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Gamers need UPS?

D

Dutch

Limp Gawd
Joined
Aug 10, 2004
Messages
268
How many of you gamers use a UPS?

I know you'd want one if you work from home so you can save work during an outage. Is this pretty much its only purpose?

Are they good to have to prevent harm to your hardware in the even of power outages?

I've gone all these years without one - am I putting my hardware at risk?
 
I personally don't use a UPS. Are you putting your system in harms way? Maybe a little during say....A thunderstrom or power surge event. They are great to use to prevent hardware corruption. I usually see them more often on business servers vs home computers. If you want to be really safe and not spend the money, make sure you back up your stuff often. I hope this helps.
 
I'd invest in one. You spend what...2-3k on your computer/monitors/speakers. Why let it burn due to a small careless mistake that could be fixed for say 200-300 dollars?
 
I have had my rig, router, and modem on a UPS for years due to having issues with crappy wiring to where the power flickers every time the wind blows. It was quite annoying to go LD on a raid back in EQ to come back dead or miss a loot drop, quest kill credit etc.
 
I never was worried so much about black-outs, but brown-outs, oh yeah. I never run any desktop in my household without a UPS. I lost one processor once and it was all it took. Just a nice piece of mind.

I couldn't tell you how many places I would be at and watch the lights flicker and dim. Bad stuff IMO.
 
i run one

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every PC in the world should have a battery backup
i run 1 for each of my 2 PCs, APC Back-UPS XS900 for my main rig+32" LCD and a Back-UPS ES550 for my 2nd/server.

i live in a house only 20 years old and the APC software detects fluctuations worthy of switching to battery power at least once a day. i have the threshold at medium.

the UPSs work perfectly during storms and every time there's a power outtage theyve turned my PCs off successfully.

theyre not so much about saving open work as they are filtering out bad current and shutting PCs and Windows down properly.
 
I use two, one for my server and then one for the router, switch, printer, and my laptop. For my server I use it so that I can safely shut down my RAID 5 without completely losing the power in an outage which happens at least once a month just for a few minutes. The rest are on one to protect from voltage fluctuations and to stay on through brief power outs.
 
I never needed one until I moved into the house I am in now 2 years ago. the first month I was here a power outage took screwed up my pc twice and I had to reinstall windows both times but luckily no physical damage. we get brown outs and outages from time to time and I am so glad I bought a UPS. I should have sent Alabama Power the freakin bill for it though.
 
If you have a computer that is worth triple the price of a half decent UPS then you are doing yourself a disservice by NOT getting one. I've been running one for years on all my boxen and I have never regretted doing so.
 
I have a single UPS running my two desktops, server, laptop, and monitor (which uses as much power as a desktop). Definitely better safe than sorry.
 
I can't remember the last time I had a PC that was NOT connected to a UPS. Heck, I even have one connected to my DVR, TV and consoles.
 
Isn't it better to have a UPS that creates true SINE Wave.

On a side note, is a brownout when the lights dim when something turns on?
 
Blue Fox said:
I have a single UPS running my two desktops, server, laptop, and monitor (which uses as much power as a desktop). Definitely better safe than sorry.
Click to expand...

There isn't a UPS made for 120v operation that can handle two of my desktops and my laptop.
 
I have 7 in the computer room. I got 1 for the big screen in the living room and 1 for my LCD TV with PS3 in my bedroom.

total of 9 UPS in the house.
 
Dan_D said:
There isn't a UPS made for 120v operation that can handle two of my desktops and my laptop.
Click to expand...
All my stuff draws about 700w. If you need more, you can get UPSs up to about 1000w that only use a 15A circuits. If you run a 20A circuit, you can get them up to 2000w. Surely that would be enough...
 
I live in California. There are no thunderstorms here. Thus, I don't see the need for one.
 
AVT said:
I live in California. There are no thunderstorms here. Thus, I don't see the need for one.
Click to expand...
most of our electrical probs have nothing to do with storms. everybody in my neighborhood gets these weird brown outs from time to time. somtimes we will get 10-20 in one day and then nothing for a couple months. everything will dim and I can hear my box fan in my room slow down to a crawl for a few seconds. sometimes it does this in the middle of the night for no apparent reason. heck a couple time I starting a hum in all my monitors every 5 minutes and once I reset the breakers it stopped. other times, usually in the summer, the power just shuts off violenty too :confused:
 
Blue Fox said:
All my stuff draws about 700w. If you need more, you can get UPSs up to about 1000w that only use a 15A circuits. If you run a 20A circuit, you can get them up to 2000w. Surely that would be enough...
Click to expand...

Well standard house hold circuits are only typically 15A. My gaming system runs at around 900watts total with monitor last time I checked. It's almost the UPSes maximum output which is 950 watts. Most 1500VA UPSes can't do 1000watts. Sure a few can, some can do up to 1200 watts which would be enough. But not if I added my gaming PC, a desktop, my laptop and my 30" monitor. I think that would stretch any UPS that uses a 15A circuit.

AVT said:
I live in California. There are no thunderstorms here. Thus, I don't see the need for one.
Click to expand...

Not remotely true. There is plenty of danger of power surges through the electrical lines from issues caused by other things besides electrical storms.
 
