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Traverse

macrumors 604
Original poster
Mar 11, 2013
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Hi. Electrical tech is not my strong point.

I have a 2017 5K iMac which draws 217 watts per Apple’s specs here.

I am looking into this UPS with a VA of 850 and 450W battery. I realize this is a bit lower than some I’ve seen referenced here.

Is this UPS sufficient for the iMac? Approximately how long could the iMac run on this? I live in FL so this is 90% for those frequent brief power drops and then the infrequent power outage that lasts. I just want to be able to safely shut it down. I do I rented for the iMac to be in continued use.

Thank you for your input.
 
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It should be, however, B&H in NY has a sale going on right now for UPS that are larger with more capacity. A bit more expensive than the one you linked to at Amazon, but with a larger capacity would last longer during a blackout. You also might want to place your router-modem on the UPS and maybe some other small devices.
 
This would be sufficient to allow you to save your work and shut down. Under load, this may provide 5-10 minutes of runtime (obviously less if more devices are connected to the UPS, obviously more if the iMac is drawing a lesser load).

I purchased an APC 1000 Pro and I can't say that I am happy with the unit nor am I happy with the company's customer service (and their [in]ability to answer what should be relatively basic questions.) If I could do it again, I would purchase a pure sinewave Cyberpower. I would not personally use a stepped sinewave with an iMac at all, even though the chance of it causing issues is presumably low, and I would personally lean towards a model with voltage regulation if you are having frequent power dips (and, because of this, I think it makes going for pure sinewave even higher priority IMO.)
 
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It should be, however, B&H in NY has a sale going on right now for UPS that are larger with more capacity. A bit more expensive than the one you linked to at Amazon, but with a larger capacity would last longer during a blackout. You also might want to place your router-modem on the UPS and maybe some other small devices.

This would be sufficient to allow you to save your work and shut down. Under load, this may provide 5-10 minutes of runtime (obviously less if more devices are connected to the UPS, obviously more if the iMac is drawing a lesser load).

I purchased an APC 1000 Pro and I can't say that I am happy with the unit nor am I happy with the company's customer service (and their [in]ability to answer what should be relatively basic questions.) If I could do it again, I would purchase a pure sinewave Cyberpower. I would not personally use a stepped sinewave with an iMac at all, even though the chance of it causing issues is presumably low, and I would personally lean towards a model with voltage regulation if you are having frequent power dips (and, because of this, I think it makes going for pure sinewave even higher priority IMO.)

I purchased the one that I linked to, but I'm not sure about it. I plugged it in today at noon once it arrived. At 6:30 I decided to test it. All that's plugged into it is my iMac and a desk fan (a $20 simple Lasko fan that I use constantly and use to sleep so I thought it would be great to not have to get up and turn it back on during the night due to a power outage).

Well I conducted a few tests by unplugging the APC to act as if the power went out. The iMac did fine and notified met o shut down soon. The iMac was idle with Safari, Mail, and iTunes open but not in use. Well, the desk fan was obviously not getting the power it needed. It slowed down and buzzed like it was trying to move, but not well.

The iMac appeared fine but the APC batter life was only 1 to 5 minutes. It dropped from 100% to 86% in about 20 seconds of us. Is that normal?
[doublepost=1514504686][/doublepost]Could you clarify watts. The iMac can draw 217W and the battery is 450w. Is watt draw rating per minute? So the iMac would use 217w of the 450 per minute?
 
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I purchased the one that I linked to, but I'm not sure about it. I plugged it in today at noon once it arrived. At 6:30 I decided to test it. All that's plugged into it is my iMac and a desk fan (a $20 simple Lasko fan that I use constantly and use to sleep so I thought it would be great to not have to get up and turn it back on during the night due to a power outage).

Well I conducted a few tests by unplugging the APC to act as if the power went out. The iMac did fine and notified met o shut down soon. The iMac was idle with Safari, Mail, and iTunes open but not in use. Well, the desk fan was obviously not getting the power it needed. It slowed down and buzzed like it was trying to move, but not well.

The iMac appeared fine but the APC batter life was only 1 to 5 minutes. It dropped from 100% to 86% in about 20 seconds of us. Is that normal?
[doublepost=1514504686][/doublepost]Could you clarify watts. The iMac can draw 217W and the battery is 450w. Is watt draw rating per minute? So the iMac would use 217w of the 450 per minute?

I am going to guess that the buzzing is most likely because of the simulated sine wave. You will likely notice the iMac's power supply makes a buzzing noise as well when running on it.

Based on APC's own documentation, the 1-minute run time seems a little short (although some Makers do seem to overrate a bit...but I did not think by that much!) 5 minutes seems acceptable for that unit.
http://www.apc.com/products/runtime_for_extendedruntime.cfm?upsfamily=29

(I'm certainly no expert on UPS')
 
I am going to guess that the buzzing is most likely because of the simulated sine wave. You will likely notice the iMac's power supply makes a buzzing noise as well when running on it.

Based on APC's own documentation, the 1-minute run time seems a little short (although some Makers do seem to overrate a bit...but I did not think by that much!) 5 minutes seems acceptable for that unit.
http://www.apc.com/products/runtime_for_extendedruntime.cfm?upsfamily=29

(I'm certainly no expert on UPS')

Meh. If I could return it I would, but Amazon won't allow returns on this unit. I was going to buy a 1000VA CyberPower in it's place, but don't want to trash this $85 purchase. I could hook it up to the router and modem I suppose.

The iMac made no sound and worked fine. It was the fan that only worked properly on its highest setting of 3.

I know about the simulated vs pure sine, but as this was just for brief power cuts or safely shutting down during the occasional sustained one I decided to get "good enough." I regret it, but oh well.


Hmm, does this mean that even with a CyberPower unit with 600W or 900W that the iMac will only be good for 10-15 minutes idle? If I'm actively using the iMac I'll shut it down when the power goes out. My main concern was when the iMac is asleep or perhaps active (with screen off) backing up data. I did program the Mac to shut down when the UPS declines to 25% power though.
 
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