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What UPS to pick

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On 1/22/2025 at 10:48 PM, Mad Jester said:

what the best UPS to choose

I recently got my first UPS, a 1000W APC UPS with a data port to trigger a soft shutdown when on battery and it's running low. The unit new was just over $200 but I got it used with a dead battery for $60 and then spent $64 on a LiFePO4 battery instead of a lead acid that came standard since those have a 3-5 year replacement cycle vs ~10 years.

 

That said, if you're using a 5090 that won't work and may have to buy new to get something with enough wattage to handle a 5090, 9950x, and possibly your modem, router/switch, and monitor if you want to keep playing through a brief power outage. Otherwise, just plug in the computer for the safe shutdown functionality.

 

The two big consumer brands are APC and Cyberpower with the former being seen as the industry standard and the latter being slightly less expensive with occasional QC issues (per Reddit commenters). Eaton comes up at the lower end of the higher range (1200w+) that you're looking at but I have no personal experience with them. I've heard decent things, though.

 

The industry standard is somehow still lead acid batteries that have no fire risk and allow for rapid discharges but do need replacement every few years, but APC sells some Lithium UPS units- for a very healthy price premium. Alternatively, especially at the lower and midrange you can put in a drop-in LiFePO4 replacement, but the maximum discharge rate may not be quite as good as a lead acid and trigger the internal battery management system to shutoff if it detects too much power draw in a short time frame. At 575 Watts for just the GPU and then the CPU etc on top I'd not risk using a drop-in replacement to save money without some extensive research on discharge rates etc.

 

It would defeat the purpose of a UPS if it shut itself off from too much power draw when you actually needed it instead of going for some time and then triggering a safe shutdown via the data cable (or network card on the higher end models) when the battery reaches a defined level of low.

 

I could talk about VA vs W numbers, stepped sine-wave models, pure-sine wave models, models intended for servers, standby UPS vs Line interactive vs double conversion (listed in order of safety and price) and more I encountered in my research to get a good 1000W for myself, but ultimately it mostly depends on your budget.

 

If you're going to drop $2k on a GPU and more on the CPU it makes no sense to risk potential damage by cheaping out on the PSU or UPS, especially if an area has occasional outages you may as well get a 1200W, pure-sine wave, Line interactive or double conversion model if you can find a deal. Someone else can tell you if you can get away with a 1000W UPS as it's a decent price increase from 1000W to 1200W. I hope that helps.

 

Hi.

 

           Long time fan here, though this is my first time posting in your forum ( tbh i didn't know you had one LOL ). Any way I just want to ask your opinion. I am currently building a 5090pc and Ryzen 9950x for both prod. and gaming of course, and I remember Linus always saying to have a UPS. This will be my first build, so I would like to ask what the best UPS to choose from for this build. Oh yeah, I've watched like 100 videos of linus teaching how to assemble a PC but I am still scared of doing it because of how much I'll be spending. Hope to hear from you soon.

 

P.S. I am from the Philippines so most brands available to us would be the mainstream stuff which means they're gonna be expensive which sucks.

 

 

Stay awesome! 

 

Your "scrapyard war" and "extreme tech upgrade" fan.

 

 

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I'm no UPS expert, but is this just a gaming PC? How important are the things you do on it? If you don't mind losing some data (not saving the very last thing you did, on a game or otherwise) then you don't really need a UPS per se. Obviously one that outputs enough power for your computer. Other than that, there isn't much to say about UPS's. Maybe the Lab will test some available in your area as to which is the most reliable.

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On 1/24/2025 at 1:26 PM, Issac Zachary said:

I'm no UPS expert, but is this just a gaming PC? How important are the things you do on it? If you don't mind losing some data (not saving the very last thing you did, on a game or otherwise) then you don't really need a UPS per se. Obviously one that outputs enough power for your computer. Other than that, there isn't much to say about UPS's. Maybe the Lab will test some available in your area as to which is the most reliable.

I am building a PC not only for gaming but mostly for productivity. I will be doing a lot of 3D modeling and rendering, photo and video editing. I can build a cheaper pc if it's only for gaming, however the same can't be said for productivity. A midrange to high-end PC is way cheaper than building workstation which can't be really used for gaming so i'll have to build a separate PC dedicated for gaming. So I decided to build a PC that's for work that i can game on as well. Back on topic, I am not really a tech savy, that's why i am asking and researching before i commit an expensive and irreplicable mistake. So I want to know what output and what brand out of the mainstream brands should  I look for. Please know that most shops in my country don't actually offer testing since they can't afford to build what you call a testbench.

