UPS question.

[crawford60]

I've been looking into getting a UPS to protect my gaming PC. The PC in question is the one in my sig. (Note: I do run the Folding@Home GPU client on the PC, so the GPU is drawing full power all the time.) I'm not expecting long life, just enough to keep it up if the power blinks quickly, or long enough for me to turn it off.

I've been looking at these two UPSes

http://www.staples.com/office/supplies/p1_UPS-Backup-Systems_210595_Business_Supplies_10051_SEARCH

http://www.staples.com/office/suppl...12266_Business_Supplies_10051_SEARCH#desclink

is either one enough? Is there a better brand or backup life for the price? I'm not looking at spending much more than $100, and less is always good if there is a better choice. Thanks.

 

[Zero82z]

Either one should be enough, although the 650VA one would be cutting it pretty close, and just don't expect more than a minute or two of power before the battery is drained. Note that I'm estimating based on your PC and a monitor (assuming it's an LCD) only, so if you plan on having other stuff hooked up, you'd probably need something bigger.

 

[crawford60]

yeah, I only plan on hooking up the PC and a 17" LCD.

Thanks for the reply.

 

[ferrisnox]

If you are not married to buying one from Staples or a certain brand I have had luck with Cyber Power
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16842102085
I picked mine up from Fry's... I imagine shipping would be a pain though.

 

[crawford60]

I would prefer to buy one at staples, as they are the only local place that carries them.

I'd have to drive over an hour to get to something like a bestbuy/circutcity

 

[REaL56]

Check out Circuit City online, I got an APC 1300VA for $120. Enough to power my gaming rig and my 30 inch monitor for about 20 minutes.

 

[Zepher]

Your machine will probably pull about 350 watts at full load and if you are only choosing one of those 2 you linked, you would want to get the top one with 450watts of power.

I would also stick to an APC branded one. They hooked me up big time earlier this year.
My 4 year old and out of warranty Back-Ups Pro 1100 died on me and I emailed them about it, they asked for a serial number, gave it to them, and then they overnighted me a Back-Ups RS 1200 for free.

 

[crawford60]

thanks for the responses.

 

[BillR]

I would prefer to buy one at staples, as they are the only local place that carries them.

I'd have to drive over an hour to get to something like a bestbuy/circutcity

Check out Circuit City online, I got an APC 1300VA for $120. Enough to power my gaming rig and my 30 inch monitor for about 20 minutes.

Not to mention that while CC lives they will ship that unit for free as it’s over $24.99

 

[RADEoN]

I work at staples as a tech, and we sell cyber power brand UPS'.

 

[djgizmo]

which are crap...

 

[jstwong]

APC is a pretty reputable UPS brand, and they offer some nice services as already noted above, plus the ability to recycle / replace older worn out batteries down the line. I've been using APC UPS units for many years now and have not had any issues.

One word of caution no matter what brand you buy... Be careful of UPS units that are on clearance / super sale. They could be old stock, and hence the battery in them could have be seriously drained / dead from sitting on the shelf for too long. Since these are lead acid batteries [don't know of any UPS units that use other types of batteries, but there could be], running them down all the way is bad for the battery's overall life.

 

[dandragonrage]

Liebert or APC SmartUPS. Accept no substitute.

 

[Max|m]

I have several APC SmartUPS's and I can say that they have been the best I have found to work with. You can find replacement batteries cheap on ebay so they basically have an unlimited lifespan. The nice thing about the APC's is that you can set windows up to shutdown when the battery level hits a specified %. Perfect for those situations when the power goes out and your not home which is normally the case.