UPS backup suggestions

[neonart]

After a really crappy experience that may have happened from a power surge, or just losing power a couple of times in my area (see sob story here) I need to find a good UPS power backup.

What do you suggest in the $100 (or less) range? Maybe something that connects via USB and tells my Mac to shutdown properly or something. I know very little about UPS's and would love your input.

 

[Sun Baked]

If you have a bunch of line noise, surges, and/or brownouts -- then you may want to look at a line conditioning UPS, instead of a straight battery backup.

But the G5s do suck down some Watts so you're looking at something that has a higher output than most 650VA UPSs.

You can always try to PM Makosuke to see what UPS he got, but the Belkin 1200VA UPS weren't too outrageous last I looked (been awhile).

 

[neonart]

If you have a bunch of line noise, surges, and/or brownouts -- then you may want to look at a line conditioning UPS, instead of a straight battery backup.

But the G5s do suck down some Watts so you're looking at something that has a higher output than most 650VA UPSs.

You can always try to PM Makosuke to see what UPS he got, but the Belkin 1200VA UPS weren't too outrageous last I looked (been awhile).

Would 725VA be decent? Like this one?

Or would this 1000VA one be a much better choice?

Thanks!

 

[Sun Baked]

Would 725VA be decent? Like this one?

Or would this 1000VA one be a much better choice?

Thanks!

You need to look at the output of the unit to see how many Watts it'll supply...

I'm on the hunt for a new UPS for my dual G5. Problem is, it draws a HUGE amount of power; just idling quietly, it draws 170W and running all-out it's up around 325W.

Add in a monitor and cable modem, and my setup is capable of drawing 480W.

Which is close to what some of the other people were looking at for DP G5 and a LCD...

The estimated load the dual G5 draws through the built-in supply at around 235W at idle and 370-400W running full blast.

Of course that was with a 60-70W LCD, and some of the new video cards suck some Watts (The build-to-order 256 MB ATI Radeon 9800 XT card is 75 W) and the new displays (23" = 90W, 30" = 150W).

So even though the DP G5 is running about 170-325W the LCD, upgraded video cards, and displays along with the network can add up.

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Description: APC Back-UPS ES, 725VA/450W, Input 120V/Output 120V, Interface Port USB

Might be squeeking in on the output capability or setting off the alarm when everything is on, also I didn't see anything for correcting for brownouts.

APC runs two different types of UPSs, and most of the line conditioning units are the Pro/Smart.

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The Belkin
Device Type UPS; Battery backup
Features Automatic Voltage Regulation (AVR)
Case Color Charcoal black
Battery Type Sealed Lead-Acid Battery with suspended electrolyte
Typical Backup Time Up to 75 minutes backup time
Output Power Capacity In Volt Amps 1,000 VA
Output Power Capacity in Watts 550 watts

Bit better output, and I think (can't be sure) that the AVR from Belkin provides the line conditioning for brownout/overvoltage situations that some straight battery backups let through.

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www.apcc.com and www.belkin.com

APC is tough to figure out which units have the line conditioning -- I think they say undervoltage/overvoltage and noise filtering.

 

[neonart]

Thanks Sunbaked!

I went to Microcenter and got the Belkin 1000VA, 550W model with AVR. After I fix this whole mess, this should keep things functioning safely. Now I hope to find software to save my data...

 

[wdlove]

Would the Backup UPS LS 700 be acceptable for the 2.5 dual G5? It also the the data recovery function to automatically shutdown the Mac when power goes off.

http://www.apcc.com/products/family/index.cfm?id=22

 

[Sun Baked]

Would the Backup UPS LS 700 be acceptable for the 2.5 dual G5? It also the the data recovery function to automatically shutdown the Mac when power goes off.

http://www.apcc.com/products/family/index.cfm?id=22

The DP 2.5 G5 will probably be somewhere between the old/new PPC970 DP1.8 & 2.0 G5.

Don't know how much power the LCS will suck down.

And I can't remember if the numbers I had were for the 1.8 or 2.0 but they're probably only a 40-60W different anyways.

But this supply has an even lower output (410W) than the one neonart linked to.

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From what I've seen you'll want to look at the 1000VA unit and above if you want to stick with a single UPS, otherwise you'll run the thing near 100% (aka, 2-5 min backup) if it does work.

However if you wanted to use it for the accessories and as a means of shutting down the computer... it would probably depend on the software (aka, a trip to versiontracker to see what people say).

And there were a few people who were thinking of using 2 UPSs when the G5s first came out, and they found that the DP G5s were sending the UPSs into overload.