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PSU And UPS Confused!

Revolution

Senior member
I have Zebronics Sata Plus 450W PSU and APC Back-UPS 650VA.
I'm thinking to upgrade my PSU and I'm considering Corsair VX450W which is an APFC PSU.
I heard that APFC PSU could be damaged by normal UPS which does not provide true sine wave.
Is that true ?


Now,my question is.....
Which is better option ?
1.Active PFC PSU with no UPS
Or
2.Normal PSU(that I have) with a normal UPS ?


Cos everyone can't afford the highly priced True Sine Wave UPS but they want to run their video card with good PSU like Corsair VX450W.....
 
I assume that the value of APFC and true sine wave outputs are both minimal... mostly they're for marketing value.

To your question, I've never heard of an APFC power supply being damaged from normal power. I have that same PSU, and never had any problem running it off 120V mains. Don't know however with 240V/50Hz mains. Could be something there I'm not aware of.
 
All the power supplies I have and have had over the last couple of years (including a few Corsairs, an Antec Signature, an Antec TPN-750, amongst others) have all been run on "regular" UPS's (mostly APC XS series)....and all have run without incident off the UPS when the power's gone away. (Living in the sticks has that problem....two drops of rain and the power goes off.)
 
i have run many apfc psus on usually apc batts for years w/out any issues. never heard of on anyway and all my stuff on batt seems to live quite a bit longer than it should have, at least according to the cable company - cable modem lived 2yrs longer than "normal", router still going.
 
But,unfortunately I already have APC Back-UPS ES 650VA that comes from APC ES series not the NS series.....🙁

Not even a very good UPS. It is only standby. You are much better buying a line interactive UPS with AVR. To answer your main question though, it would be better to have a good UPS, sine-wave or not, APFC or not. Most modern PSUs that are of high quality though have APFC.
 
So,I should buy a new PSU Corsair VX450W ?
And I should run My PC without any ups until I got a better line interactive UPS with AVR ?
Am I wright ?
 
The ES-Series isn't going to damage anything, it just isn't very good as a UPS. Some would say a standby UPS isn't even really a UPS.

Is there a reason you want to upgrade to a new PSU? Instability?
 
I wanna add a video card like 9600GT.
But,I don't think my current PSU(Zebronics Sata Plus 450W) can handle that.

My rest of the system:
Intel E2180 @2.0GHz
G31 Motherboard
2x2 GB DDR2 RAM
2xSATA HDDs
1xPATA HDD
DVD+RW
2x120mm fan(one LED)
 
use a cyberpower standby pure-sine
or apc smart-ups

the cyberpower is alot cheaper but has true-sine so the pwm square wave won't be rejected by the psu
 
Thanks all for your replies......

I don't wanna damage my new APFC PSU.
So,I will run my PC with out my old UPS until I buy a true sine wave UPS.....
 
I wanna add a video card like 9600GT.
But,I don't think my current PSU(Zebronics Sata Plus 450W) can handle that.

My rest of the system:
Intel E2180 @2.0GHz
G31 Motherboard
2x2 GB DDR2 RAM
2xSATA HDDs
1xPATA HDD
DVD+RW
2x120mm fan(one LED)

You don't need a new PSU for that card and you don't need a new UPS. Just get the card and keep everything else.
 
Thanks all for your replies......

I don't wanna damage my new APFC PSU.
So,I will run my PC with out my old UPS until I buy a true sine wave UPS.....

where are you getting the idea that a non true sine wave ups will damage a apfc psu? i have run an es series in the past on many different apfc psus (antec earthwatts, delta psus, seasonic, etc) w/out any issues, it is just the es battery died after about 5yrs or so and i opted to get a larger unit than to replace the battery. now i have batt for 3machines instead of 1. but, i would rather have a es series ups over no ups.

can you site a source for your concerns?
 
where are you getting the idea that a non true sine wave ups will damage a apfc psu? i have run an es series in the past on many different apfc psus (antec earthwatts, delta psus, seasonic, etc) w/out any issues, it is just the es battery died after about 5yrs or so and i opted to get a larger unit than to replace the battery. now i have batt for 3machines instead of 1. but, i would rather have a es series ups over no ups.

can you site a source for your concerns?

Nope,sorry I can't confirm about cos I heard that from my friend.
So,I will stay with my 2 year UPS.
And do I need to upgrade my old Zebronics Sata Plus 450W PSU for 9600GT ?

My rest of the system:
Intel E2180 @2.0GHz
G31 Motherboard
2x2 GB DDR2 RAM
2xSATA HDDs
1xPATA HDD
DVD+RW
2x120mm fan(one LED)

Actually I got confused.
Thanks you for making me clear about that a non true sine wave ups will not damage a apfc psu.
 
get non active power and a ups dude. and make sure you have right to return the power supply if it sucks. you just have to have a battery backup these days.

most of non-usa is PFC whether active or not - seems like usa is lagging behind the rest of world
 
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