Recommended UPS

Hi all,

Looking for a recommendation for a new UPS. We currently have a couple of the old APC UPS beefed up power strips (battery inside). We live in a rural area with power issues occasionally. We ate a breaker two nights ago, electrician said the UPS was still good. (He was on site working on a separate building on a separate service when it happened so he just checked it out).

I am interested in power evening and spike protection, plus the lightning hits. I've had beefier Belkins in the past with no issues. The $150 area of price range. My wife said she has had good luck with the APC ones we have now, she's blown two entire system with them but APC always handles the claims fast... I am trying to convince her that it's not a good measure of a UPS to see how well they give you money when your system fries, it's a good measure to not blow computers.

I previously lived in the lightning capital of the world, so I know a good UPS can do a lot.

Part of my concern is that in order to make a claim, you need to plug it into your computer and install their software which in my experience really slows your system down.

So: Is there a recommended UPS which has a reputation for being hard to blow through? (I understand a direct hit screws all bets)

Is there a UPS brand which installed software doesn't kill performance?

Thanks as always!

Edit: I believe brand is APC not CyberPower, sorry...

Emerson, powercome, upsonic, tripp-lite are good until I remember.

I would also like some suggestions. Is APC any good for UPS?
Do all UPS automatically shut down my PC and monitor etc when they detect a power failure? Anything specific I should look for?
Does the wattage of the UPS have to match my system draw? (for example if I max out at 600W under full CPU/GPU load do I need a 600W+ UPS?)

Im using 2 APC XS 1500's in my office. (one per i7)
Ive had a few power outages since owning them and havent had any issues.
The included software doesnt hog resources. Looking at the process shows just over 3k in memory usage. Less than task manager.

I like the fact that you can choose when to shut the computer down by the amount of time the battery has left. You can also toggle the alarm off and on.

Right now my rig is showing a draw of ~650w and the UPS says I have 6min of batter backup. I have it set to shutdown at 1min.

The batteries are also easy to remove should they ever need to be replaced.

http://www.apc.com/resource/include/techspec_index.cfm?base_sku=BX1500G
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...2101419&cm_re=apc_1500-_-42-101-419-_-Product

I have the same one for my home PC, but the alarm goes off occasionally when my video cards start to ramp up. I have my cable modem, router and a couple other things also hooked up. I think I have too many things.

My PC is an I7 940 OC to 3.4
3 x 470 gts super OC version
1 SSD
2 x 7200 HDD
1 DVD RW

If I wanted to just put the PC on one and everything else on another, what should I get?

I've tried to figure our the power draw, but the calculators that I have found only supoprt 2 Video cards. with that, the power draw is shown to be around 650W.

any suggestions, please.

Will another APC XS 1500 support just this? Also, what if I swap out the 3 470s for 2 x 580s? How would that change?

Lukee said:

I have the same one for my home PC, but the alarm goes off occasionally when my video cards start to ramp up. I have my cable modem, router and a couple other things also hooked up. I think I have too many things.

My PC is an I7 940 OC to 3.4
3 x 470 gts super OC version
1 SSD
2 x 7200 HDD
1 DVD RW

If I wanted to just put the PC on one and everything else on another, what should I get?

I've tried to figure our the power draw, but the calculators that I have found only supoprt 2 Video cards. with that, the power draw is shown to be around 650W.

any suggestions, please.

Will another APC XS 1500 support just this? Also, what if I swap out the 3 470s for 2 x 580s? How would that change?

Click to expand...

Lukee,

I use two of the cheaper APC units (not the better XS series). This machine uses an APC ES550 (330W) and the other in my sig has an ES650 (390W, I know they should be reversed). Never had a problem with the power consumption I use and need (~ 5-7 minutes backup time). It's like buying a power supply, as long as you have enough headroom for your rigs, you'll be fine. If your alarm is going off then you're getting too close to your UPS's peak backup capacity. I would kick it up to the next size APC unit which should cover all your plug-ins.

onefstsnake said:

Right now my rig is showing a draw of ~650w and the UPS says I have 6min of batter backup. I have it set to shutdown at 1min.

Click to expand...

I know this is a bit off topic, but what system is showing 650W ATM? Even fully loaded your systems wont pull but 400w or so at the wall...

Is it normal for UPS systems like these to be that off?

Theocnoob said:

I would also like some suggestions. Is APC any good for UPS?
Do all UPS automatically shut down my PC and monitor etc when they detect a power failure? Anything specific I should look for?
Does the wattage of the UPS have to match my system draw? (for example if I max out at 600W under full CPU/GPU load do I need a 600W+ UPS?)

Click to expand...

