Which UPS to get

[Khoomn]

I assumed this would be a good place to put this as its technically a power supply but idk. If needed move to proper sub forum.

 

Anyway. I want to get a UPS for my pc, one that has a surge protector and battery. My problem is I have no clue what the specs of "VA" is when refering to one. I mainly want a UPS because after 2-3 years of owning my r7 3700x and x570 motherboard, I have never updated the bios in fear that something is going to go wrong and the power is going to go out and brick my system. Every single day when I turn on my pc I have to launch ryzen master and apply my overclock, its getting annoying now.

 

Currently I have a surge protector strip (im pretty sure its been surged too many times at this point because the LED indicator flickers). The only things plugged into it are, my really old printer, my speakers and sub, my main 144hz monitor, my second 60hz monitor, and my pc. The pc has a 750W power supply in it but I only have a r7 3700x + rtx 2070 super. So it at best uses like 450-500W?

 

Which UPS would be a good buy for me that wouldnt break the bank for me

[TrigrH]

more VA = more runtime.

 

Expect up to 10mins full load on battery with a 1500va unit.

[Ralphred]

20 minutes ago, Khoomn said:

that wouldnt break the bank for me

Something 2nd hand with a knackered battery you can easily replace is my starting point for cheap UPS's, this also has the added advantage of picking something with a ubiquitous battery design meaning easier servicing going forward.

[191x7]

Buying an UPS just to be safe for a BIOS update is like using a flamethrower to kill a fly. Can do it, but wrong tool for a wrong reason.

Does your place actually loose power often, are there power outages often?

 

I just avoid flashing when there's bad weather outside. Not that many power outages here.

When I purchased my UPS (in 2009?) we had a situation where power outages were often, multiple during the day, that lasted for months. 

The electric company blamed birds on the wires. Until they fixed it.

That was the first time I had to RMA an PSU and the only period I actually needed an UPS for home use.

That UPS now serves only to hold the network routers. 

[Khoomn]

12 minutes ago, 191x7 said:

Buying an UPS just to be safe for a BIOS update is like using a flamethrower to kill a fly. Can do it, but wrong tool for a wrong reason.

Does your place actually loose power often, are there power outages often?

 

I just avoid flashing when there's bad weather outside. Not that many power outages here.

When I purchased my UPS (in 2009?) we had a situation where power outages were often, multiple during the day, that lasted for months. 

The electric company blamed birds on the wires. Until they fixed it.

That was the first time I had to RMA an PSU and the only period I actually needed an UPS for home use.

That UPS now serves only to hold the network routers. 

The thing is the power outages are random. I think in the past 4 years we have had the power go out 10+ based on the sole fact of someone drunk or stupid crashing into the powerline down the road from me. Sometimes power outages happen in the middle of a sunny day other times they happen like normal in a heavy storm. You just never know when the powers going to go out here.

[MahdiC]

2 minutes ago, Khoomn said:

The thing is the power outages are random. I think in the past 4 years we have had the power go out 10+ based on the sole fact of someone drunk or stupid crashing into the powerline down the road from me. Sometimes power outages happen in the middle of a sunny day other times they happen like normal in a heavy storm. You just never know when the powers going to go out here.

Personally, I often try to stay on the safe side and totally get it that sometimes you just don't want to take any risks and this might not be logical to others. With that being said, based on your initial post, I thought getting a ups won't be necessary for that reason, but based on the number of incidents you mentioned here, I believe it won't be a bad idea to get a ups unit (regardless of the bios update!)

 

Back in 2020 working from home, I had to get a ups since apparently we were somewhere at the end of the grid and had a lot of brownouts and blackouts. I had my work pc at home and didn't want to mess with it at all! We also had an 27" iMac that was/is quite sensitive to these brownouts! 

 

I went for CyberPower CP1500PFCLCD and its been working fine since then and saved us the hassle several times so far. There are different models and you should pick sth that suits your workload and equipment. The model that I got has PFC (power factor correction) that's related to the ratio of true power to reactive power being more than a certain number and that's one of the measures of efficiency. It also has AVR (that as far as I understand, corrects minor power fluctuations without switching to battery), and sinewave technology (that matters the most for sensitive equipment).

 

I also noticed in the latest Intel Extreme Tech Upgrade video, Taran got an APC 1500VA unit. Haven't checked that recently, but back then when I was deciding, there were some complains about strong smell for APC units, so I went for CyberPower! But you should probably check again as that might not be the case anymore. 

 

[RollyShed]

23 hours ago, Khoomn said:

Every single day when I turn on my pc I have to launch ryzen master and apply my overclock, its getting annoying now.

Have you checked the battery on the mother board? The little silver round disk, a CR2032 probably. It should be 3 volts.

The battery keeps the BIOS setup to what ever you modify it to after switching off the computer.