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Surge Protector/UPS for iMac?

G

goodlittlesquid

Guest
Can anyone recommend a good surge protector/ups? Planning on getting a more or less maxed out 27" 2012 iMac when it's released and I want to make sure it's protected properly. Should I get one with Automatic Voltage Regulation? Also are there any of these things that aren't huge eyesores?
Do you plug your iMac into a surge protector, or straight into the wall?
 
No need to spend extra for AVR unless your power suffers from brownouts. I've got several APC Back-UPS Pro models for two iMacs and a Mac mini server here. They've been working fine. I've had mixed results with other brands.

They are all models in the range 650-750VA and they connect via USB to the Macs to do graceful shutdowns.

They have built in surge protectors.
 
talmy said:
No need to spend extra for AVR unless your power suffers from brownouts. I've got several APC Back-UPS Pro models for two iMacs and a Mac mini server here. They've been working fine. I've had mixed results with other brands.

They are all models in the range 650-750VA and they connect via USB to the Macs to do graceful shutdowns.

They have built in surge protectors.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the advice. Really strange that it's connected via USB. That doesn't make sense to me - how does that work?:confused:
 
goodlittlesquid said:
Thanks for the advice. Really strange that it's connected via USB. That doesn't make sense to me - how does that work?:confused:
Click to expand...

It's very simple really, when you connect a UPS via USB to the computer that turns on additional Power Saver settings in Preferences. You can then tell the computer how long to run on UPS power before shutting down, whether to restart when power restores etc... In short it simply provides more customization of the UPS.

For example, my system is at home and connected to a UPS. I have mine set so if a power outage occurs, after 5 minutes of no power the system orderly shuts down and does not turn on again when power restores. So if I'm out I know my system is protected in the event of a power outage. Personally I think havng a UPS just makes sense. Why invest thousands in a computer and then just hope it always has clean constant power? It's fairly common to read of users that have sudden power losses and then wonder why their computers have crashed. If they had them on a UPS and managed their system their computer would be just fine and they wouldn't be faced with a dead computer.
 
rkaufmann87 said:
It's very simple really, when you connect a UPS via USB to the computer that turns on additional Power Saver settings in Preferences. You can then tell the computer how long to run on UPS power before shutting down, whether to restart when power restores etc... In short it simply provides more customization of the UPS.
Click to expand...

Thank you sir! :)
 
I have several Cyberpower UPS in our home. The one I use on the iMac is this one: http://www.cyberpowersystems.com/products/ups-systems/adaptive-sinewave-series/CP1350PFCLCD.html

Here in Australia they are reasonably priced and I have never had an issue with any of them.
I believe the iMac has a Active PFC power supply as well and this particular UPS is suitable for power factor corrected power supplies.
Try a modified sine wave UPS with an Active PFC power supply and you will hear a buzzing!
 
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