What would be a good ups?

Hey...

This is the second time in the past two weeks that my power has gone out... my whole neighborhood is plunged into darkness...

I need a good ups (universal power supply)... who makes one? And what can I get a reasonable (like needs to supply for two comps.... 50 buck?)

Jdrake90

That's a really tall order bud...sub $50 for a two computer UPS.

Ultra makes a nice little unit for $80 on TigerDirect LINK. You'd need a serial port cord for it, as that's how it talks to the computer to set up auto shutdown. It also has phone/network protection jacks.
A nice little unit really, and especially for that price.
My brother bought one, and likes it alot.

When you talk of one that runs two computers, you're talking the $400+ range for APC's. At that point, it's much smarter to buy two seperate ones.

The more stuff you plug in, the shorter the time it will power things without the power being on, and even though this one has 4 plugs on it, I'd still use it for only one computer. Pay attention to the watts supplied rating. You don't want to draw the max rated output as continued power outages would be really hard on the circuitry, and companies tend to be overconfident in what their product will really handle.

Also, be aware that these things are heavier than a car battery, so don't be surprised about shipping charges when buying online.

well, what else will you be plugging into these UPS'es?

and what are the exact configs of these computers?

And how long of a runtime did you want?

Actually... I'm not really sure what I want.... never looked a the possibility of needing something like this.

I have two computers, but depending on price, I can always get a separate ups for each.
I really just want something that would allow me to manually shut down my pc, when the power goes out. Not like a long time replacement. Should the power go, I would want to be able to shut down my pc's as long as the power is out.

Obviously, I'm not sure what is a "tall order" never had to get one before.

As far as other things that would plug in... Probably the monitor, but can I just plug in a power strip?

Jdrake90

In your price range you are probably looking at about a 500 kva model. This is probably only a few minutes of run time. Most power outages are less than 3 minutes. Tall order means very difficult if not impossible. You should have battery backup for anything that you need. I do tower, monitor, and cable modem. Speakers and printer can power off if they need to.

I have used Belkin UPS for years and have been very satisfied with them. They *did* honor their protection plan when I had a lightning strike several years ago. Here are some link that will get you started. I use both UPS and power strip as power strips can be better at surge suppression. My set up is:

wall -> power strip -> UPS -> PC

Don't forget to protect your Internet connection (phone line or whatever) as power spikes can go this way as well.

I am in the process of a general upgrada and plan to go with one of the 1100 kva models.

Oops! Double post

I thought UPS was Unninteruptable Power Supply. If you just want something that will give you enough time to safley shut your computer down, you can go with some nice and cheap.

LordDarik said:

I thought UPS was Unninteruptable Power Supply.

Click to expand...

Yes, that is what I mean... unninteruptible... I just need something that will allow me to manually shut down my computers (as apposed to a sudden shut off) when the power goes out.

Jdrake90

APC is by far the best.
Hint: find an old 12v one with a bad battery and wire up a 12v lawnmower battery to it. It'll turn out to be cheaper than a new one and will probably get better runtime.

I had seen some APCs for cheap in cyberdeals a week or so ago. check there, or google around (maybe even pricegrabber.com)

you still need to list your system components, and everything that will be plugged into the "backup power" ports as well. Most UPS'es that are low in price will only give you 4 such outlets.

Reason I ask for the spec's, is that while you may have enough physical plugs for 2 pc's/monitors, it's hard to say if they will hold up long enough if you have 2-21" CRT's and a heavily overclocked Prescott with SLI and 5 hard drives.

Do hard drives really suck up that much power??

Tall Order=Hard to do for that price

Yeah, if you just need to plug in two towers and two monitors, then just one of those that I linked would be fine for a short time. I hit up my brother for more info today, and he said the one he bought was powering two new servers with LCD's for 15+ minutes. CRT's, lotsa fans, case lights etc. would cut that time down.
There's 4 plugs on the back of it.

Belkin makes some small ones that look like a fat powerstrip, but thicker/wider because it has batteries inside of it. I doubt it would give you much usable runtime, but possibly enough to do a proper shutdown or keep them running if it's just a minute of powerloss. I don't think they support an auto shutdown via USB or serial port though, so you'd have to do it by hand.
Belkin does make some fine products.

And for info's sake, my 7200rpm Seagate's take 12.8 watts each durring read/write according to their page. 4 way raids do add up though, so yeah, it's important to consider in UPS shopping.
My 21" CRT takes 2.2A x 115V=253 watts.