Dan_D said:
Well standard house hold circuits are only typically 15A. My gaming system runs at around 900watts total with monitor last time I checked. It's almost the UPSes maximum output which is 950 watts. Most 1500VA UPSes can't do 1000watts. Sure a few can, some can do up to 1200 watts which would be enough. But not if I added my gaming PC, a desktop, my laptop and my 30" monitor. I think that would stretch any UPS that uses a 15A circuit.
Click to expand...
Just install a 50A 220V outlet and run everything off that. I have one in my garage and was going to use it for a rack. :p
 
Dan_D said:
Well standard house hold circuits are only typically 15A. My gaming system runs at around 900watts total with monitor last time I checked. It's almost the UPSes maximum output which is 950 watts. Most 1500VA UPSes can't do 1000watts. Sure a few can, some can do up to 1200 watts which would be enough. But not if I added my gaming PC, a desktop, my laptop and my 30" monitor. I think that would stretch any UPS that uses a 15A circuit.



Not remotely true. There is plenty of danger of power surges through the electrical lines from issues caused by other things besides electrical storms.
Click to expand...

So Dan, if a UPS can't handle your rigs, does this mean you use nothing?
 
CptFalcon said:
Isn't it better to have a UPS that creates true SINE Wave.

On a side note, is a brownout when the lights dim when something turns on?
Click to expand...

With a active PFC power supply it will buzz a little when running on battery backup if it isn't a true sine wave, but during normal operation your running of mains. Enermax is the only company I can think of that says to only use true sine wave UPS backups.

Just in case you're wondering what the big deal is it's similar to clipping subs or speakers. Square wave sent to the capacitors in the psu will be a higher rms voltage than that of a sine wave with the same peak to peak and could possibly exceed the voltage rating of the capacitors. With a simulated sine wave ups that is common nowadays on a active PFC power supply that isn't going to happen, but you will have to put up with a little buzzing from the inductive filtering of the PSU till shutting down. I'm set to shutdown after one minute in case of a power outage, and I'd rather buzz for a minute than take a direct blackout or brownout.
 
I have each of my computers on a UPS.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16842102048

I have a friend at BB who was able to pick these up for me cheap. Not true SINE output, but it kicks in during brownouts and whatnot and has saved me a few times. I just have a PC, my router/modem, and a monitor hooked up to it. No need for printers or speakers during a power outage.
 
Dutch said:
So Dan, if a UPS can't handle your rigs, does this mean you use nothing?
Click to expand...

Not at all. I barely get by on one 1500VA UPS (Total output, 950watts) for my main gaming machine. I also use an APC 1500VA unit on my other desktop. I've got a smaller UPS on both my girlfriends gaming rig and my HTPC in the living room. So basically four desktops, all running their own UPS.

My gaming desktop under full load using 3 Geforce GTX 280 OC cards pulls about 875-920watts including the monitor and my external SATA array. It pulled 1050watts when I had dual ATI Radeon 4870 X2's in CrossfireX in it. To my knowledge there is no UPS that is designed to work on a 15A circuit using a standard 110v plug that can handle more than 1200watts total output. Between that and my rather typical Core 2 Duo desktop machine which pulls around 300 watts or something like that, there is no way I can slide by on that kind of UPS. I'd need a dedicated 20A circuit and a higher end UPS to handle them together. That's why I made that statement.

I've got too much invested into my computer equipment to NOT use a UPS. I mean christ I spend probably between $10,000 and $15,000 a year on computer hardware. It's just wise to protect it.
 
Dan_D said:
Not at all. I barely get by on one 1500VA UPS (Total output, 950watts) for my main gaming machine. I also use an APC 1500VA unit on my other desktop. I've got a smaller UPS on both my girlfriends gaming rig and my HTPC in the living room. So basically four desktops, all running their own UPS.

My gaming desktop under full load using 3 Geforce GTX 280 OC cards pulls about 875-920watts including the monitor and my external SATA array. It pulled 1050watts when I had dual ATI Radeon 4870 X2's in CrossfireX in it. To my knowledge there is no UPS that is designed to work on a 15A circuit using a standard 110v plug that can handle more than 1200watts total output. Between that and my rather typical Core 2 Duo desktop machine which pulls around 300 watts or something like that, there is no way I can slide by on that kind of UPS. I'd need a dedicated 20A circuit and a higher end UPS to handle them together. That's why I made that statement.

I've got too much invested into my computer equipment to NOT use a UPS.
Click to expand...

+1 QFMFT
 
All I can say is that I love my APC XS1500+battery side car. When we lost power here in SW Ohio for a week a while back this thing powered chargers and radios until the power came back on. Thats the only time I haven't been kicking myself for buying the battery pack for it though, most other times I wish I had just gotten a second UPS :p It is nice being able to keep on gaming until the room just gets too hot though.
 
Well, I'm doubly protected, I have a really nice UPS and my house is off the grid so I don't have to worry about the crappy Southern California power.
 
Lost a good router a few years back, had a UPS on the Pc but no cable protection, cable went out during a thunder storm and so did the router, few bucks more and full protection since.
 
I really need one, but they are so expensive, about what a cheap computer costs!
 
I only use a APC 1200R voltage regulator for my machine and monitor, that way it wont get destroyed when electric current goes mad, and my voltage is always optimal and smooth.
 
I think it very much depends where you live. When i've been over in the States (e.g. this summer in CT) the lights were flickering and dimming every few seconds, I was like :eek:
In the UK we don't get anything like that and only have a powercut maybe once a year, if that, so I don't have one.
 
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