The UPS doesn't shut down the computer. The computer and UPS have to be connected (usually USB) and your operating system detects it like a battery. Any modern OS (Windows/Linux/OSx) will have options to do an action (shut down, hibernate, standby) when the battery reaches a certain level. You can even have it do nothing, pull the cord, watch the computer drain the battery and watch the computer lose power.

Bottom line, you just need one with a USB connector. Every APC UPS I've owned has had this capability.

thideras said:

The UPS doesn't shut down the computer. The computer and UPS have to be connected (usually USB) and your operating system detects it like a battery. Any modern OS (Windows/Linux/OSx) will have options to do an action (shut down, hibernate, standby) when the battery reaches a certain level. You can even have it do nothing, pull the cord, watch the computer drain the battery and watch the computer lose power.

Bottom line, you just need one with a USB connector. Every APC UPS I've owned has had this capability.

Click to expand...

Thiddy,

Correct. I assumed everyone has installed software and a USP plugged in in conjunction.


ED,

I never cared for the accuracy of the APC software for shutdown times and power consumption. I always made a best educated guess what my rigs needed and bought larger overhead accordingly.

Those XS 1500's are rated 865W capacity when new but I really don't understand the variables involved.

Each of my units is showing about 30 minutes "Estimated Backup Time" with the APC software but in reality it's more like 6 - 7 minutes. Thiddy?

You could get one of these. Does 1500w continuous for 15 minutes.

It is a semi-serious suggestion. You can pick them up for cheap (or free, in my case) and put $300 in batteries. $300 for UPS of this caliber is incredible.

EarthDog said:

I know this is a bit off topic, but what system is showing 650W ATM? Even fully loaded your systems wont pull but 400w or so at the wall...

Is it normal for UPS systems like these to be that off?

Click to expand...

I7 950 @ 3.8, gtx285 classified OC'd, 8800 Ultra OC'd, 4 HDDs, 7 120mm Yate Loons, water pump, 23" monitor and a few cold cathodes. Shows 650w from the lcd display.
Both gpus and CPU at 100% load folding.

I'm guessing this 650w is @ 12v not 120v

onefstsnake said:

I'm guessing this 650w is @ 12v not 120v

Click to expand...

No, it's not. The UPS has no way of knowing what the (predominantly 12v) draw from your power supply is.

So the display is showing 120v draw? Or its guestimate...

onefstsnake said:

I7 950 @ 3.8, gtx285 classified OC'd, 8800 Ultra OC'd, 4 HDDs, 7 120mm Yate Loons, water pump, 23" monitor and a few cold cathodes. Shows 650w from the lcd display.
Both gpus and CPU at 100% load folding.

I'm guessing this 650w is @ 12v not 120v

Click to expand...

Well that makes more sense. I was going by the rig(s) in your sig.

Yeah. Same rig as the top one in the sig just with an extra gpu and a few other things.

onefstsnake said:

So the display is showing 120v draw? Or its guestimate...

Click to expand...

It is representing the 120v draw, but it is still something of a "guesstimate" as you say. You'd see the same number if you plugged your system into a Kill-A-Watt. Like so:

Any thoughts on this guy's comment on the APC 1500 (189$/newegg) on the newegg site?

Couldn't return it so I opened it up to fix the circuit. The circuit was a completely new design. The older BR1500LCD uses the tried and tested age old method of inverting the battery voltage and passing it through a transformer to boost the voltage. This new circuit resembles a switch mode power supply like you see inside computers. My guess it boosts the voltage using the switch mode action, then uses additional transistors to simulate an AC voltage output. The output AC voltage is fed directly from the switching transistors instead of through a transformer.

I realized from the circuit design that the unit was not faulty, it was badly designed. There was nothing to fix. This new design is probably cheaper since there is there is no need for a huge transformer. Shame on you APC! You are sacrificing quality for cost. Next time I want to buy a UPS, I don’t know what I will do now that I cannot trust APC any more. APC just lost a loyal customer.

~~Some guy, newegg

Theocnoob said:

Next time I want to buy a UPS, I don’t know what I will do now that I cannot trust APC any more. APC just lost a loyal customer.

Click to expand...

Bro, you are insane. ONE little thing from ANY company and you wont buy from them again. After too long, you wont have to worry about buying anything from anyone.

EarthDog said:

Bro, you are insane. ONE little thing from ANY company and you wont buy from them again. After too long, you wont have to worry about buying anything from anyone.

Click to expand...

Do you do the same for cars?

EarthDog said:

Bro, you are insane. ONE little thing from ANY company and you wont buy from them again. After too long, you wont have to worry about buying anything from anyone.

Click to expand...

I didn't write that. Read the post.

saint19 said:

Do you do the same for cars?

Click to expand...

Motorcycles. I have a Piaggio/Aprillia boycott going.