How much Juice does a UPS need to provide?

[starwars7]

I used the APC calculator to determine how many watts I'd need for a UPS to support a system I'm about to build and it came out with 300W. Does that sound about right for this:

Cooler Master Real Power 550W
DFI LANPARTY UT nF4 Ultra-D
AMD Opteron 165
2XWestern Digital 3.0Gbps 250GB 7200RPM 16MB Caviar SE16
eVGA Geforce 6800GS
OCZ 2GB DDR SDRAM Platinum
NEC Black IDE DVD Burner
Creative Sound Blaster Audigy2 ZS
2X120mm Fans

And a 20 inch CTR (I could plug the CTR into a surge protector and leave just the PC connected to the UPS)

I'm looking at the Belkin F6C550-AVR UPS.

I'm also wondering if there is a way for the UPS to turn off the PC once it goes to battery power.

Thanks!

 

[snoturtle]

Personally I would get a bigger one
especially if you plan on plugging the monitor into it

Looks like a 550 will give you under 5 minutes of runtime

All depends on how much you want to spend and how much runtime you want

Though I do recomend APC ones with AVR

 

[imported_rod]

You have a 550W PSU, so a 550+ VA UPS would be preferable. Otherwise, the UPS may be insufficient if you upgrade your system.

Also, you would probably want to power the monitor aswell, wich would add another 150W for a huge monitor like that (700+ VA). But it is possible to plug it just into the surge protector.

Yes, a UPS can shutdown your PC. It should have a serial port/USB port, and some software included with it.

RoD

 

[starwars7]

Thank you guys!

I noticed that the APC's with AVR start at round $100, while the Belkins with AVR are less expensive, I guess thats why I wasn't looking at APC

 

[snoturtle]

The AVR on the belkins doesn't appear to be full AVR
It only helps on brownouts
The APC units AVR works on brownouts and overvolts

If you will notice it I don't know

Personally I look at a UPS like a monitor
It can never be big enough

 

[starwars7]

Originally posted by: snoturtle
The AVR on the belkins doesn't appear to be full AVR
It only helps on brownouts
The APC units AVR works on brownouts and overvolts

If you will notice it I don't know

Personally I look at a UPS like a monitor
It can never be big enough

Wow, that would be an important factor. Can anyone else confirm that Belkin's don't have full AVR? Do any of the Belkins have full AVR?

 

[GalvanizedYankee]

Since I use a Mit 22"CRT and could not afford an APC. Plus never had an issue with the Belkin F6C120-UNV during 3 years of use and experianced several outage/sever brown-outs, plus a couple near lightning strikes with this 1200 in use, I bought another Belkin.

A Belkin F6C1500-TW-RK, after letting it charge for two days, it was tested. My 500 watt halogen work light was pluged in, to see how long this unit would support it. On batteries alone the lamp remained at full bright for a full 5.5 minuets before the alarm went crazy and the UPS shut down. Search the Hot Deals Forum for my further testing of this $120 w/free shipping UPS.

If I could justify/afford APC or high-end Tripp Lite w/AVR that would have been bought.

The 1200 needs the batteries replaced as they test very poorly after 4 years in the unit. It was on sale because it was new old stock and lead acid batteries do not like just setting in a warehouse in a static state, they will sulfate.

Buy a fresh unit that has AVR. The above 1500 was bought from Buycom and was very factory fresh. The smell at the point of removing the plastic wrap was filled with the reducers used in the manufacture of plastic. It charged well and fast in about 12 hours.


...Galvanized

 

[GalvanizedYankee]

I would think, that if your PSU has Active PFC full AVR is of little consequence.

I think the F6Cs have full AVR but I am too lazy to look.


...Galvanized

 

[starwars7]

Originally posted by: GalvanizedYankee
I would think, that if your PSU has Active PFC full AVR is of little consequence.

I think the F6Cs have full AVR but I am too lazy to look.


...Galvanized

You just answered the post I was about to make. But I've done all this reading I feel the need to post it somewhere So here we go:

UPS with AVR, PSU with PFC, redundant? (obviously Galvanized already knew the answer):

So I've been reading up on PFC:
Dan's Data
X-bit Presents

and AVR:
powerdesigners.com

And it seems as though they both do the same thing. So if you have PFC, why would you need full AVR? Seems like you would not, as long as it can take care of any surge. I would guess that the opposite would be true as well, if you have full AVR, than you really don't need PFC.

 

[GalvanizedYankee]

Generally PSUs that have Active PFC cost more but are built to a higher spec*geneeally*.

This question was posed in the stickied PSU thread by me and the answer was not direct.

Xbit Labs has an article on testing methodology for PSUs. In that article is a very good but highly detailed explaination of what PFC is/does. Dan's DATA just says it's worthless and most ppl just go with that.

If you can't find the Xbit article, PM me and I'll link it to you via PM.
I do read, many who post here refuse to do any homework

AVR and PFC are two distincly different entities.

...Galvanized