UPS question

NVgamer

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I just bought a Cyberpower CP850AVRLCD 850VA/510W UPS now am not sure if I should be worried but when I was doing some benching the ups was beeping and showing me drawing over 560 watts on the LCD and the software was stating "backup battery overload", is this safe to be over the rated battery wattage?

btw the only thing I have plugged into the battery back side of the ups is just the tower alone.
 
no its not safe if you overloading the ups it will just cut out if theirs a power failure and you might burn it up.

you have a 1200w psu why would you only buy a 500w ups?
 
no its not safe if you overloading the ups it will just cut out if theirs a power failure and you might burn it up.

you have a 1200w psu why would you only buy a 500w ups?
Power supply wattage has no bearing on how much power it draws. You might want to consider getting a larger UPS however as currently it's just acting as a big power strip.
 
I just bought a Cyberpower CP850AVRLCD 850VA/510W UPS now am not sure if I should be worried but when I was doing some benching the ups was beeping and showing me drawing over 560 watts on the LCD and the software was stating "backup battery overload", is this safe to be over the rated battery wattage?

btw the only thing I have plugged into the battery back side of the ups is just the tower alone.


The UPS will shutoff if you are over the rating and need to use the battery. In effect the UPS will not be used as Blue Fox mentioned.

My advice if you want a UPS get a 1500VA one. Make sure it has at minimum 2 batteries and it should also weigh 30lb or more. In my opinion a 16lb UPS is a good for a router or low power device but not a high end machine.

Look on eBay. You can get server grade APC units for under $200 shipped. Refurbished with new batteries.
 
do you guys think its important to get a UPS for a gaming rig? in normal gaming situations am hitting 450-460 watts and its not overloading it then but if I start up furmark or vantage the ups will pass its limit on battery back up mode and beep. Is it possible that my UPS can "blow up" or is it fine for me to go over that rated spec but I wont get use of UPS only during bench marking/heavy load apps? thanks for all the input much appreciated :)
 
Interesting question, I wish I had a schematic of exactly how that alarm worked and what it has as impact to the operation of the rest of the UPS.

But I assume it is just a monitoring circuit. That would make the most sense.

Your video card eats 300W fully loaded. So yea kicking that into a 3D benchmark along with that OCed CPU and the UPS complaining is not a surprise.

You are in a marginal situation. Don't use the UPS during benching, I mean really who cares if you crash running a benchmark and how often does the power go out anyway. Just don't bench/test during thunderstorms :)

I have to guess not knowing a lot more about that UPS, that if you use it properly in that as soon as the power fails you perform an orderly shutdown of the machine you will be fine. Marginal but fine. With the only likely damage perhaps slightly reduced battery life due to the deeper discharge during the time it takes to get the machine off.

So to your question,

It is not overloaded playing you game and you are fine.

However it all depends on how/what your expectations are for the UPS.

If you intend it to keep you from crashing the OS and possibly corrupting Windows or disconnecting you from the net while gaming etc. for just a few seconds during a "blip" in the power I think you are OK.

If you use the UPS as manuf intended (it is not a true battery backup power supply) and shut down just as soon as you realize that the power is going to be off for more than a couple of seconds you are OK.

If you think you can continue to play your game when the power goes off, as I think you realize, you will not have long before the batteries are expended, great reduce battery life due to the deep cycling/drain that will happen, and put a lot of stress on the UPS electronics as you are pretty close to the units max ratings.

So "is it important ... gaming" .

IMO its important for ANY computer to have a UPS to prevent damage to the OS and software (and a lesser extent the hardware as most have some kind of surge suppression) during power loss. But the idea of all of these consumer type UPS units is that you use the "grace period" for a quick and orderly shutdown ASAP after the power goes. That is critical and is the intent of the unit (as well as to keep you up during those pesky "blimps"). If you want to continue to play the game after the power goes out, you are in trouble and the unit is both not the correct kind of hardware nor of sufficient size. Power goes out, you get the hell out of the game right then and there with an "Power out, I will be back as soon as I can " and shut down right the hell now and you should be fine.

Like your Johnson, it has a lot to do with how professionally you use it as opposed to how big it is once you get past the 'bigger is always better'.
 
Is it possible that my UPS can "blow up"

I doubt it will blow up. I have overloaded UPSs in the past. And I am talking about more than 1. I have several dozen UPSs between home and work. They just instant power off when they are overloaded and on batteries.
 
so my main concern at this point is when I go over the rated amount of power on the battery and my alarm goes off is it safe to benchmark as long as the AC power is on?
 
You UPS will start beeping / alarming you when you have more than 80% usage on the UPS... in your case at 400W.

I would suggest getting a bigger UPS... something rated at 1500VA/800W. I believe that's the largest UPS you can get w/o needing needing electrical work.
 
I believe that's the largest UPS you can get w/o needing needing electrical work.

Correct. Everything higher than 1500 VA requires a 20A outlet (nema 5-20) and 20A wiring ( 12 or 10 gauge wiring) with a 20A circuit breaker. DO NOT fix the problem by going to the local hardware store and getting a 20A outlet to replace your 15A outlet. 14 gauge wiring will get warm/hot when run over its specification and this can cause a fire. Also most likely if you have 14 gauge copper wiring you will have a 15A breaker / fuse (well if it is correctly up to code). This fuse/breaker will blow when the UPS tries to charge the batteries.
 
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