One UPS for multiple PCs?

[ve4grm]

My wife and I have our PCs beside each other. Is there any reason not to have one UPS powering both computers? Is it better to have two smaller ones?

 

The PCs are both running rtx3060 cards, one with a Ryzen 3600, the other with a Ryzen 5600. Both of those (and 1080p monitors) should be covered by a 1500VA/900w UPS, right?

 

Thanks!

[ieleja]

with 2 PCs on 1 UPS you must rethink shutdown solution

[Blue4130]

29 minutes ago, ieleja said:

with 2 PCs on 1 UPS you must rethink shutdown solution

Why? Shut down remains the same. Power goes out, shut pc down.

[Donut417]

Just now, Blue4130 said:

Why? Shut down remains the same. Power goes out, shut pc down.

Most UPS"s connect to a PC to tell it to shut down. So only one machine would be told to shut down. The other would continue running until the UPS's batteries die. 

[StDragon]

With casual web browing, each computer is probably consuming about 130w to 150w Let just say 280w total. You can look at the runtime graph to get a good idea of how much time you have before you'll need to gracefully shutdown both computers in the event of a total power loss (not just a simple brownout).

 

The problem will be if both will be gaming under max GPU and CPU load. You could potentially hit over current protection on the UPS. Not a good scenario.

[Poinkachu]

If you rely on manual shutdown when blackout happens, should be fine to use 1 UPS for two PCs.

If you are using UPS that can handle that much load of course.

If you use some sort of auto-shutdown through the UPS's control software, idk, most probably you can only use it (the feature) on 1 PC, since AFAIK it requires a data connection through USB or something between the UPS and the PC. And the UPS most likely will only have 1 data port anyway.

 

Measure your load for each PC better, use a Wattmeter, not just by PC spec page. Because PSU efficiency and all gonna have a play in the calculation, and no PC software can measure it.

It's a cheap device and handy to have around to measure actual power pull from wall outlet.

Example : Let's say HwInfo says your PC uses 300w power, but your PSU works at 80% efficiency at that power load, so the actual power you are pulling from the wall (and the future UPS), will be : 300w / 0.8 = 375w.

[Needfuldoer]

2 minutes ago, Poinkachu said:

If you use some sort of auto-shutdown through the UPS's control software, idk, most probably you can only use it on 1 PC, since AFAIK it requires a data connection through USB or something between the UPS and the PC.

If the UPS doesn't have its own network management card, you'd have to run a tool like NUT (Network UPS Tools) on one machine then point the other to that.

[Poinkachu]

39 minutes ago, Needfuldoer said:

If the UPS doesn't have its own network management card, you'd have to run a tool like NUT (Network UPS Tools) on one machine then point the other to that.

Never knew that. Good info.

[ve4grm]

Ok, good info, thanks everyone. One more question - I saw some people arguing that if you're not doing mission critical stuff a good surge protector is just as good as a UPS because a sudden shutdown (without a power spike) is unlikely to cause damage. Any truth to that?

[Blue4130]

1 hour ago, ve4grm said:

Ok, good info, thanks everyone. One more question - I saw some people arguing that if you're not doing mission critical stuff a good surge protector is just as good as a UPS because a sudden shutdown (without a power spike) is unlikely to cause damage. Any truth to that?

If you aren't writing data at the moment the power goes out, you will likely be fine. If you are writing to disk, you risk corruption. It up to you to decide if it's worth the risk.

[Poinkachu]

10 hours ago, ve4grm said:

Ok, good info, thanks everyone. One more question - I saw some people arguing that if you're not doing mission critical stuff a good surge protector is just as good as a UPS because a sudden shutdown (without a power spike) is unlikely to cause damage. Any truth to that?

Most likely the UPS also have surge protection in it, at least that's what I found out on UPSes I researched before.
Just that compared to a dedicated surge protector it is weaker.

 

This is from spec page of a budget APC unit.

 

 

This one is from spec page of $15 Cyberpower Surge Protector.

 

Basically, if you need some time before you turn off PC when blackout hits you, you get a UPS.

If not, then don't bother.

 

If you live in wherever lighting strikes, or some big surge of electricity towards your device is prevalent, and don't give a shit about #1 get a surge protector.

And make sure your house has proper ground wire installed.

 

If you don't give a shit about #1, and #2 is very very rare, but live in where your electricity voltage plays jumprope a lot & your device need a stable voltage, an AVR.

Though most likely a UPS also has AVR feature.

 

[ve4grm]

Ok, thanks so much! I think I'll end up getting a smaller one for my nas and just using good surge protection on my PCs.