Hi again all, I'm looking for some general info on UPSs (Uninterruptable Power Supplies). Where I live the power is prone to cut out if it rains hard (which it does about once a month - think tropical storm). I have had no real previous dealings with this kind of thing and a quick look on scan yielded brand names I have no clue about, also most seem to have low Watts ratings. So my questions are: What are the good, reliable brand names that I can trust? What kind of Wattage should I be looking at? (Corsair AX850 and soon (hopefully) 670 GTX and i5 Ivybridge) Any recommendations? Ideally I want low weight and not to big (the smaller the better) Further info, I would only need the battery to last 15-30 mins max just to back up work/print if required etc Is there a better option? Thanks for any help. If I need to give further info then I will and sorry I haven't included it here but as I said not really sure about this stuff.
I read this Techrepublic article a few weeks ago, it might be a good starting point. But we have plenty of IT folks on here who will know much more about what you're looking for.
I personally use Eaton Ellipse ECO 1200. 750W/1200VA, you can use their own software or NUT (networkupstools), but for your use case it would be a overkill. Your peak power usage will be somewehere around 400W, that means ~750VA. What you should look for is : 1) if it has USB interface (no interface or serial interface are not a really good choice these days) 2) if it has IEC connectors or standard power outlets for your country - standard power outlets allows you to have other electronics on the UPS as well, for example routers or modems. 3) it's wattage rating should be higher than the peak power consumption of all connected devices.
APC and MGE/Eaton are the major brands, they are also the ones with best support from community as well (unless the manufacturer does something which cannot be fixed - APC likes to do that). If you intend to use alternative software, then please check out their support list : http://www.apcupsd.org/ http://www.networkupstools.org/stable-hcl.html As i said before, i use Eaton Ellipse ECO 1200 because i backup two computers and two display (one of them is a home server with ~100-150W power usage, another is a gaming PC with ~90-350W power usage plus two ZR2740w's with ~30-50W power usage each). Before that i used APC BackUPS ES 700VA, which was fine, except it didn't refresh the status information unless it ran from backup power or the connection to the UPS was established just now. I personally like the Ellipse ECO 1200 much, it doesn't have a fan (some high VA UPS do have them), it has standard socket connectors (no need to search for IEC13->IEC14 cables) and it is well supported by community software as well (no dependency on manufacturer support for software part).
