Do you have an UPS? (Uninterruptible Power Supply)

[Nocte]

Hey guys,

 

I was wondering if I should invest in a UPS. My area rarely sees power cuts or dirty power, but the thought of my EUR 1000+ computer being blown kind of scares me.

Do you think UPS are worth their cost? If so, what model/brand would you recommend that allows enough power to let you shutdown your computer properly (a few minutes)?

[TechSquidTV]

I "want" one but I don't have one. They are large, generate heat, and some of them are even loud. Power in my town goes down maybe once a year?

[Meag]

1 minute ago, Eibe said:

Hey guys,

 

I was wondering if I should invest in a UPS. My area rarely sees power cuts or dirty power, but the thought of my EUR 1000+ computer being blown kind of scares me.

Do you think UPS are worth their cost? If so, what model/brand would you recommend that allows enough power to let you shutdown your computer properly (a few minutes)?

I feel like UPS's are more of a convenient thing, I think that if you feel like you might suffer due to dirty power then go for it. But if you don't have problems such as this like you said, then its not necessary 

[thenastyjbenny]

I lose power semi-frequently due to storms in Northeastern PA. I have 3 UPS's one for my pc and peripherals, the other for my various sound equipment around my house. Highly recommend Cyberpower, I've never had any problems with their products, and they do what they need to.

[NinJake]

No I do not. Should I? Probably. Will I? Maybe...

[knightslugger]

I have a UPS. Several in fact. One on my computer so that in the event of a power loss it has a chance write all the ones and zeros it needs to safely. I also have one on my wireless router and modem so that we can still have internet access if we need it.

[kalnick]

I just ordered a Cyber power PSU yesturday from newegg for a great price.

I haven't bothered with them in  the past since power only goes out a couple times a year usually due to acts of god or acts of stupid drivers.

Earlier in the week we had one due to act of stupid driver and my cell phone was low on battery and the 4g service around here is slow.

So for the $60 for a 450 watt UPS sound good.

 

The use case for the 4 slots that are baterry powered will be for my cable modem, voip box, phone, and powered usb hub.

This way I have internet/wifi/voip phone and power to charge my phone that hope will last through at least a 3 hr outage

[Nocte]

6 minutes ago, knightslugger said:

I have a UPS. Several in fact. One on my computer so that in the event of a power loss it has a chance write all the ones and zeros it needs to safely. I also have one on my wireless router and modem so that we can still have internet access if we need it.

I saw this one for a hell of a discount: https://www.amazon.it/MAGGIO-DISCOUNT-GRUPPO-CONTINUITA-480W/dp/B0089S2XJG/ref=sr_1_1?s=pc&ie=UTF8&qid=1495808143&sr=1-1&keywords=ups

It has good reviews on Amazon, but I can't find info about it anywhere else. What do you think about it?

[kalnick]

1 minute ago, L.Lawliet said:

Wait what? are u referring to a generator?

Because ups arent loud except when its beeping. and its compact and didnt generate that much heat.

Some industrial/enterprise UPS can be loud (fans) and do generate heat.

Consumer ones though for the most part are pretty good noise and heat wise. 'loud' is a relative term though.

[kalnick]

 

3 minutes ago, Eibe said:

I saw this one for a hell of a discount: https://www.amazon.it/MAGGIO-DISCOUNT-GRUPPO-CONTINUITA-480W/dp/B0089S2XJG/ref=sr_1_1?s=pc&ie=UTF8&qid=1495808143&sr=1-1&keywords=ups

It has good reviews on Amazon, but I can't find info about it anywhere else. What do you think about it?

 Try searching the brand Focus. Thats what is written on the front. This likely an oem selling off old or refurb stock

[knightslugger]

12 minutes ago, kalnick said:

I just ordered a Cyber power PSU yesturday from newegg for a great price.

I haven't bothered with them in  the past since power only goes out a couple times a year usually due to acts of god or acts of stupid drivers.

Earlier in the week we had one due to act of stupid driver and my cell phone was low on battery and the 4g service around here is slow.

So for the $60 for a 450 watt UPS sound good.

 

The use case for the 4 slots that are baterry powered will be for my cable modem, voip box, phone, and powered usb hub.

