So I am looking into buying a UPS for my computer - I know APC as we use it in our server rooms as support UPS and they seem good espcially their software. According to my info I enter at APC UPS selecter page I will need to make due with the following three: http://www.apc.com/resource/include...sku=SURT1000XLI&fnl=4605,2&fnl_basket=4605,3c http://www.apc.com/resource/include..._sku=SUA2200XLI&fnl=4605,2&fnl_basket=4605,3c http://www.apc.com/resource/include..._sku=SUA3000XLI&fnl=4605,2&fnl_basket=4605,3c The last two are out as they seem a bit overkill. Also the computer is standing in the living room which means. The first one is rated at 50 dBA which I guess is not too bad and should not interfere with movie watching and such. The values I used for the APC UPS selector are as follows: Computer: Tower Monitor type: 22-24 inch LCD Processor type: Intel Core i7-800 Internal Hard Drives: 4 Predominant Hard Drive Type: High RPM hard drive User Site Voltage: 230 Printer Type: Ink Jet External Peripherals: Additional Periperals, Powered Speakers, Wireless Access Point, Cable/DSL Router, Seagate 3.5 External Storage HD Extra Power for future expansion: 5% Desired run time during power fail: 5 Minutes Only thing that makes me wonder though is that there is no build in surge protector only regulator so I would need to get one seperatly. Other than that would love to hear if any of you have any opinions on UPS selection in terms of what feature to look out for.
To be honest you wouldn't go wrong with one of these: http://www.apc.com/products/resource/include/techspec_index.cfm?base_sku=SMT1500I&total_watts=50 I use them quite a lot for work. Cheap and cheerful. Sometimes cheaper to find a used unit(minus batteries) on fleabay and then buy new batteries to pop in.
Hmmm ... i just changed my country option and re-ran the wizard and was given one of those you recommended. Just comparing the features to see if anything stand out ...
Uninterrupted power supply. Basically provides a battery backup of power to your PC in a power loss, so you can avoid things like corrupted data in the middle of read or write operations.
just to add to that, a "smart" UPS will send a shutdown signal to the machine via network/USB/serial to allow a clean shut down to avoid situations as described by kidmod.
i've been looking for a similar thing myself - gas anyone had any experience with these? http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/New-Ksta...11?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_15&hash=item2318fea67f pretty cheap
5 minutes doesn't give you time to do much other than a system shutdown, which begs the question what (or why) you consider a UPS important. If you want the ability to carry on computing during a power outage, a laptop (with spare batteries) would be a better choice giving a runtime of hours rather than minutes. If you have a problematic power supply (which most people don't), then a quality filter/surge supressor would offer better value for money. The downside of a UPS is increased power consumption (in the region of 5-15%) due to inefficiencies in multiple AD/DC conversions plus charging a battery. Another problem with some units (including some APCs, but not the model mentioned above) is that they generate a stepped output (an approximation of a sine wave) which could cause problems for some equipment.
The point of a UPS is mostly to smooth out imperfections in the mains line, then if the power goes down completely it allows you to do a SAFE shutdown, ending any drive writes etc properly so as not to end up with a load of corrupt data. Plus the fact that just yanking the power from ANY computer is generally bad. Even if you don't think the computer is doing anything more than likely it's doing some housekeeping in the background.. I myself am going to buy a UPS fairly soon due to the slightly iffy electrics in this house, I'd rather have a few minutes to make sure everything is ok than have a dead rig..
I agree with most of this, however, I would suggest a UPS regardless of the situation as it's really the only solution that keeps your equipment safe in the event of a brownout. I also agree that a 5 minute uptime is a joke. I know that if I were in the middle of a job for a client, just saving my files would take me 10 minutes, then I'd have to shut my machine down. I'd say look for something that will last at least 20 to 30 minutes. Another thing to consider is making sure there are enough outlets for all of your networking equipment, so that you're not left high and dry downloading system updates or FTPing files to a client.
Having a UPS that will provide guaranteed 30 mins uptime for a powerful machine will certainly come at a price! One thing that caught me out was my wireless mouse. When the power dropped for me, it left me mouse-less on the client machine I was using at the time.
If you want silly long uptime then there's nothing stopping you from getting an older Smart UPS 1000i or similar and connecting up a few deep cycle batteries. You can get the bare UPS for about £50 on ebay, then it's just a matter of getting some decent batteries and wiring it up with a 60a fuse inline...
my power is certainly "iffy" and we average a few blackouts a month. This is mostly due to storms. The longest one was a week ago when a power pole got struck by lightning and burned, keeping the power off from 5pm until 9pm. I wasn't on the computer. The biggest issue wasn't the big outage but rather when it came back on it worked, then went out for 2 minutes, worked then dropped for a few minutes, then came on for good. These stops starts played havoc with my external hard drives (sleeping when the xomouter isn't on) and my Nas. I had to restore some drives and was worried some wouldn't power on. Happy to take some suggestions, but i thought a UPS would do the trick to even out these stop starts.
