UPS Advice workstation

N19h7m4r3 · 22 Nov 2015 at 13:57

UPS Advice for workstation brownouts

I recently moved to the midlands in Ireland from closer to ole Dublin, and with the recent storm blowing over we've had a lot of lights flickering, dimming, and my pc acting awfully strangely. Graphics crashes, and the odd shut down during these events with the lights dimming and flickering.

It seems to be mostly from brownouts and dirty power, and I want a UPS just to keep things stable and allow me to save work and shutdown when this happens. I don't need one to keep the system running for more than a few minutes in such cases, and would really appreciate some advice on what UPS to get.

Specs are:
5820K @ 4.3Ghz
Asus x99 Deluxe
SLI GTX 980Tis
EVGA Supernove G2 1000W PSU
ASUS ROG Swift, and two 27" IPS monitors
4 external HDD setups, one being a small RAID

I was having a look at the APC models, but I'm not sure if I actually need something over 500W just to allow me to keep the system stable and shutdown safely. The 700W+ models certainly shoot up in price and size.

lude1962 · 22 Nov 2015 at 16:51

This should do the job, you don't need the monitors plugged into it, as your pc will shutdown when power goes low

N19h7m4r3 · 22 Nov 2015 at 17:02

lude1962 said:
This should do the job, you don't need the monitors plugged into it, as your pc will shutdown when power goes low

I had a look at that but I can't seem to find any reviews on it. Would it be be reliable compared to the APC ones that cost significantly more for a 1200VA?

Wrinkly · 3 Dec 2015 at 14:16

N19h7m4r3 said:
I had a look at that but I can't seem to find any reviews on it. Would it be be reliable compared to the APC ones that cost significantly more for a 1200VA?

Software looks terrible but does what it is supposed to do. The unit came only with a power and USB lead. You will have to source IEC male/female leads yourself.

The only way to tell it is not an APC once it is under the desk is by looking at the money you saved

N19h7m4r3 · 4 Dec 2015 at 13:25

Wrinkly said:
Software looks terrible but does what it is supposed to do. The unit came only with a power and USB lead. You will have to source IEC male/female leads yourself.

The only way to tell it is not an APC once it is under the desk is by looking at the money you saved

Oh really? Might order one soon so, the storm is on it's way here again.

Armageus · 4 Dec 2015 at 13:42

Wrinkly said:
The only way to tell it is not an APC once it is under the desk is by looking at the money you saved

Have to agree - whilst APC used to be the go to for UPS, there are a lot better value units now available. For Home use that unit will be fine (the only possible issue will be when it comes to battery replacement time, will they be easily available? Although at the cost of the unit, it would be as easy to buy a new unit)

Bear in mind though that LMS Data unit is broadly equivalent to APC's backUPS series, in that it is an offline ups rather than a Line-Interactive UPS (like APC's SmartUPS series), and so will switch to battery in under or over volt conditions (rather than boosting/trimming the mains voltage).

For any business use these days I tend to recommend Eaton UPSes, as their support is much better than APC, product availability is nearly as good as APC and they tend to be either 2/3rds the price of an equivalent APC, or you can get a better specified unit for the same price.