Choosing a UPS

MothballsWallet

(Apologies if others have already asked about this, but I can't find anything in a thread search.)

I'm looking at buying a UPS (Uninterruptible Power Supply) to protect my computer gear, and I'm trying to narrow down the choices based on what gear I've got and how long I'd like to have as a reserve; my setup is as follows:

• Athlon 64 desktop PC (400W PSU)
• Typhoon speakers
• Shinho AV2 17" CRT monitor*
• Belkin 4-port powered USB 2 hub
• Epson SX215 printer/scanner
• External USB 1TB hard drive **

I'm looking at an emergency runtime of about 15 minutes to let me shut everything down. My questions are:

1. How can I find out the power usage of the peripherals as I know what the PC's power supply generates - I've Googled and looked in the manuals, but can't see any information on that?
2. I definitely need to protect the PC, speakers and monitor, but I'm unsure about the USB hub and printer, I often use the hub for my flash/pen drives or connecting my camera?

* The monitor will have to be replaced soon, and I'll choose an LCD one that'll have lower power consumption.
** This is something else that I'll be buying soon.

Advice and pointers would be appreciated

poppellerant

I would plug the lot into an extension, and use an energy meter that plugs into the wall. Run everything and see what the maximum reading is.

My own estimate for everything being powered on and used, is around 350w. But that's probably only going to be used if you're playing a graphic intensive game, printing and backing up all at the same time! My own extension, with lots more plugged in, uses about 105w at the desktop.

spannerzone

I've got an APC UPS ES 550 (330 Watt) which is an 8 socket (but only 4 are UPS backup) home UPS. I connect my Dell XPS8500 desktop, 22" LCD and ADSL modem rotuer and when the power cuts I get about 5-6 mins of usage before the battery runs out. This is plenty of time to shut down. Run time varies of course.

You'll need to work out what your total consumption is but I reckon it's probably more than mine by perhaps another third (the CRT monitor won't be helping here)

15 mins runtime for a desktop means something a bit bigger than the most basic UPS - so you might need to look at something like 500watt or higher, note that most come with IEC 'kettle' sockets and not 3pin UK sockets so you might need some additional cables. My APC has regular UK sockets which makes life easier.

yangptangkipperbang

Do you REALLY need a UPS for what appears to be a fairly standard domestic set up ?

I used to live out in the "sticks" with not the most reliable of overhead electricity supplies with power cuts being quite common.
It was annoying when it happened in the middle of something - but no more than that. Never had a problem with everything starting up again.
I have a desktop, 2 X 22" monitors, separate scanner, separate printer, speakers, camera, 4 HDDs (2 int and 2 ext).
I have thousands of photographs on my machine, the additional HDDs are a much better investment - with very regular backups.

I used to work for a company that made UPS (commercial/industrial and V expensive, used in Banks, airports etc) - TBH they are a waste of time/money for domestic use. Cheap and nasty ! The o/p is little more than a square wave, the batteries are the cheapest that they can lay their hands on. One or two do show some performance graphs on the web - pretty poor..............

closed

how many power cuts have you had in the last 10 years whilst the pc was on, and what damage did it cause?

ups for speakers and monitor, what for?

John_Gray

Personally, if I was to get one at all, I would just get the biggest capacity APC UPS which supports standard 13A plugs - in fact this one.

As closed says, you really should only UPS (sorry about the verb!) the sensitive electronics, namely the system unit and perhaps your modem/router. If you aren't there at the time the electricity fails, then you need to be able to shut the system unit down automatically/cleanly, and the UPS software should do this for you.

My current unusual problem is that when I turn off my floor-standing electric fan my external USB Seagate hard drive disconnects briefly from the PC! Perhaps I should UPS the fan?

spannerzone

Well in my village about a year ago we were getting power cuts several times a week which when working on a PC is not convenient. The other issue was the power sometimes went down to about 100volts and fluctuated so not too ideal for some devices although most PC equipment would cope.

So for me the UPS is quite important but I certainly didn't bother when living in an area with reliable mains supply. In fact I got a power cut a couple days ago while in the middle of using my PC and noticed the wife's PC stopped working along with the desklamp.

My main criterior is to have the ability to save my work then shut down so a UPS for me only needs two or three mins run time and the little APC I got fits the bill.