PC Peripherals UPS Recommendation Needed

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Black_Hawk

Black_Hawk

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Hello folks :)

The area where I stay has been plagued with power cuts offlate and it's become quite the annoyance really that my PC abruptly shuts off when one of these power failures strike! I recently lost a 1TB HDD and I'm thinking it's the rampant power problems that was the culprit. Right then, I'm planning to invest in a UPS (I know I should have gotten one much earlier, but oh well) and planning to get the APC Back-UPS Pro 1000 (BR1000G-IN) for 6.7k:

APC Power-Saving Back-UPS Pro 1000 with LCD, 230V, India

Now my main question is: Will this UPS be enough for my rig (specs in my siggy) or should I go for a higher model?

There is another 1.1 kVA UPS (non-Pro series) from APC available @4.8k but I don't know if that will hold my rig at full load when gaming?

Regards,
Black_Hawk
 
Black_Hawk said:
Hello folks :)

The area where I stay has been plagued with power cuts offlate and it's become quite the annoyance really that my PC abruptly shuts off when one of these power failures strike! I recently lost a 1TB HDD and I'm thinking it's the rampant power problems that was the culprit. Right then, I'm planning to invest in a UPS (I know I should have gotten one much earlier, but oh well) and planning to get the APC Back-UPS Pro 1000 (BR1000G-IN) for 6.7k:
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I think the Pro is a better-buy, because it should be be a Pure Sine-Wave UPS vis-á-vis the stepped Sine-Wave system the latter [non-Pro] edition has and this has never gone well with my friends VX550W SMPSs'. The non-Pro edition would trip, could not take the load whilst gaming et al OR this could be an issue of poor wiring in the rented apartment we were residing in.

Either-way the after sales service by APC was excellent [in Bangalore] and we went through ~4 -->5 replacements before we got an UPS that behaved as it should. With your current RIG it should hold out for ~5 -->15 minutes depending on the load placed on it [gaming / not gaming / what all peripherals are connected to it et al].

Do let other members pitch in their bits and hope this helped. Cheerio!
 
Thanks @ALPHA17 for your input. Seems like I'm going to right way with the Pro series then. Looking forward to any more input by other members. Mostly I'm going to buy the UPS tomorrow. There was another blackout this evening as well. :(
 
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Black_Hawk said:
Thanks @ALPHA17 for your input. Seems like I'm going to right way with the Pro series then. Looking forward to any more input by other members. Mostly I'm going to buy the UPS tomorrow. There was another blackout this evening as well. :(
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Sorry to here that Mr. S. Check again tomorrow morning and maybe you will have more options, tagging the old-men -- @Gannu, @cranky, @Chaos, @6pack and @Lord Nemesis.
 
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Which part of Kolkata? Apart from 'The' big 4-hour blackout and a fifteen minute downtime in July, we haven't had a power cut since I moved here on 1st July. Contrast this to Gurgaon where the power was on one hour and off two. My UPSs have gone idle.

The BR series are square wave. I have the 1500VA. The 1KVA should be more than sufficient for your rig. Watch for PSU buzz, very irritating.

Only a pure Sinewave UPS can be called that.

'Simulated Sine' is a fancy terms for 'I tried to make it sinewave but I couldn't, so just pay for the effort I put in'.
 
ALPHA17: Yup bro... offlate the power problems have been on the rise and I can pretty much vouch tomorrow evening it's going to be no different. I did have a word with @Gannu and @toolius regarding this. Going to pick up the BR1000G-IN tomorrow. I was planning for a case upgrade but will hold that for a bit. :)
 
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cranky said:
'Simulated Sine' is a fancy terms for 'I tried to make it sinewave but I couldn't, so just pay for the effort I put in.
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This one cracked me up. So at what price does the actual range of Sine-Wave UPS start?
 
cranky: I stay near Salt Lake (V.I.P. Road Crossing). It's almost become a regular thing now, with phase problems. Sometimes one part of my house has electricity and one wing goes dark as house has different phases. Complaining to CESC has yielded nothing except for temporary measures which have failed with time sadly. To top it off I have my shop (ground floor of my building) and there are other big establishments near my shop which share the same plight.

I'm glad to know that the 1KVA (BR1000G-IN) will suffice nicely for my current rig. Will it hold the system for about 5 minutes while gaming/idle? That's the time it takes usually for my house generator to kick in. One more thing... when you mentioned about the PSU buzz, is it there with the Pro series as well? Is it a constant buzzing or when the power goes out and the UPS starts giving backup then the buzzing occurs?

ALPHA17: Bro those Smart-UPS are mighty expensive. Maybe 15k I guess but not sure.
 
ALPHA17 said:
This one cracked me up. So at what price does the actual range of Sine-Wave UPS start?
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Exactly where the offerings of the cheaper ones stop. It's just marketing, really.

Actually not - there are three kinds of UPSs, Square, Stepped Sine (or Simulated Sine) and Pure Sine. Square is the cheapest and most efficient, which means smaller UPSs. Stepped Sine and Pure Sine tend to be larger and less efficient, Therefore work properly only in higher capacities. Fully online models like the Smart UPS are even more unwieldy.

For 99% of home users, a regular square wave UPS is all one needs as long as the output circuit is able to handle a PFC-enabled power supply, and is rated to at least 1.2x the maximum possible wattage load (about twice the VA, so a 1000VA UPS should be used with a maximum of 500W devices).

Black_Hawk said:
One more thing... when you mentioned about the PSU buzz, is it there with the Pro series as well? Is it a constant buzzing or when the power goes out and the UPS starts giving backup then the buzzing occurs?
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Only when running on battery. You should get about 10 minutes at desktop and about 5-7 minutes at full load (gaming) out of that UPS and your rig. Maybe a bit more, but when the power goes out, hit your quicksave and press the power button on the PC for immediate shutdown.
 
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cranky: Thank-you for all the much needed info. I really do appreciate it. I was beginning to panic a little there by the buzzing issue that you stated earlier in your post but since it only occurs when the UPS is running on battery (and thus not for long) I will just have to learn to get used to it I guess. I hope investing in a UPS is a wise decision since I have not had one all these years. I would like to know something, except for HDD's what other components are vulnerable and may get damaged due to sudden power loss? I was speaking to @toolius about this and he said a sudden spike, power-loss could end up harming your mobo or memory sticks as well so a UPS is a much needed investment.

P.S. I'm sorry if my questions are noob-ish, but I really would like to know if the expenditure on a UPS would be worthwhile. (Although I do realise I must get one now due to the recent power issues in my locality but that's another story.)
 
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Most UPS systems do not, in fact, protect you from sudden spikes, only voltage fluctuations. It is true that sudden spikes can cause far more damage, though a good computer PSU will usually take it on the chin (sometimes killing itself in the process without harming downstream components).

A good surge protector (not the idiotic little power strips) is a good investment if you see lots of spikes (common in areas with lots of heavy industry, motors starting and stopping, that sort of stuff). I am not sure why that should be a problem though, I know many people with very high end equipment who live in that part of town and surges aren't a regular feature.

The more I think about it, the more I would suggest you save and get an online UPS, these decouple your system completely from the mains power supply and provide a long runtime so you can smoothly shut down your system.
 
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