This way I have internet/wifi/voip phone and power to charge my phone that hope will last through at least a 3 hr outage

keep in mind that there is a maximum power draw limit and that exceeding that will result in system failure in the event of a power outage. When i render, i get a warning message from my monitoring software that an overload alarm has been triggered. if i lost power, the UPS would not be able to supply the computer with enough power to stay running. That's on my Ryzen 7 build below.

 

8 minutes ago, Eibe said:

I saw this one for a hell of a discount: https://www.amazon.it/MAGGIO-DISCOUNT-GRUPPO-CONTINUITA-480W/dp/B0089S2XJG/ref=sr_1_1?s=pc&ie=UTF8&qid=1495808143&sr=1-1&keywords=ups

It has good reviews on Amazon, but I can't find info about it anywhere else. What do you think about it?

It would be fine for raw power delivery, but if you want to manage it, say to automatically shut down the computer in the event of a longer power outage to conserve remaining energy, then i think you ought to look elsewhere. CyberPower has great models to choose from and they are reasonably priced for the features they offer. I have 2 Cyberpower CP685AVR-Gs and a APC BE350G. and only the Cyberpower units have USB to talk to the computers. The APC unit powers the Wireless Router and modems.

[kalnick]

Just now, knightslugger said:

keep in mind that there is a maximum power draw limit and that exceeding that will result in system failure in the event of a power outage. When i render, i get a warning message from my monitoring software that an overload alarm has been triggered. if i lost power, the UPS would not be able to supply the computer with enough power to stay running. That's on my Ryzen 7 build below.

 

 

For my use case I think I'm good with max power draw issues. Cable modems, voip boxs, desktop phone and usb hub will not draw all that much power.  The goal is to be able to use a  phone or tablet over wifi during a power outage so I have something to do.

 

If I wanted one for my PC as well though I would invest in something much bigger.

I'm the kind of person that would get an enterprise type UPS for my computers, Hell with the noise and heat, I would want to be able to game for hours on it lol

 

 

[knightslugger]

8 minutes ago, kalnick said:

For my use case I think I'm good with max power draw issues. Cable modems, voip boxs, desktop phone and usb hub will not draw all that much power.  The goal is to be able to use a  phone or tablet over wifi during a power outage so I have something to do.

 

If I wanted one for my PC as well though I would invest in something much bigger.

I'm the kind of person that would get an enterprise type UPS for my computers, Hell with the noise and heat, I would want to be able to game for hours on it lol

 

 

I personally hate fixing software, and i keep enough "things" on my computer to be legitimately irked if a power failure caused the corruption of a system file because it was in the middle of an important write, requiring me to start over. Going enterprise is certainly in good keeping of PCMR, but most people don't need critical 100% up time as any down time doesn't cost them to lose a contract for failing to meet a deadline. 1000W continuous is plenty for just about anyone with some overhead to spare. it's not about up time, it's about data safety.

[kalnick]

34 minutes ago, knightslugger said:

I personally hate fixing software, and i keep enough "things" on my computer to be legitimately irked if a power failure caused the corruption of a system file because it was in the middle of an important write, requiring me to start over. Going enterprise is certainly in good keeping of PCMR, but most people don't need critical 100% up time as any down time doesn't cost them to lose a contract for failing to meet a deadline. 1000W continuous is plenty for just about anyone with some overhead to spare. it's not about up time, it's about data safety.

I am playing with fire I guess in that regards when it comes to my computers, like my storage server, with 8tb of data on it it would suck if something happen due to a power outage. I may plug my storage server in instead of my phone so I can at least shut down the system when I'm home. Since it run 24/7 though once the UPS runs out of battery it would still just shutdown improperly so the risk is the same.

 

Your right most people do not need enterprise solutions. I wouldn't either honestly but  a got a bit of go big or go homeitus in me lol.

Having a ups that would allow a few hours of AAA gaming up time would be awesome to have but yes it would be overkill for a consumer.

 

[knightslugger]

Just now, kalnick said:

Since it run 24/7 though once the UPS runs out of battery it would still just shutdown improperly so the risk is the same.

which is a strong case for a managed UPS with auto-shutdown protocols.

