UPS Selection

Nexillus

[H]ard|Gawd
Joined
Nov 6, 2012
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Hello all!

Back again after working too much! Now come down to a few questions, I have done some research but would like suggestions from people who have much more experience than I do when it comes to UPS's.

I am currently trying to pick some UPS as with the thunderstorms lately has caused several power interruptions, short but enough to knock my computers offline.

I currently have two computers one that is on a 750watt seasonic that pulls~500w at full load and my other is a 1000w seasonic that pulls ~650-700 at full load. (Taken from killa-watt meter).

I am not looking for any UPS to sustain play but enough for it not to be shut off and I am able to soft boot it down.

I have looked at the following models.
OMNIVS1500XL
SMART1500LCDT
CP1500PFCLCD

If I get the above models I would like get two of them, another idea is to get an UPS big enough to put both computers on instead of two?

Any suggestions or help would be greatly appreciated!
 
Better to have one per desktop, that way you can have a 1:1 relationship so the monitoring software can shut them down cleanly in the event of a power outage and you don't have to deal with annoyances of networked ups software.

far as the selection goes: can't say much there, i've only owned APC units.
 
I'm going to ask a related question here as I'm currently in the same boat.

Assuming I have a PSU that can pull 500w from the wall at full load (to make it more relevant to the OP's scenario) accounting for the PSU efficiency, will a lower capacity UPS be able to handle it? I only need the UPS to give enough time for me to shutdown and gaming is probably the most intensive thing I do.

To be clearer, what I'm asking is if drawing more wattage from the wall while the UPS has power in will trip any overdraw protection on the UPS itself.

I'm actually looking at the CP1500PFCLCD myself, except the 220v version

These UPS prices scale geometrically with a linear increase in wattage capacity :/
 
I'm going to ask a related question here as I'm currently in the same boat.

Assuming I have a PSU that can pull 500w from the wall at full load (to make it more relevant to the OP's scenario) accounting for the PSU efficiency, will a lower capacity UPS be able to handle it? I only need the UPS to give enough time for me to shutdown and gaming is probably the most intensive thing I do.

To be clearer, what I'm asking is if drawing more wattage from the wall while the UPS has power in will trip any overdraw protection on the UPS itself.

I'm actually looking at the CP1500PFCLCD myself, except the 220v version

These UPS prices scale geometrically with a linear increase in wattage capacity :/
Best way to tell would be to get something like a kill-a-watt (reasonably certain they make 220v versions) and see what the computer draws while under load. You can plan accordingly but keep in mind that if you ever upgrade and the power usage goes up you'll be effectively without a UPS.
 
Kill-a-watts are inaccurate at best, and blatently wrong at worst. I wouldn't trust it.

This is one situation where I say get the biggest one you can afford. One just big enough for your load may only last for 30 seconds, where one made for twice your load may last 4-5 minutes. I pull approx. 600w from the wall full load, my UPS is capable of 810w/1350va. It lasts 3 or so minutes on batteries even while gaming. It's saved acouple of League of Legends games. :D
 
Like the OP I experience a large number of thunderstorms and so I have a 1500 APC model that I am running my main PC, monitors and my networking hardware to include a pfSense router, FreeNAS box, switch and cable modem. Under normal load (ie not gaming) I pull roughly 50% capacity. My PC when not gaming runs around 230 from the wall (kill-a-watt).

As for the shutting down of the other systems, I don't put much emphasis on that aspect as the real issue that I face is the brown outs and minor power blips caused by these storms.
 
Is this a decent UPS? I plan to get the 220V variant. It's 325$ with all the OPing going around in my country.

The APC simulated sinewave variants are about the same price, while the CyberPower/FSP ones are around 150-170$.

http://www.cyberpowersystems.com/products/ups-systems/adaptive-sinewave-series/CP1500PFCLCD.html

I see a lot of people rooting for/against the stepped/simulated sinewave ones, with one post somewhere claiming that this blew his monitor.

Right now I'm just stuck on a 20$ 1KW AVR.

Best way to tell would be to get something like a kill-a-watt (reasonably certain they make 220v versions) and see what the computer draws while under load. You can plan accordingly but keep in mind that if you ever upgrade and the power usage goes up you'll be effectively without a UPS.

I generally have a rough idea of what my machine can pull under power load scenarios, but especially with my main, I'm not sure if I'll do dual GPU in the future which will necessitate me replacing the UPS as well if ever.
 
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