Looking for a Good UPS

[maverick786us]

I am not sure whether this is the right thread. I am looking for a good UPS for my newly purchased rig. If you have a look at my signature, you can clearly see that I am using a 650W PSU, with 22 inch Dell Monotor whose power consumption ranges from 35W to 75W. Plus I am going to purchase Logitech Z5500 speakers within few months once its price decline.

I consider APC to be the world class UPS. In fact at home I have 2 APC UPS one is Back-UPS RS 800VA 230V

and another one is
APC BACK-UPS ES 650VA .

What is Minimum Volt-Ampere I require for my current Rig along with Logitech Speakers?

I doubt if
APC BACK-UPS ES 650VA though not sure. 1000VA is very expensive here almost more than twice the rate then 650. Besides APC are there other companies which provide world class Smart UPS in reasonable rates?

Please feel free to drop your suggestions

 

[Ocellaris]

Plus I am going to purchase Logitech Z5500 speakers within few months once its price decline.

normally its a pretty stupid idea to put things like speakers on battery backed up outlets.

 

[Cmustang87]

I'm in the same boat as the OP also. Ocellaris, why is it a bad idea to plug speakers into that? Because it draws more unncessary power, or is there a different reason?

I'm a power supply newb, i would like to know.

 

[Zepher]

I've got my entire system hooked up to my APC Back-Ups RS 1200, including my Powered Alesis Studio monitors. Doesn't cause any problems with the UPS.

I would go with APC since they have great customer service and support.
I had a 4 year old APC Back-Ups 1100 go bad on me, exchanged a couple of emails and they sent me a new Back-ups RS 1200 overnight for free. I didn't even have to pay shipping.

 

[Menelmarar]

Googling your APC 650VA.
http://www.apc.com/resource/include/techspec_index.cfm?base_sku=BE650R-CN
"Output Power Capacity: 390 Watts"

Your computer's power supply is a 650W, meaning it can supply 650W of DC power to the components inside your PC. It can draw upto 812W from the wall, or from your UPS. Granted it's only going to do that worst case.

Hard's review of the HD4850, which you ahve in your sig, showed their system pulling worst case 300W + your display + your sound system. It may work, but personally I would get a larger UPS.

If you have Active PFC, you may really want a UPS that has true sinewave output, and not stepped/simulated sine wave. The stepped simulated can run serious havok on some Active PFC power supplies. I don't know for sure, but I suspect the Corsair's are such.

http://www.apc.com/tools/ups_selector/index.cfm

 

[Michael Daly]

You'll be marginal with the 650VA. 650VA is 390W - your VGA probably draws about 250W max and the rest of the computer another 100-125 for a total of about 350-375. Add the monitor and you're over 390W. At idle you'll be comfortably under 390W.

Don't put anything other than the computer and monitor on the UPS. If you trust the automated shutdown process on the computer and can risk having it shut down a program you're using, don't plug the monitor into the backup - just plug it into the surge protected outlets. It can shut down "blind."

If you want some up-time without shutting down or want a wider margin of power surplus, go with a bigget UPS. I wouldn't recommend anything other than APC.

 

[Term-X]

I use a TrippLite 1000VA/500w OMNI1000LCD (it's called something else in the states though I think) for $99 CAD at Costco. No problems and has worked like a charm. Powers everything in my sig including the TV for about ~5 minutes.

 

[JonGerow]

I'm in the same boat as the OP also. Ocellaris, why is it a bad idea to plug speakers into that? Because it draws more unncessary power, or is there a different reason?

I'm a power supply newb, i would like to know.

Powered speakers use significant power. When the power goes out, why do you NEED your speakers? You should just have essentials plugged into the UPS so you can stop and save what you're doing and shut down properly. Speakers, printer, powered USB hub and the USB pole dancer plugged into it.... these items don't need to be powered during a blackout.

 

[Zepher]

My thoughts on this, plug everything but a laser printer into the UPS.
You are using the UPS to protect the machine from sudden power drop offs.
Quite a few times, the power will cut off and on in a matter of seconds, this is what causes major electronics damage, especially with hard drives.

My system uses 310-320 at idle and 390 at full load.
I've got 11 hard drives, 2 19" LCD's, 200watt Alesis M1 Active MK2 powered Studio Monitors, 5 port GigE Switch, 5 port 10/100 switch, 7 port USB Hub, Altec Lansing Zune Speaker, Cordless Phone, 3 Cell phone chargers, Canon DSLR charger, and Panasonic miniDV Charger.

 

[JonGerow]

My thoughts on this, plug everything but a laser printer into the UPS.
You are using the UPS to protect the machine from sudden power drop offs.
Quite a few times, the power will cut off and on in a matter of seconds, this is what causes major electronics damage, especially with hard drives.

For this, I would suggest an AVR. They're cheap and will prevent components like speakers, etc. to drain your battery. I just don't see the need for putting speakers, etc. on a UPS. Brown outs do damage electronics, yes. But the battery in a UPS isn't going to help that, the AVR in the UPS will, so you might as well just get a stand alone AVR.

 

[Woblin_Goblin]

Brown outs do damage electronics, yes. But the battery in a UPS isn't going to help that, the AVR in the UPS will, so you might as well just get a stand alone AVR.

If a UPS provides power during a power outage how does the battery not protect the equipment against brownouts? I'm asking because I don't know much about UPSs.

Also, what does AVR stand for? I've tried a couple google searches but I'm not stumbling on to information I'm looking for.

Thanks.