UPS Recommendations

Soldato
Joined
21 Apr 2011
Posts
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I need to replace my surge protection and I have identified potential issues with the power in the house I have moved to, so considering a UPS rather than just a standard surge protection socket.

Running a high end overclocked, water cooled PC, two monitors and will run the router off it.

Any suggestions? OC don't appear to sell them.....
 
Umm... What is your use case exactly? To keep it powered up because you are expecting power outages from the socket/household? How long as you expecting the outages to last if it's needed?

Are you normally gaming a lot, doing professional work (editing/rendering/generating?), or just browsing? In short, roughly how much power is pulled via your setup (entirely) at your typical use? That or your rig details would help narrow this down in terms of rough power used.
 
Hey. This is main component list:

Lian LI O11 DYNAMIC XL
Corsair HXi Series 1000W
ASUS ROG X670E-F WIFI
AMD R7 7800X3D
ASUS RTX 4090 TUF OC
CORSAIR DOMINATOR TITANIUM 64G
Corsair MP600 PRO NH 2TB
4TB Corsair MP600 PRO

The primary reason is suspected issues with voltage regulation in the electrics in the house. Have been having issues with it powering off under high load since moving here, then when I have taken it elsewhere to test it has stopped doing it again. I have had a couple of short power outages here in the three months I have lived here as well although these were not localised to my house. A couple of hours of supply is sufficient. The rig is used mainly for gaming.
 
OK, so using the Seasonic PSU calculator, we're looking at least 670W for that machine when running full tilt for games approximately. No including Monitors/Displays or the router.

The issue we're up against however, is PSU up time. As far as I know, for consumer UPS, there's no UPS that can deliver that amount of power for more than "minutes". So anything up to an hour. Not at an acceptable price range anyway.

I think what you'll need is something like those generators or inverters (for that much power and that much duration, which is outside what most consumer UPS would handle), both of which is outside my knowledge and wheelhouse, so someone else will need to step in regarding options for those (but I know we have several members on the forum who are experienced with that stuff, so you should be covered).

You "might" be looking at using a combination of the two UPS + Generator to be able to keep that system up. But again, outside my domain of experience so just theory at the moment. But if I'm right, it's UPS to keep the system alive, then when the generator detects the line has gone out, kicks in and keeps the UPS up. But there's some frowning on connecting powered stuff like that in serial, so wait for the experts to chip in on that first.

Most of the UPS that can handle that load (temporarily) are in the £250-£380 range. The generators/inverters are more, but you can take all of them away with you to wherever next if need be too.

Sorry I'm not more help here.
 
One thing I will say is avoid APC - they used to be the go to but the manufacturing quality has gone down the pan in recent years.
 
And looking around, yeah, it looks like the suggestion for something that you've asked for is basically:

Electrical Outlet --> A Generator (Jackery for example) --> A UPS (Cyberpower UPS for example) --> To your PC

The suggested levels is a UPS that can handle 900W or 1000W, so from the Cyberpower units, there's a 1500VA 900W and 1600VA 1000W UPS (with swappable battery) that can keep all of your kit up when power goes out. But it will only be able to last possibly 10-30 minutes depending. Once your Generator see's the line has gone out, that kicks in and then powers your UPS and helps that keep your rig up for the time you're after. The suggested rating for the Generator is at double the rating as your UPS so it can keep it powered and charging back up.

Depending on the rating you go for, it can go from 90 minutes to near 180 minutes for your setup. But price goes up as you aim for longer durations of course.
 
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Just to quickly add, it looks like you have the right rating on that APC unit you were looking at (1600VA/960W). The only thing is (again) of course, APC's reputation has taken a hit from units that fail rather early/unexpectedly for reasons it shouldn't from the last decade or so. Which is why @Rroff said to avoid. As their units are also more expensive than the rest as well, so it's a double whammy loss when it fails just out of warranty, etc. (Especially when it's the unit and not the battery that was the problem).
 
The other I was looking at was the Cyberpower CP1500EPFCLCD, although a little concerned about some reports of a fire risk due to the adhesive used in them. This is 1500VA/900w

 
I've got 2 cyberpower -
CyberPower CP1500EPFCLCD-UK 1500va - plugged into 5950x pc, mac mini, 2x 27inch 4k, printer, switch, wifi bridge
CyberPower VP1600EILCD Value PRO 1600va - plugged into i5 13500 server with 8x hard drives etc, miniforums 5600h and 24inch display

Not experienced any issue with either of them in the little over a year I've had them...

Had a belkin in the past that was fine and a APC backups as well, all seemed to work 'fine' but then I'm just using them to protect against power spikes/brownouts rather than keeping it all up and running for hours.
 
So I'm looking at the Jackery Explorer 1000 V2, and it says it has a EPS (Emergency Power System) that basically functions to the equivalent of a UPS, but it's switching time is 20ms or a bit more (certainly it can't switch to battery faster than 20ms is what its saying), that's fine for most normal setups so it might be viable for you. It's rating is ~1000 Watt Hours (at full power I believe), so should be able to keep your system up for an hour or so, and you might not need a UPS to act as a go between if the devices are fine with a (fastest) 20ms switching time (the Jackery can handle). If you need something faster, then a UPS is needed to act as a go between. But otherwise, you might be able to just jump to this as an option. It's also currently on sale with options too (including solar panels to charge it up).
 
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I use a APC ES BE650 G2. I only use it to look after a NAS - keeps it up for about 10 mins then issues a shutdown command if power isn't restored.

There is a larger version, but I imagine it's underpowered for running a system like yours for an hour. However, I would question whether you actually need that? Does power stay down for that long?
 
I’ve run Eaton UPS’ at home for circa 15 years and not had an issue. Software is a bit basic but it works.

At work we used to use high output (10,000+ volts) APC units and whilst ok, did not represent great value for money.
 
Any suggestions? OC don't appear to sell them.....

I use Cyberpower UPSs (CyberPower VP1600EILCD Value PRO 1600va/960w Tower LCD UPS) and my main PC is not dissimilar to yours, with three monitors. I get coverage for blips, and more than enough time to save what I'm doing in the case of an extended outage. I get 30 minutes if I just let the PC idle.
 
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