UPS for Computer

[kevinturcotte]

I need a UPS for my computer. Wasn't planning on getting one until after Christmas, but now it's become a necessity. Not sure which brand/model I want though, but I know what I need it to do. Hoping for a recommendation.
The power supply is a Thermaltake Toughpower Cable Management 1200W PSU seen here: http://www.thermaltakeusa.com/Product.aspx?C=1245&ID=1512, but I'll only be drawing around 600-700 or so watts. The UPS should have AVR, along with Boost and Trim, and be able to run for just 6 or so minutes, long enough to shut Windows down. Up to $250 or so in fine. Performance is more important than how it looks!
Thanks!!!

[PokerJoker]

You must have a pretty stout computer if it draws 6-700 watts all the time. A mondo gaming system with multiple high end video cards? A big workstation with several processors? Multiple screens?

Whatever, for an inexpensive choice, I've had reasonably good luck with the Cyberpower AVR line. APC Smart-UPS are very good too but are not cheap. The lower cost APC lines, maybe I don't like quite so much. Seen quite a few of them die.

You probably know that runtime is directly proportional to battery capacity. Which means if you want one that runs longer, buy the one that weighs more. The capacity number in VA has nothing to do with the runtime, it just says how big of a load it will carry. For the specs you give, you might just barely get enough run time from an under-$200 unit like a Cyberpower CP1500AVR, which claims 9 minutes run time at 500 watts load. But I would sure test it beforehand.

You might look at rack mount server-type UPSes. They are usually very good but also usually have VERY loud fans. Of course, with the computer you apparently have, you might already be used to loud fans. :lol: Be aware that any unit rated 2000 or 2200VA is going to need a 20 Amp outlet, not the usual 15 amp household outlet. (Of course you can always put a 15A plug on the cord, which usually works but isn't exactly kosher.)

Keith

[kevinturcotte]

CURRENTLY only drawing about 300 watts, but my current power supply decided to die about 2 months before I needed it to, so I had to throw in the power supply I have for my new computer.
Going to be:

Intel Core i7 920 2.6 Ghz overclocked to about 3.4 Ghz
3 2GB sticks of DDR3 RAM (May add an additional 6GBs later)
ATI Radeon 5870 Video Card (Just 1)
Sound Blaster Audigy 2 ZS Platinum Pro Sound Card
SSD
2 7200 RPM SATA Drives
Blu-Ray Burner
Gb NIC
Flash Card Reader
230 mm Fan
5 140 mm Fans

[Cholly]

I've had UPS by both APC and Cyberpower. While Cyberpower is cheaper, you get what you pay for. I'd go with APC - either the APC Power Saving Back-UPS ES, 10 outlet, 750VA, 120V or the Back-UPS LS 700 would be a good choice.

[Movieman]

I picked up one at ComUSA (aka TigerDirectv) for about $100 and it works great.

[MarkFresno]

I need a UPS for my computer. Wasn't planning on getting one until after Christmas, but now it's become a necessity. Not sure which brand/model I want though, but I know what I need it to do. Hoping for a recommendation.
The power supply is a Thermaltake Toughpower Cable Management 1200W PSU seen here:, but I'll only be drawing around 600-700 or so watts. The UPS should have AVR, along with Boost and Trim, and be able to run for just 6 or so minutes, long enough to shut Windows down. Up to $250 or so in fine. Performance is more important than how it looks!
Thanks!!!



That's a pretty power hungry set up you got going. My set up isn't as power hungry but I have some critical equipment I can't have go down. I got myself a Smart 1500 (IBM Edition) off eBay (Item #350270905018) for $249.99 with shipping included. For my load it gives me a run time of 23 minutes. If you're going to consume between 600-700W you would get 23 minutes.


The Smart UPSs are industrial data center units. The output a sinewave, offer avr/boost and drop, power filtering and a run time. You can't go wrong with getting industrial protection.


I've used the smaller APC's before with not much luck. The square wave and simulated wave UPSs aren't as good nor do they offer as much protection. The 1500 is a beast.



My two cents..


M

[MarkFresno]

I've had UPS by both APC and Cyberpower. While Cyberpower is cheaper, you get what you pay for. I'd go with APC - either the APC Power Saving Back-UPS ES, 10 outlet, 750VA, 120V or the Back-UPS LS 700 would be a good choice.



