Howdy, Stranger!

It looks like you're new here. If you want to get involved, click one of these buttons!

What UPS should I get.

CleffyCleffy Member RarePosts: 6,412

I need something that will keep my power steady through small dips in electricity, so it really does not need alot of wattage.  Its only going to have UPS power going to the tower.  Here are the specs.

  • MSI AM3 890FX/GD70
  • AMD 1090T
  • MSI HD5870
  • 4x 4GB Corsair Vengeance 1600Mhz
  • OCZ Agility 2 90GB
  • WD Caviar Black 500GB
  • WD Caviar Black 1TB
  • Thermaltake Toughpower Grand Gold 650w

Comments

  • QuizzicalQuizzical Member LegendaryPosts: 25,347

    If the power supply cable is really going to be the only thing plugged into the UPS, then you need at least about 400 W.  But are you sure that you're not going to plug in monitors, speakers, a modem, and so forth?  Because that could add some wattage, too.  And you probably don't want something that is barely adequate, so that upgrading your video card would require replacing the UPS.

    The UPS I have is this one:

    http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16842102070

    I don't know how many times it has had to kick in since I bought it, but my guess would be about 20 or 30.  It's worked flawlessly as far as power delivery goes, and kept my computer running through a number of power flashes and power outages.

    There are a few potential drawbacks of it, however:

    1)  The light on the power button is bright.  I don't like that, so I covered it up with cardboard.

    2)  It beeps when there is a power outage.  Sometimes this means that a power outage in the middle of the night will wake me up from the UPS beeping.

    3)  Occasionally Windows doesn't recognize the UPS when it boots.  Unplugging the USB cable and plugging it back in fixes the problem.  This won't prevent the UPS from functioning, but it will prevent it from telling the computer what it is doing.

    -----

    Another thing that you may want to consider is the waveform of the UPS when you're getting power from the battery.  Power supplies generally want a sinusoidal wave form.  Different UPSes may output different waveforms, and if something is too far from sinusoidal, the power supply might not like it and decide to just shut down.  In some cases, a power supply will accept a waveform it doesn't like up to some wattage threshold far below its nominal wattage, and then shut down if you go over that threshold.   To have a UPS kick in when you lose power, only to have the power supply not like the UPS waveform and shut down in protest rather defeats the point of getting a UPS.

    UPSes that deliver a true sinusoidal wave are rather expensive, and usually double conversion models.  That's great for mission-critical hardware that must never, ever, ever accidentally shut down.  But it's way too expensive and noisy for consumer use, and burns a lot of power even while the power from the wall is fine.  What you really want is a "line-interactive" UPS that will monitor the power coming from the wall and usually just pass it through, but only kick in if something goes wrong from the wall.

    The worst waveform that you're likely to find from a UPS is a square wave.  The next step up from that is a "simulated sine wave", which is really a step function, and not sinusoidal at all.  It might toggle as something like 0 V for 1/240 s, +170 V for 1/240 s, 0 V for 1/240 s, -170 V for 1/240 s, and then repeat that sequence.  The 170 V rather than 120 V isn't a problem; the "120 V" rating is a root mean square, and the actual amplitude of the sine wave is about 170 V.  You can have more intermediate steps, which is better and makes the waveform closer to sinusoidal.

    Cyber Power Systems also has a PFC line of UPSes, which has a waveform that isn't perfectly sinusoidal, but it's pretty close--and close enough that you don't need to worry that it isn't perfect.  This is the typical line-interactive sort that you might be interested in, rather than double conversion, but gives a better waveform output.  The relevant models, depending on your needed wattage, are:

    http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16842102132

    http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16842102133

    I'm not aware of an analogous line of power supplies from the other UPS vendors.  They might have such a line, but I'm simply not aware of it.

    Also, Cyber Power Systems has nothing to do with Cyber Power PC, in spite of the similar name.  The former is based on Minnesota and sells power hardware such as UPSes and surge protectors, while the latter (which you've likely heard of) assembles gaming computers.  Incidentally, the UPSes that Cyber Power PC sells are Opti-UPS, not Cyber Power Systems.  Maybe that's a fluke, or maybe they just didn't want customers thinking it was some cheap junk house brand UPS that they were selling.

Sign In or Register to comment.