UPS question

You can use a UPS with your Mac but it's hard to say yes to your specific model because you didn't list your specific model.

 

Usually a UPS just appears as a box with outlets. All you need to do is plug the Mac into it just as if it was a wall outlet. Some UPS devices also have a small cable that plugs into the Mac USB port and provides the Mac with a signal if power goes down so the Mac can shutdown.

 

Wirelessly posted (iPhone 4S: Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; CPU iPhone OS 5_0_1 like Mac OS X) AppleWebKit/534.46 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.1 Mobile/9A405 Safari/7534.48.3)

I use an APC UPS for my iMac. Just as the others said, you just plug it in as you would a wall outlet. The monitor cable on mine is USB so I would imagine yours could be too.

So if your UPS is of a standard type, it should work fine.

 

For iMacs and their more sensitive internal power supplies, its best to use a UPS unit that uses "pure sine" output. Many UPS brands use "Step Approximation" output. When using Step Approximation on an iMac and UPS battery kicks in, the iMac will have a slight hum. Thus, proving it doesn't like its dirty power. Always best to use UPS that has "pure sine / Sine Wave" - which is much cleaner power output (that sensitive electronics love much better).

If using APC brand, focus on their "smart UPS" models. For example: APC Smart-UPS 750 to 1000VA range. re: http://www.apc.com/resource/include/techspec_index.cfm?base_sku=sua1000i or the http://www.apc.com/products/resource/include/techspec_index.cfm?base_sku=SMT750 unit.

Hope this helps…

 

I would recommend buying a new UPS. A couple hundred dollars isn't a lot to spend when protecting a $2000 machine.

 

I am pretty sure that the APC products that had a power cable directly to a computer do not work with Macs made in the last few years, or at least are not designed specifically to do so.

Purchase a new UPS device that you plug the computer into. It's really not a burden.

 

I echo what they're saying as well. You're probably better off getting a new UPS rather than fiddle with this older one that may or may not work.