 9 out of 10 of them are still good. But I replace the little round ones all the time. Its not that they save that much on makeing the batt, but they make more money if you have to buy a new one.

A company could be started on the basis of being the best, selling parts that never or rarely fail, useing the best technology. Problem is most people shop their wallets and will buy a piece of crap Emachine instead. Those of us who do want the best may replace our chips once a year or more, but I'll run my Enermax powersupply till it dies or I really need more wattage. Sparkle will make more money cuz more of their units will fail. If Enermax made units that would last for 10 years or more they would go out of buisness.

It sucks for us, but thats how buisness is.
 
Last edited:
Crazy Jayhawk said:
Another problem is that UPS's are very heavy.

And why is that a problem? Most people don't lug their computer all over the house. It just sits in the same spot so I don't see weight as a factor.

And as far as price i don't see were that is a factor either, Here in these fourms you have alot of people willing to spend $150-$300(and for that price most do not even come with a power supply) on a case alone. Now tell me they don't have a UPS on their comp. IMO I think that if you are willing to spend that kind of money on just the case you would most likley shell out another $50-$75 for a case with an integrated UPS system.
 
I agree. I dont see weight or price as a problem. The whole point of this forum is for overclockers who use the highest quality parts and build $4000 to $5000 computers that use 550W ps's (or that one 620W one) that are over $100 alone on top of the fact that cases cost 2-3 hundred if their aluminum and those full towers nobody moves so the weight definetly wouln't be a problem. On the heat factor. For most overclockers they use water cooling and it could just be another component to cool like a hard drive. Plus it could use 3 or 4 silent intake fans. If u are going to build the best, price should not be a barrier. Plus, if you take a $140 PSU and a UPS that's $150-$200 then that's almost $300 on the low end. So a $200-$300 UPS PS would not be much more (estimation). Plus, it's not like u need 60 minutes uptime most of the time and the power doesnt go out that often anyways so a low end model to start of the technology would be sufficient for most as long as wattage was high like 500W. I think u could make a lot of money on this. Please reply with any feelings.
 
Hhm I guess I'm not like "most" overclockers. Weight and price are definitly a factor for me. I move my computers around alot, always tinkering. Quite honestly I don't have funds for all highend gear but what I have does get overclocked, mildly. Also I don't currently use watercooling, but I am ready to make that leap this summer hopefully.
 
What makes you think most people here spend huge amount of money on their machines? Many of use here are students and overclocking on a REAL tight budget, I couldn't afford to shell out anything more than I did for my machine, which is why I am sat here stuck with a 15" monitor, but I am saving to buy a nice new 19" or 21" soon....
 
Flamed_Chip said:
What makes you think most people here spend huge amount of money on their machines? Many of use here are students and overclocking on a REAL tight budget, I couldn't afford to shell out anything more than I did for my machine, which is why I am sat here stuck with a 15" monitor, but I am saving to buy a nice new 19" or 21" soon....

For the most part I agree with you, I am a father of 4 so my budget is tight also. What I ment was that most people who shell out the big bucks for Top of the line proc, case,MB, HD,and power supply seem to have extra money to burn. I've seen posts in these forums of people who say "I just fried my $400(proc, vid card, mobo, whatever), Oh Well I guess its time to pick up a $500 one because I just don't care about cost".

So I still dont see a $250-$400 case with intgrated UPS-Power supply being out of the price range of a lot of the members of these forums.
 
I still don't see why you think it would be a good thing at all for anybody. All it does is limit your choices. Don't think for a second that it would be a cheaper way to do it (that thought seems to have completely blown out the window anyway).

Integrating a UPS in a PSU is dumber than integrated video because there are absolutely no advantages.

Also, it would be pointless to water cool a UPS since they're not even warm.

I'm done with this thread.
 
I think it would just add to the overall price though. I would personally rather just save money then to have a really good surge protector(still on a $10 one).
 
Back