Small UPS?

Cyber-Mav

Cyber-Mav

Cyber-Mav

Soldato
Joined
30 Jul 2005
Posts
20,059
Location
Midlands
hi all, recently i had a brownish out where the lights in the house dimmed and the psu in my system made a crackling sound. a few hours after that i started to get paging errors and the drive needed reformatting to stop the os from bsodding randomly.

i do have surge plugs etc but was thinking on the lines of a small ups that is a line conditioner.

thing is what is appropriate that works in the way of providing power to the pc constantly from its internal battery while charging itself up at the same time?

i know there are 2 types of ups systems around:

1) power is provided by mains and ups only kicks in when power cuts out or if power drops below threshold level.

2) power is constantly provided by ups and ups charges itself at the same time. this provides a power line conditioner effect where the voltage given to the pc is constantly clean and ripple free.


question is, which cheapo ups systems fall into the second option? not too bothered about uptime, only need to keep my main pc up for around 60seconds during a power outage.
 
Belkin 500VA Superior Series Emergency Battery Backup (F6H500UKUNV) (UP-010-BE) for £44 incl VAT give you 7-12mins back up time depending on mahcine load
 
Look into APC. I wouldn't touch Belkin UPS's. A certain competitor has information what off-line and on-line UPS's do. APC have Back-UPS (offline) and Smart-UPS (online)

UPS's are generally large and heavy due to a lead acid battery. If you want something small, buy a surge/spike multi-way extension lead.
 
yes i already have a surge strip. just need something to stop power ripples thats why im looking into a ups system.

i have a budget of £65 which ups unit would you recommend that will do what im looking for?
 
Offline UPS's are the simplest and least expensive. When mains is present, it is routed straight through the UPS bypassing the inverter to the output. A degree of filtering is providing ensuring limited protection against spikes and other irregularities. The batteries are charged the whole time, but only in the event of a power failure will the load be fed by the inverter. The switching from mains to inverter supply ( generally referred to as Transfer Time ) usually takes a few milliseconds. However, a modern computer's or office system's internal power supply has sufficient power stored within it to survive this brief interruption of power - ensuring uninterrupted operation of the load equipment.

Lower Cost Offline UPS generally, when on inverter / battery backup, provide a square / pseudo sine wave output waveform. Given the nature in which switch mode power supplies used in modern computer / office systems draw power this type of output power waveform is usually more than adequate. In situations where a square / pseudo sine output waveform is not acceptable then true sine wave more expensive Offline or Online UPS are recommended.

Online UPS's take the incoming AC mains supply and convert it to DC which feeds the battery and the load via the inverter. If the mains supply fails, then the batteries feed the load via the inverter with no interruption to the output supply at all. An Online system, by nature of the dual conversion design (AC-DC / DC- AC), ensures a far higher degree of isolation of the load from the irregularities on the mains supply. In general, Plug N Play Online systems are more expensive than similar Offline solutions because the inverter has to be rated for continuous operation.

Online UPS implies that an electronic inverter is constantly supplying AC power to the load under all modes of operation. Offline UPS supply input utility to the load during normal operation and revert to a battery-powered inverter during utility failures.
Click to expand...

looks like im after an online ups unit.
now whats the best value for money unit to get which ocuk sells?
 
I have the belkin model as listed above and living close to a power station I do get a few surges and ripples. So far the ups has performed perfectly and when the power went completely done a damn fine job of closing applications and powering down the pc.

The only negative side is the included software; this added 2 minutes to startup time. Poorly written I would say or simply a conflict somewhere in my setup.

But for the price its reliable and does the job.
 
APC Back-UPS CS 500VA USB/Serial 230V (UP-000-AP) for offline. Probably pickup one for my HTPC. 500VA equates to 320W max draw. Probably 800VA for the one in my sig.
 
i need an online solution, something to just stop power ripples and provide clean power to the pc. very rarly do we have power cuts around here.
 
ouch, thats a little on the expensive side. no other online ups thats cheaper than this available?
i understand the need for a good brand, if a ups blows up it can do a lot of damage.
 
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