Glad you posted about those units a while back. Definitely seem to be a good fit for our uses. Yeah, I finally ordered one! I went with the CP1000PFCLCD as that's around double the wattage my current setup pulls under max load. Hopefully it gets here this week. I'll resurrect your old thread when it does
Yea, it was very interesting to me and I was pleased to see the press starting to notice the new technology. The 1000 and under units look great. Only 15 lbs light and I bet even more silent operation than their bigger brothers. Sweet, looking forward to your opinion
CyberPower's other consumer oriented units don't have that wonderful a track record from what I've seen, so I'm hesitant.
With all due respect Nano, if you could only show us this negative track record from which you speak of, because from what I've read so far, has been near perfect in terms of customer reviews (a quick glimpse of simple Amazon and Newegg reviews shows this), and as for tech press reviews, maybe I haven't been looking, but I really haven't seen any yet.
For new units, your reasoning is quite valid, as they are expensive (at least 2x as much, and that's discounted from MSRP).
But then I think of the fact you can get a pure sine wave unit (refurbished SUA1500, SMT1500 or similar) for the same money or so (~$250), I'd take a refurbished APC over the unit you have. This makes a pure sine wave unit affordable. The Online types can be had refurbished as well, but they are a bit more money (~$200 or so more if you find the right deal). Definitely a better way to go than new, and its how I buy my own (personal use).
A company is a different matter, as they should have increased financial resources, need warranty support, and can write it off.
But you can get a pure sine wave (Line Interactive, but the inverter is still pure sine wave) for the same/similar money, and it's likely to outlast the CyberPower unit if they're anything close to past consumer units (seem to die about the time they need batteries = no bargain IMO).
I understand there is value in refurbished pure sine wave units, but honestly, I factored more than just dollar value when considering my purchase. The following may not matter much to high paid working professionals or business customers, but as prosumer/enthusiast who also deals with audio work, I wanted something that was quiet, light-weight, and discreet. I really didn't want a 50 lb. massive footprint next to my machine, burning a hole on my carpet with noisy fans and generating more heat than I needed.
For my sole purpose, the CP unit fit the bill perfectly. It's very discreet and makes absolutely no noise, and generates barely any heat (as confirmed earlier, these units have a vampire draw of 5-8 watts). It's so good in those qualities, that I forget that it's even there working.
I understand these are not what define the primary purpose of a UPS unit, but again for my personal purpose, and for those who don't require mission critical workflow, I personally found these qualities, in addition to the budget friendly price of a brand new unit to outweigh going for a pure sine wave unit.
You want to get as much of a VA rating as you can IMO (1500VA is the largest you can go without needing an electrician to wire in a circuit for a larger unit; it also will give you sufficient run time, even with aging, to get the system shut down properly before the unit is out of power).
The reasoning behind it is, that the batteries age over time, which means less run time will be available over the aging process, eventually requiring replacement if the unit is still good. You might also want to note, that your current real run time tends to be less than what the software/LCD reports (brand does not matter in my experience).
But we don't
need as much runtime as possible. Some users just want to shut down within 1 minute, which diminishes the importance of VA or runtime. Really, what does it matter how long it can keep my Mac Pro running if all I want to do is shut down immediately? And those numbers get diminished even more if your like me and live in an area that barely gets any brown-outs.