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On 1/22/2025 at 10:48 PM, Mad Jester said:

what the best UPS to choose

I recently got my first UPS, a 1000W APC UPS with a data port to trigger a soft shutdown when on battery and it's running low. The unit new was just over $200 but I got it used with a dead battery for $60 and then spent $64 on a LiFePO4 battery instead of a lead acid that came standard since those have a 3-5 year replacement cycle vs ~10 years.

 

That said, if you're using a 5090 that won't work and may have to buy new to get something with enough wattage to handle a 5090, 9950x, and possibly your modem, router/switch, and monitor if you want to keep playing through a brief power outage. Otherwise, just plug in the computer for the safe shutdown functionality.

 

The two big consumer brands are APC and Cyberpower with the former being seen as the industry standard and the latter being slightly less expensive with occasional QC issues (per Reddit commenters). Eaton comes up at the lower end of the higher range (1200w+) that you're looking at but I have no personal experience with them. I've heard decent things, though.

 

The industry standard is somehow still lead acid batteries that have no fire risk and allow for rapid discharges but do need replacement every few years, but APC sells some Lithium UPS units- for a very healthy price premium. Alternatively, especially at the lower and midrange you can put in a drop-in LiFePO4 replacement, but the maximum discharge rate may not be quite as good as a lead acid and trigger the internal battery management system to shutoff if it detects too much power draw in a short time frame. At 575 Watts for just the GPU and then the CPU etc on top I'd not risk using a drop-in replacement to save money without some extensive research on discharge rates etc.

 

It would defeat the purpose of a UPS if it shut itself off from too much power draw when you actually needed it instead of going for some time and then triggering a safe shutdown via the data cable (or network card on the higher end models) when the battery reaches a defined level of low.

 

I could talk about VA vs W numbers, stepped sine-wave models, pure-sine wave models, models intended for servers, standby UPS vs Line interactive vs double conversion (listed in order of safety and price) and more I encountered in my research to get a good 1000W for myself, but ultimately it mostly depends on your budget.

 

If you're going to drop $2k on a GPU and more on the CPU it makes no sense to risk potential damage by cheaping out on the PSU or UPS, especially if an area has occasional outages you may as well get a 1200W, pure-sine wave, Line interactive or double conversion model if you can find a deal. Someone else can tell you if you can get away with a 1000W UPS as it's a decent price increase from 1000W to 1200W. I hope that helps.

 

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19 hours ago, Strategist1 said:

I recently got my first UPS, a 1000W APC UPS with a data port to trigger a soft shutdown when on battery and it's running low. The unit new was just over $200 but I got it used with a dead battery for $60 and then spent $64 on a LiFePO4 battery instead of a lead acid that came standard since those have a 3-5 year replacement cycle vs ~10 years.

 

That said, if you're using a 5090 that won't work and may have to buy new to get something with enough wattage to handle a 5090, 9950x, and possibly your modem, router/switch, and monitor if you want to keep playing through a brief power outage. Otherwise, just plug in the computer for the safe shutdown functionality.

 

The two big consumer brands are APC and Cyberpower with the former being seen as the industry standard and the latter being slightly less expensive with occasional QC issues (per Reddit commenters). Eaton comes up at the lower end of the higher range (1200w+) that you're looking at but I have no personal experience with them. I've heard decent things, though.

 

The industry standard is somehow still lead acid batteries that have no fire risk and allow for rapid discharges but do need replacement every few years, but APC sells some Lithium UPS units- for a very healthy price premium. Alternatively, especially at the lower and midrange you can put in a drop-in LiFePO4 replacement, but the maximum discharge rate may not be quite as good as a lead acid and trigger the internal battery management system to shutoff if it detects too much power draw in a short time frame. At 575 Watts for just the GPU and then the CPU etc on top I'd not risk using a drop-in replacement to save money without some extensive research on discharge rates etc.

 

It would defeat the purpose of a UPS if it shut itself off from too much power draw when you actually needed it instead of going for some time and then triggering a safe shutdown via the data cable (or network card on the higher end models) when the battery reaches a defined level of low.

 

I could talk about VA vs W numbers, stepped sine-wave models, pure-sine wave models, models intended for servers, standby UPS vs Line interactive vs double conversion (listed in order of safety and price) and more I encountered in my research to get a good 1000W for myself, but ultimately it mostly depends on your budget.

 

If you're going to drop $2k on a GPU and more on the CPU it makes no sense to risk potential damage by cheaping out on the PSU or UPS, especially if an area has occasional outages you may as well get a 1200W, pure-sine wave, Line interactive or double conversion model if you can find a deal. Someone else can tell you if you can get away with a 1000W UPS as it's a decent price increase from 1000W to 1200W. I hope that helps.

 

Thanks a lot. I read your explanation and i'm glad that i waited for someone who knows better to provide information.

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