[Nocte]

42 minutes ago, knightslugger said:

I personally hate fixing software, and i keep enough "things" on my computer to be legitimately irked if a power failure caused the corruption of a system file because it was in the middle of an important write, requiring me to start over. Going enterprise is certainly in good keeping of PCMR, but most people don't need critical 100% up time as any down time doesn't cost them to lose a contract for failing to meet a deadline. 1000W continuous is plenty for just about anyone with some overhead to spare. it's not about up time, it's about data safety.

Wait, I thought that power outages would also harm hardware, not only files.

Honestly, I'd rather re-install windows and save 100 euros if a power outage does not risk to brick my mobo/cpu/gpu.

I keep my data in an external HDD and/or NAS server anyway.

[knightslugger]

1 minute ago, Eibe said:

Wait, I thought that power outages would also harm hardware, not only files.

Honestly, I'd rather re-install windows and save 100 euros if a power outage does not risk to brick my mobo/cpu/gpu.

I keep my data in an external HDD and/or NAS server anyway.

which is fine...it's your prerogative. but data being sensitive to errors in nature (which is critical to power delivery) makes me see the solution is both hardware and software. sure, your MB/CPU/GPU/PSU could suffer damage due to a drop in voltage or current but hadware without software is an expensive paperweight.

[kalnick]

1 minute ago, knightslugger said:

which is a strong case for a managed UPS with auto-shutdown protocols.

Agreed, I'm not sure if the LE825G from cyber power has  that function, If it does then my sever is absolutely going to be connected to it.

If it does not, then my primary use is for it to maintain internet, wifi, and communication during a power outage and this should do just fine for tha

 

The kind of UPS I would personally ideally like to have is just way out of my price range.

I got this one for $60cnd or 50% off. Otherwise I probably still wouldn't have one.

[kalnick]

5 minutes ago, Eibe said:

Wait, I thought that power outages would also harm hardware, not only files.

Honestly, I'd rather re-install windows and save 100 euros if a power outage does not risk to brick my mobo/cpu/gpu.

I keep my data in an external HDD and/or NAS server anyway.

Power outages can come with surges that can fry hardware,. Another example is sudden power loss while an HDD is writing/reading could cause damage to the heads and/or platters as well. Both data and hardware loss/damage is possible with power outages

[Nocte]

14 minutes ago, kalnick said:

Power outages can come with surges that can fry hardware,. Another example is sudden power loss while an HDD is writing/reading could cause damage to the heads and/or platters as well. Both data and hardware loss/damage is possible with power outages

What if I get a surge protector then? Those are much cheaper than UPS and usually come with warranty on the installed equipment up to EUR 50k.

[kalnick]

5 hours ago, Eibe said:

What if I get a surge protector then? Those are much cheaper than UPS and usually come with warranty on the installed equipment up to EUR 50k.

A power strip with surge protection is a must have for every computer. No matter what the power grid in your area is like.

 

Every piece of electronics in my house is connected to a surge protector.

I have a Belkin, 2 APC surge protectors.

 

There is still a risk of data loss or hardware damage with a surge protector, nothing is 100%

[Nocte]

1 minute ago, kalnick said:

A power strip with surge protection is a must have for every computer. No matter what the power grid in your area is like.

 

Every piece of electronics in my house is connected to a surge protector.

I have a Belkin, 2 APC surge protectors.

Since I am quite ignorant about them, what do you think about this: https://www.amazon.it/APC-ESSENTIAL-SURGEARREST-230V-Bianco/dp/B010RXXVAA/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1495835343&sr=8-3&keywords=surge%2Bprotector&th=1

[kalnick]

1 minute ago, Eibe said:

Since I am quite ignorant about them, what do you think about this: https://www.amazon.it/APC-ESSENTIAL-SURGEARREST-230V-Bianco/dp/B010RXXVAA/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1495835343&sr=8-3&keywords=surge%2Bprotector&th=1

 

looks ok to me.

The ones I have are bigger, they have 12 sockets each.

As long as you stick with a reputable brand like APC and double check the product reviews you should be fine.