Recommend a good UPS for iMac?

[SteelBlueTJ]

I am looking for a UPS for my new 27" iMac. I also plan to have my Airport extreme and cable modem plugged into it as well. Do you think the APC 550 is sufficient? I rarely ever loose power but want to be ready if it ever does. Brown outs and spikes do occur once in a while. Would the 550 do the trick?

http://www.apc.com/resource/include/techspec_index.cfm?base_sku=BE550G

 

[ColdCase]

Thats a small one, but how much reserve time do you want? Just enough to shut down gracefully?

I've had good luck with Cyberpower. The CP1500LCD RT is 900W and provides maybe 30 minutes of power. Does a decent job with spikes and dips.

 

[b06tmm]

I've had good luck with Cyberpower. The CP1500LCD RT is 900W and provides maybe 30 minutes of power. Does a decent job with spikes and dips.

I recently bought three of these and they seem to be doing the job so far.

 

[Macsonic]

Normally the power consumption of a 27" iMac is around 200 watts to 230 watts on normal full workload. The UPS has to be more than 400 watts to be safe and factor in other devices you may be attaching to the UPS to avoid overload. Some are saying best to get a UPS that's based on Sine Wave instead of Step Up to simulate Sine Wave. Others are saying Step Up is adequate so there is a mix of opinions.

 

[pastrychef]

I've always liked APC UPSes. I have a very old BackUPS RS 1500 that kept all my equipment safe during Hurricane Sandy. I was in an area where power was knocked out for close to a week.

BTW, I'm one of the ones who pay no heed to the sine wave stuff. My USP is a step up UPS and we survived Sandy. 'Nuff said.

 

[davidg4781]

I've always liked APC UPSes. I have a very old BackUPS RS 1500 that kept all my equipment safe during Hurricane Sandy. I was in an area where power was knocked out for close to a week.

BTW, I'm one of the ones who pay no heed to the sine wave stuff. My USP is a step up UPS and we survived Sandy. 'Nuff said.

Just wanted to throw this out there. At work we have lots of APC UPSs. We lost power a few weeks ago. All the equipment was saved but we had to toss out 3-4 of them as they wouldn't turn back on.

There may have been some way to replace the battery or something but our IT folks recommend just chucking them.

 

[ender78]

UPS batteries have a shelf life of a few years [4-5 depending on who you ask]. I can speak from experience that after that, failure rates can be high and accelerate quickly with age.

 

[davidg4781]

The store is 1.5 years old. I wasn't there when they installed them but everything else we got was brand new. I have no reason to believe these weren't.

The Muzak guy did say they did exactly what they're supposed to do. The outage may have had a huge surge and they saved the equipment from that.

 

[pastrychef]

Just wanted to throw this out there. At work we have lots of APC UPSs. We lost power a few weeks ago. All the equipment was saved but we had to toss out 3-4 of them as they wouldn't turn back on.

There may have been some way to replace the battery or something but our IT folks recommend just chucking them.

It's probably a good idea to err on the safe side when dealing with work. I have replaced the batteries on my UPS twice and am currently on my third set of batteries. The set of batteries I'm using at the moment are the same set that survived Sandy.

I can't recall exactly when I purchased this UPS... I think it may have been around 2003 or 2004... I was still on my PowerMac G4 MDD and dual monitors...

 

[imanidiot]

I am looking for a UPS for my new 27" iMac. I also plan to have my Airport extreme and cable modem plugged into it as well. Do you think the APC 550 is sufficient? I rarely ever loose power but want to be ready if it ever does. Brown outs and spikes do occur once in a while. Would the 550 do the trick?

http://www.apc.com/resource/include/techspec_index.cfm?base_sku=BE550G

I have used the APC 550 for three years on a 21.5 iMac plus several peripherals, and it has done it's job quite nicely. One power outtage and several "blips" strong enough to make the battery kick in, and everything was fine. Great for the money, I think, if its output is adequate for you.