We have CyberPower on the workstations at the office. They do work, but are not as reliable as APC. The batteries are good by the units have board problems every other day.

If money isn't an issue, I would definitely go with APC over the CyberPower, even if it meant going with a smaller unit.


Mark

[Grentz]

Cyberpower and APC are both great. Cyberpower actually makes a lot of APC's smaller consumer units FYI.

I worked for a company that sold Cyberpower and have used many a APC unit, both are really about the same for reliability and performance IMO as long as you get a good model from either company. Both have their weaker models that you can find by looking at user reviews and such most of the time. APC is not as good as they used to be, there are other options.

CURRENTLY only drawing about 300 watts, but my current power supply decided to die about 2 months before I needed it to, so I had to throw in the power supply I have for my new computer.
Going to be:

Intel Core i7 920 2.6 Ghz overclocked to about 3.4 Ghz
3 2GB sticks of DDR3 RAM (May add an additional 6GBs later)
ATI Radeon 5870 Video Card (Just 1)
Sound Blaster Audigy 2 ZS Platinum Pro Sound Card
SSD
2 7200 RPM SATA Drives
Blu-Ray Burner
Gb NIC
Flash Card Reader
230 mm Fan
5 140 mm Fans

A 1200w PSU is WAYYY overkill for that system, but since you have it already it should work fine. Just note it will be more inefficient and will not be using near 700 watts let alone 1200 watts.

[kevinturcotte]

I know it won't be using the full 1200 watts. I wanted a good PSU though, and to be future proofed (Not forever, of course).

Cyberpower and APC are both great. Cyberpower actually makes a lot of APC's smaller consumer units FYI.

I worked for a company that sold Cyberpower and have used many a APC unit, both are really about the same for reliability and performance IMO as long as you get a good model from either company. Both have their weaker models that you can find by looking at user reviews and such most of the time. APC is not as good as they used to be, there are other options.



A 1200w PSU is WAYYY overkill for that system, but since you have it already it should work fine. Just note it will be more inefficient and will not be using near 700 watts let alone 1200 watts.

[Marlin Guy]

I don't care if you're running it with a 1,000 hp Cat diesel.
That's your business.

I like Cyberpower.
I've replaced a number of APC's with them, and they have been flawless.

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=3260286&CatId=234

[dmspen]

I got an APC reconditioned with a new battery fro APC. Been working great for over a year now. It also comes with software to shut down your system if you're not there to power off when the AC goes out.

[Grentz]

BTW, I have received a few units from here:
http://www.refurbups.com/

They seem to be a great online retailer, plus you can snag some great deals.

[kevinturcotte]

I've decided on the APC SUA1500 http://www.apc.com/resource/include/techspec_index.cfm?base_sku=SUA1500 Thanks to Grentz's link (Thanks!!!) it's going to cost me $273 with shipping.

[PokerJoker]

CURRENTLY only drawing about 300 watts, but my current power supply decided to die about 2 months before I needed it to, so I had to throw in the power supply I have for my new computer.
Going to be:

Intel Core i7 920 2.6 Ghz overclocked to about 3.4 Ghz
3 2GB sticks of DDR3 RAM (May add an additional 6GBs later)
ATI Radeon 5870 Video Card (Just 1)
Sound Blaster Audigy 2 ZS Platinum Pro Sound Card
SSD
2 7200 RPM SATA Drives
Blu-Ray Burner
Gb NIC
Flash Card Reader
230 mm Fan
5 140 mm Fans

That's only going to draw about 4-500 watts, not 6-700. That new 5870 card is more power efficient than the older ones. So is the i7 chip. The rest of the stuff in the system draws maybe 100 watts total.

The 1200 watt supply is about twice what you need. On the other hand, you are now all set when you add in a second 5870 for crossfire, and a faster CPU. :D

As to the UPS issue, the one I mentioned will carry it more than long enough to shut down, maybe even long enough to kill that last nasty alien. If this is a Windows 7 system, you will find that generally it shuts down quite a bit faster than XP. And if you plug the UPS into a USB port on the PC, the PC will shut itself off automatically (and properly) when the UPS battery gets too low.

Note: one possible problem area that I'm hearing about is that some large power supplies with active PFC (like maybe yours) *may* not get along too well with some non-Sine-Wave UPS units (which is all the ones under $400). Only way to know is to try it.

