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UPS recommendation?

I have a few Cyberpower units here that have served me faithfully for a coupla years, and the price isn't too bad.
 
Ah, UPS's. I remember when my first one, a Tripplite 675, cost $212 at Best Buy. That was maybe in 1997, thereabouts, and it still works, but not for me anymore. It's keeping my dad's PC up and running through outages now. My PC grew too power hungry over the years - the addition of a 21" monitor didn't help in that respect. 🙂
I now have this. And for $5 shipping (I bet the other $10 of the shipping is already in the price), it's still not a bad deal. It's a pretty heavy ah heck too - two 12V 9AH batteries in there. It's got cables and adapters to plug into either a serial or USB port, along with some monitoring software, which looks nifty from the screenshots I've seen; I don't actually use it though.
Thus far it's worked fine...which isn't saying much. According to Newegg's order history...I bought the PSU on December 7th; probably had it by the 12th. Anyway, there's not been a single power outage here since then, not even for a second - the microwave here loses the time if the power even just flickers, and it's not done so.
 
I got a Belkin 1200 about a year ago. I installed the software as it records all spikes
and dips of input voltage. A major retrofit is being done on our condo building by
unskilled labor. Its kicked in several times.

I was told to make sure that I got one with a voltage regulator and I did 🙂
For a brand name product Belkin has a good price point.
I gave $118 for it at M-wave, it was a will-call purchase. Shipping is high, it's heavy.
 
That Cyberpower looks nice but I have a question about the batteries. When they finally die how do you replace them? I know they recharge but the last few belkin's I have owned have lost their charge in less than a year and then it is a real pain in the arse to get replacement batteries. Are cyberpower batteries easy to replace from say a motorcycle shop?
 
Originally posted by: Luthien
That Cyberpower looks nice but I have a question about the batteries. When they finally die how do you replace them? I know they recharge but the last few belkin's I have owned have lost their charge in less than a year and then it is a real pain in the arse to get replacement batteries. Are cyberpower batteries easy to replace from say a motorcycle shop?
Click to expand...


I'm no expert, but read this


Text if the battery goes bad in my Belkin their service depot is 15 minutes away from me. If I can't find a cheap replacement battery, I'll ebay it w/o a batt and buy a new UPS 🙂
 
Depends what you need it for. I use the Smart Ups 3000 from APC but it is higher in the price range. I also have the Network Management card card so more than one comp is protected (with safe shutdown) and I can access it from any computer in network rather than just serial. For me all the extra options outway the higher price.


 
Originally posted by: SolarisGuru
Depends what you need it for. I use the Smart Ups 3000 from APC but it is higher in the price range. I also have the Network Management card card so more than one comp is protected (with safe shutdown) and I can access it from any computer in network rather than just serial. For me all the extra options outway the higher price.
Click to expand...

It looks like that APC one only lasts 3-11 minutes? I don't know how much you paid for it, but if it's "higher in the price range," it seems like a rip off... is it just the APC name that makes it cost so much? I'd think something like this would be better -- 20 to 65 minutes. Or the even longer (40-100something) one posted earlier in the thread.
 
I have an APC BackUps 1000... around 150 retail

lasts an hour or so according to my monitoring software.
 
Originally posted by: sctakeshi
Originally posted by: SolarisGuru
Depends what you need it for. I use the Smart Ups 3000 from APC but it is higher in the price range. I also have the Network Management card card so more than one comp is protected (with safe shutdown) and I can access it from any computer in network rather than just serial. For me all the extra options outway the higher price.
Click to expand...

It looks like that APC one only lasts 3-11 minutes? I don't know how much you paid for it, but if it's "higher in the price range," it seems like a rip off... is it just the APC name that makes it cost so much? I'd think something like this would be better -- 20 to 65 minutes. Or the even longer (40-100something) one posted earlier in the thread.
Click to expand...


Like with anything your mileage will vary... screen size, etc..... The point isn't to run your computer for an hour until the power comes back on... it's to have enough time to shut the system down properly/save files.

Most cable broadband connections will also be down in a power failure, so it's not like you'll be able to surf during that time... DSL may be a different story.

The price difference in UPS's can be from how much actual surge suppression and filtering is built into the unit? Does it feature AVR -auto voltage regulation? What is the warranty.... Most manufacturers make them for the home users but also office, and server. You can look at a server "tower" ups, and it will be much more expensive than the Home "tower" UPS even though it has the same power rating. The server focused UPS's tend to have more management features, and higher end software bundled-- ala more expensive.

Again... you are only looking to have enough time to shut down a system by keeping the monitor and box running for that process. ( and any KVM's you might have as well).

If your looking for continuous power backup... then a UPS is not the right answer.... A Generator is.

My advice... Look for something that will give you 10 minutes or slightly more of run time. Buy a decent brand but buy their cheapest unit in that spec ie; retail models. Your main benefit will be in the form of AVR.

Buying two smaller ones may give you the time you need, greater flexibility of hookup and device UPS, and could save you money depending what you go for,

 
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