buying a UPS

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CraKaJaX

CraKaJaX

Lifer
Dec 26, 2004
11,905
148
101
it's going to be my first one, all i have been using are those cheap ass power surge things. time to buy a UPS, anyone recommend anything particular?
 
Fullmetal Chocobo

Fullmetal Chocobo

Moderator<br>Distributed Computing
Moderator
May 13, 2003
13,704
7
81
Originally posted by: CraKaJaX
it's going to be my first one, all i have been using are those cheap ass power surge things. time to buy a UPS, anyone recommend anything particular?
Click to expand...

I've got a CyberPower 1100 VA UPS. Has been good to me, and it powers both of my PSUs and all the hardware, so I can't complain.

What PSU size are you using, and are you planning to have your monitor on battery backup as well? If so, what monitor is it?
 
CraKaJaX

CraKaJaX

Lifer
Dec 26, 2004
11,905
148
101
A8N Deluxe, AMD 3500 /w XP-120 + U1A Panaflo, 2GB mushkin value ram, OCZ 520W Modstream, Audigy 2 ZS, Plextor 716SA, 2x80GB maxtors (raid 0) And yes, plan on backing up the monitor too. LCD 17" Samsung 730b. Still waiting on my damn rebate from compusa for that. :|
 
H

hemiram

Senior member
Mar 16, 2005
629
0
0
I have had great results from APC. I used the UPS selector, and it recomended the current model, almost identical to the one I have. I just put a new battery in it yesterday after three years of use.

 
M

MWink

Diamond Member
Oct 9, 1999
3,642
1
76
It sounds like the best choice for you would be the APC Back-UPS RS 1000 or 1500. The RS series is the one I recommend most for the average user. Cyber Power may be ok but I don't have much experience with them. For some reason I've always had major problems with Tripp Lite units (Even their high end Smart Pro line, had one blow a capacitor within a couple weeks). I wouldn't even consider a Belkin UPS, their surge protectors are the ABSOLUTE WORST (and I can prove it).
 
G

GalvanizedYankee

Diamond Member
Oct 27, 2003
6,986
0
0
Prove it. I might get an APC when the battery needs changing in the Belkin 1100 that's been
in use for 3.5 years w/o a hitch. My little office is in the rear of a 4 car deep garage and when
all the lights are on then the air compressor kicks in with it's 120V @ 20A hit this unit picks it
up like it's nothing.
Two near-by lightning strikes hit power poles or transformers and the worst that happened
was a white vertical rain on the display, corruped the VGA driver(i think). A reboot solved
that.
After 3.5 years the battery indicater shows 95% capacity. At what point would you change-out the battery? I was thinking somewhere between 85 to 90%. In automotive work
75% is considered near dead.


Galvanized
 
P

Pabster

Lifer
Apr 15, 2001
16,986
1
0
Originally posted by: MWink
It sounds like the best choice for you would be the APC Back-UPS RS 1000 or 1500. The RS series is the one I recommend most for the average user. Cyber Power may be ok but I don't have much experience with them. For some reason I've always had major problems with Tripp Lite units (Even their high end Smart Pro line, had one blow a capacitor within a couple weeks). I wouldn't even consider a Belkin UPS, their surge protectors are the ABSOLUTE WORST (and I can prove it).
Click to expand...

Yeah I'd like to see some proof.

Belkin's UPS's are great. I use 5 of them currently and I've used many, many more over the last 5+ years and never had a hitch with any of them. Their monitoring software is (IMHO) superior to APC's offerings as well.
 
jdogg707

jdogg707

Diamond Member
Jun 24, 2002
6,098
0
76
Belkin, because you can go to their website, use the special code that only requires a person to know the numbers from 1 to 5, and then get 50% off! I bought the 1250VA and the thing is rock solid!

Edit: Nevermind, the Belkin code seems to broken!
 
I

Ike0069

Diamond Member
Apr 28, 2003
4,276
2
76
Originally posted by: MWink
It sounds like the best choice for you would be the APC Back-UPS RS 1000 or 1500. The RS series is the one I recommend most for the average user. Cyber Power may be ok but I don't have much experience with them. For some reason I've always had major problems with Tripp Lite units (Even their high end Smart Pro line, had one blow a capacitor within a couple weeks). I wouldn't even consider a Belkin UPS, their surge protectors are the ABSOLUTE WORST (and I can prove it).
Click to expand...

I too would like to see proof. I've always used Belkin SP's and I'm currently using a Belkin 800VA Universal series UPS and it's awesome.
 
M

MWink

Diamond Member
Oct 9, 1999
3,642
1
76
Originally posted by: Ike0069
Originally posted by: MWink
It sounds like the best choice for you would be the APC Back-UPS RS 1000 or 1500. The RS series is the one I recommend most for the average user. Cyber Power may be ok but I don't have much experience with them. For some reason I've always had major problems with Tripp Lite units (Even their high end Smart Pro line, had one blow a capacitor within a couple weeks). I wouldn't even consider a Belkin UPS, their surge protectors are the ABSOLUTE WORST (and I can prove it).
Click to expand...

I too would like to see proof. I've always used Belkin SP's and I'm currently using a Belkin 800VA Universal series UPS and it's awesome.
Click to expand...

I hate to revive an old thread but it seems that a couple people want to see my proof. First I'll explain it and if people still don't believe me I will try to provide pictures. To put it simply I took apart an average Belkin surge protector (a Surge Master 2 I believe) and looked inside at how it worked. Here's what I figured out.

It seems like Belkin wants to keep people out of their surge protectors. Where APC, TrippLite, etc. only have screws the Belkin had to be broken apart. Anyway examining the PCB it does have a few average size MOV's and they are protected by thermal fuses. That's the extent of the good. After looking at the traces on the PCB I realized that when the thermal fuses blow (due to the MOV's failing) THEY ONLY CUT OFF POWER TO THE MOV'S, NOT THE "PROTECTED" LOAD! In effect this means when the protection fails, it will only shut off power to the protection, NOT the devices plugged into it. Also the "protection working" light may go out. This is NOT how you're supposed to design a surge protector, they're supposed to disconnect power to the LOAD when the protection fails.

Now that I've seen that I feel even more justified when I say that Belkin is junk. I already pretty much knew they sucked because they ALL failed Consumer Reports tests and I've seen a whole bunch of them fail to protect people's equipment. The only other surge protector I've seen designed like this is a 15 year old cheapy Radio Shack surge protector.
 
P

Pabster

Lifer
Apr 15, 2001
16,986
1
0
No offense, dude, but Consumer Reports sucks. They're bought and paid for "recommendations".
 
M

MWink

Diamond Member
Oct 9, 1999
3,642
1
76
Originally posted by: Pabster
No offense, dude, but Consumer Reports sucks. They're bought and paid for "recommendations".
Click to expand...

umm... Last time I checked, Consumer Reports did not even accept advertising. I'm pretty sure they are not paid for their "recommendations." Anyway I'm just saying that their tests are yet another piece of supporting evidence.
 
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