(see this thread at Corsair (http://forum.corsair.com/v3/showthread.php?t=77548) or this big thread at jonnyguru.com (http://www.jonnyguru.com/forums/showthread.php?t=3964))

Anyhow, it looks like a nice fast system. Enjoy.

Keith

[kevinturcotte]

That's only going to draw about 4-500 watts, not 6-700. That new 5870 card is more power efficient than the older ones. So is the i7 chip. The rest of the stuff in the system draws maybe 100 watts total.

The 1200 watt supply is about twice what you need. On the other hand, you are now all set when you add in a second 5870 for crossfire, and a faster CPU. :D

As to the UPS issue, the one I mentioned will carry it more than long enough to shut down, maybe even long enough to kill that last nasty alien. If this is a Windows 7 system, you will find that generally it shuts down quite a bit faster than XP. And if you plug the UPS into a USB port on the PC, the PC will shut itself off automatically (and properly) when the UPS battery gets too low.

Note: one possible problem area that I'm hearing about is that some large power supplies with active PFC (like maybe yours) *may* not get along too well with some non-Sine-Wave UPS units (which is all the ones under $400). Only way to know is to try it.

(see this thread at Corsair (http://forum.corsair.com/v3/showthread.php?t=77548) or this big thread at jonnyguru.com (http://www.jonnyguru.com/forums/showthread.php?t=3964))

Anyhow, it looks like a nice fast system. Enjoy.

Keith

It does have Active PFC. UPS I'm going with though has a sine-wave.
And I am running Windows 7. The fast shutdown was one of the first things I noticed compared to Vista. I thought something had gone wrong and maybe I'd lost the power or something lol

[hdtvfan0001]

Bottom line - a decent UPS is always a plus for any kind of computer or video (like a DVR) equipment.

They typically include line protection and filtering, as well as the battery backup for brief periods.

[Grentz]

Note: one possible problem area that I'm hearing about is that some large power supplies with active PFC (like maybe yours) *may* not get along too well with some non-Sine-Wave UPS units (which is all the ones under $400). Only way to know is to try it.

(see this thread at Corsair (http://forum.corsair.com/v3/showthread.php?t=77548) or this big thread at jonnyguru.com (http://www.jonnyguru.com/forums/showthread.php?t=3964))

Anyhow, it looks like a nice fast system. Enjoy.

Keith

I actually have a Corsair 620HX (active PFC) with a non-sinewave UPS. It does not go on UPS power very often at all, but when it does it does make a buzzing sound. Have had the setup for 3 years or so without issue though...frankly I would go with a true sine-wave UPS if I was buying now, but I already had the non true-sine wave one and like I said it does not come on very often at all so it is fine.

[rudeney]

I'm waiting on the day when they start making DC UPS units. Every electronic device that I connect to a UPS is natively DC, but uses internal or external transformers. This means that the UPS is converting incoming AC to DC to charge the battery, then converting it back to AC for the power supply of the device, which then converts it back to DC. I understand the problem with whole-house DC wiring, but wouldn't it be nice if someone could come up with a UPS that output DC and then electronic devices that could be powered directly by it?

[Cholly]

Going even further, wouldn't it be nice if they'd standardaize on connectors as well? Obviously, you couldn't use the same connector for both low power and high power devices, but you could standardize on one connector for low power 5 volt devices, another for 6 volt, another for 12 volt. There's still the issue of polarity, of course.

[Grentz]

Going even further, wouldn't it be nice if they'd standardaize on connectors as well? Obviously, you couldn't use the same connector for both low power and high power devices, but you could standardize on one connector for low power 5 volt devices, another for 6 volt, another for 12 volt. There's still the issue of polarity, of course.

I would love it, or even better standardize it for cell phones, portable devices, network gear, etc.

There have been lots of proposals of such things, especially with cell phones, the issue is everyone always thinks their option is the best and it usually just ends up with a few companies getting on board and then the rest not...thus removing the whole point :(

[rudeney]

Since most PC power supplies put out 3.3v, 5v and 12v, if they would create a standard with that, it would cover 90% of all devices. All we need is for the electronics makers to get with Molex to create a standardized plug.

As for the cell phone issue, most are moving toward USB connectors. Of course some use "mini" and now other use "micro", but at least there are standard. And then there's always the Motorolas and other who demand special chips in their chargers to be "authorized".