Help me pick out a UPS

[DaJe]

It'll probably be a little bit until I have he money to buy one, but I might as well pick one out now. I'd like to plug in my computer, monitor, modem, router, speakers, and phone. Or perhaps I could just plug in my power strip to it. So anyways, I'll need enough outlets and power to run all of that. I'd like it to run for at least an hour, though longer would still be better. I don't think I want to go too crazy expensive on this. Any recommendations?


How about this one? http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16842102048

8 outlets, up to 170 minutes, protection for my modem, ehternet, and phone line.

[Zephik]

That looks awesome. A standard computer or laptop runs at around what? 300W? Thats at minimum six hours of battery life. With a 600W system you still have around three hours.

We have one of those "four digit" ones to power our entire house in case of emergency, but it isn't portable such as that one.

I think with a 600W system and all else you have listed, you will most likely have at least an hours worth of juice.

-SnowFire

[DaJe]

My power supply is 620W with an 80% efficiency. So, think it'll do good? That's 620W with just the computer, and then there's all the other things that go along with it.

[Zephik]

Do you have 620W's worth of stuff in your computer or is that just how much your power supply can handle at max? I have a 400W power supply, but of that, I am only using around 270-300W's thanks to a fried GPU and PCI Card that I took out recently.

During situations where you need a portable power source, you could take things out of your computer and disconnect other things that you don't need. Such as taking out your GPU(s), taking your ram down to 512MB or lower, disconnecting extra optical drives or all if you dont need one, anything that you don't absolutely need. If you are wanting to play video games during a black out, well, I think you can wait a couple or more hours. ;) ...or play runescape instead lol

If you are concerned with "will it be enough?", then my advice would be to look up your products details and find out how much juice it pulls. Add all of that up and do the math. :)

-SnowFire

[DaJe]

Now sure how much is being used, but I have a 7950GX2 (soon to be an 8800GTX), an E6700, 2gb of RAM, 1 400GB SATA HDD, and two disc drives. I'll probably end up getting this one then unless I can find something better. $135 is a good price. By expensive, I mean I don't want to pay $800 for one.

[AJ@PR]

I can only say that APC products are, in my experience, excellent.

That, and that another company that's outside the USA (in Germany) bought APC. .-^linky^-. (http://www.manilatimes.net/national/2006/nov/20/yehey/techtimes/20061120tech1.html)

:)

[Airbozo]

DaJe; My question would be: How often do you lose power?

I used to lose power at my house all the time and usually had other things to worry about. My 1500 watt (950w rated like this one http://www.upsforless.com/index.asp?PageAction=VIEWPROD&ProdID=76&gclid=CI-k65Xck4kCFRAPSQodKDEcyg ) ups lasted about 20 minutes with my big 24" superwide crt 400w max P/S and cable modem.

We rarely lose power anymore and I am usually not home. My one linux server is running xfs file system and on a surge protector, so when the power does go out I have never lost data or hardware. I take that back, I have lost 3 phones to power outages in the time I've lived here.

EDIT: Hell, with this unit;
http://www.4lots.com/index.asp?PageAction=VIEWPROD&ProdID=8
you could just pop out to the local park with your system for an hour or so of wow (assuming you had wifi coverage). Come to think of it, that would be a good mod...

[DaJe]

Actually, power hasn't gone out here in a long time. I'd still like to have one anyway though, also as added protection. And who knows when it may happen again.

[Zephik]

Well I sure wish I had that product!

My power went out last night! It was kind of funny too, because I got up to grab some candles for just in case. Right as I was lighting the last one, the power went out. Coincidence? Yeah, most likely. lol But it was still creepy.

-SnowFire

[DaJe]

Well, my power didn't go out today, but something else happened. My foot caught a cord, causing the whole 6 outlet thing to be pulled out of the wall outlet. Every single item powered down because of that. Computer, monitor, speakers, phone, modem, router, printer, whatever else. But if it was plugged into a UPS, I wouldn't have lost my progress in 3DS Max.

[DaJe]

Yesterday and today, the power keeps dimming. My TV loses audio, my fan goes low, and the furnace even shut off. Now would be a good time to have one.

[nil8]

Better prepared than up **** creek.

[CanaBalistic]

airbozo, how can you loose so many phones? They run off very low power right from the plug and are the only things that works in power outtages.

[nil8]

Not necessarily. It depends on where and what the relay for his phone network is. If he's using copper wire on each relay in the affected area, he shouldn't drop signal. If it includes a fiber relay, it could possibly die.

The power via phone method doesn't worth with optics. Before optical relays it worked fantastic because everything was copper, but now it's mostly the neighborhood or specified grid has a PSTN network and everything beyond is run on fiber. If that relay dies when the power does, oops, there goes the phones.

Upon further reading I get what Cana is asking. Often power issues cause a massive drop in voltage, or a brownout. This can burn up AC electronics that aren't behind devices that 'clean' the incoming signal.

Phones and electricity aren't my strong suits, so if I'm wrong, please someone correct me.

[DaJe]

The strong winds outside blowing the ice covered powerlines make me want a UPS right now. The one I was originally looking at went up in price..

[TonyDigital]

Actually, power hasn't gone out here in a long time. I'd still like to have one anyway though, also as added protection. And who knows when it may happen again.


It's always a good idea to have power protection on any equipment As long as the budget permits, the nicer the better. No one really likes to deal with data loss or hardware failure.

If the budget is an issue you can always buy a refurbished ups (http://www.excessups.com) or if money is not an issue buy a new UPS (http://www.apc.com). However, as long as you're buying a good quality one you should be in good shape.

Personal preference, always stick to Smart UPSs. They're reliable and offer solid protection



Tony

[billygoat333]

wow, another zombie thread. *grabs shotgun*