Question UPS size?

[Mark_Venture]

So I have a PC (i7-8700K, 16gig ram, using the Intel video) that I use as my Plex Server. It has a 750w power supply and 8 hard drives internal, along with a bunch of WD EasyStore external drives attached. I also have a 16 port Trendnet switch and my Comcast XB6 gateway next to it. There is no monitor.

I want to get a UPS, but I'm not sure how to size it. If I use some sizing tools I found online, I need a UPS that is outrageously sized and expensive.

I decided to try plugging everything into my Kill-A-Watt EZ and see what it says for wattage. I started with just the PC and its extra drives, and I also streamed 2 movies (that require transcoding) to put some load on it. To my surprise, the meter never topped 165w. Can that really be right? I haven't added the XB6 and Trendnet Switch to the K-A-W yet. Does 165w max on the K-A-W mean if I look at a UPS that is 1500VA/900W, I've got more than enough to spare?

 

[Steltek]

165 watts would not be out of line for an 8700k based system - Intel processors used to be fairly power efficient before they had to start ramping the wattage up to remain performance competitive.

At 165 watts, you are probably at around 15-20% capacity on a 1500VA/900 watt UPS. So, with a new battery, expect around 45-55 minutes run time depending upon UPS brand and OS power plan used.

Adding your switch and gateway to it will obviously reduce the runtime. For those items, down the road you might consider getting a separate dedicated UPS. Myself, I use an APC BGE90M that I bought cheap a few years ago (it is designed specifically to power only low draw electronic devices like routers, modems, and switches for sake of power efficiency), but you could use really anything for it you get at a good price point.

I do recommend you consider getting a true sinewave UPS and not one that produces a stepped sinewave waveform. True sinewave units are better for your electronics (especially power supplies).

 

[Ajay]

How long to you want it to run w/o power? If you just need time to do a clean shutdown, seems like you have more than enough.

 

[Mark_Venture]

@Steltek , @Ajay

Thank you both.

I'm not looking to do much. Our power sometimes flickers during a storm that has higher winds, or goes off for a minute or two, then back on. So I'm just looking mostly to prevent the plex server from going down hard, and the cable modem from losing power. (Even a quick blink causes our cable modem to go offline and sometimes needs to be unplugged and re-plugged in to get it working again). So if I have enough power to keep it all running after the power goes out for a few seconds to a few minutes, and shut down if the power doesn't come back on, I'm good.

If the power is out for an extended period, then I hook the generator to the interlock on our panel.

 

[ultimatebob]

Honestly, it's the video card that uses the majority of the power on modern PC's now, not the CPU. The higher end cards can pull down 400 watts on their own at full load. The CPU will likely pull less than 1/4th of that.

 

[Steltek]

The 1500VA/900 watt unit you are referencing should be just fine for uptime in the circumstances you describe - it'll cover brownouts, flickers, and short outages with time to safely shut everything down if it looks like the outage will last. That is what I do with mine. The only reason I have my DSL modem and wireless router on the separate BGE90M is so that I can maximize wireless Internet uptime (cell phones are very spotty where I live, so being able to use my cell through the wireless router allows me plenty of time to make outage reports to Entergy via app before it goes down).

In your case, just run everything (including the gateway and switch) through the same UPS. If you don't have enough outlets on the UPS, get a plain (with no surge suppressor) power strip to plug in to it. You want to make sure such a power strip has no surge protector because plugging a surge protector into another surge protector is not something you want to do.

Just make sure to pick a quality pure sinewave unit, preferably one that you can replace the batteries in for extended service life. APC units are easy to find batteries for, and I doubt you'd have any problems with batteries for either Cyberpower or Tripplite.

 

[Torn Mind]

I would say that line interactive does not cover every electrical fault that can screw up a computer in prior operating condition. It's that fault that is neither blackout nor brownout, but still a sufficient disruption to screw with the power supply.

A lot faults get covered, no doubt, but for every potential fault, you will need a double online unit. It really depends on your budget and sensitivity to data corruption/failure/bugs.

 

[Mark_Venture]

Just to follow up... I ended up getting an APC Back-ups 1000 (BX1000M).

The PC is a Intel i7-8700K with 16gig ram, IO Crest 5 Port SATA PCI-E X4 card JMB585 , no extra video card, it does have a 9 internal drives. The internal drives are One 2TB WD Black, Four 4TB Red, and Four 8TB Red/White. External, Powered USB drives include... Two 8TB Wd EasyStore, Three 4TB WD EasyStore, One 10TB WD EasyStore, One 2TB WD MyBook.

There is also one 16Port Trendnet unmanaged switch TEG-S16D, along with the Comcast/Xfinity XB6 Gateway/modem/router.

Even while watching movies that require Plex to transcode on the fly, it never draws more than 180watts. And the battery reports 30 minutes on its display.

So that is more than enough for now, and gives me flexibility going forward.

At some point, I'll have to see how much load the UPS would put on the generator if I leave it in place... Based on that, maybe get a smaller UPS for just the XB6 and TEG-S16D for when the power goes out, that they keep running while I switch to generator, but without being a drag on the generator.

 

[Fanatical Meat]

Guys I have a related project coming up and I need a ups for it
I’ll be putting together a pi hole with a raspberry pi 4. I know it doesn’t need much power and I have fairly reliable power. What I don’t want happening is the power flashing off/on for a moment during a storm then the internet craps out due to the pi powering off or worse the SD card getting ruined.
What sort of ups should I look for?

 

[Steltek]

Guys I have a related project coming up and I need a ups for it
I’ll be putting together a pi hole with a raspberry pi 4. I know it doesn’t need much power and I have fairly reliable power. What I don’t want happening is the power flashing off/on for a moment during a storm then the internet craps out due to the pi powering off or worse the SD card getting ruined.
What sort of ups should I look for?

Well, if you are just worried about avoiding power flickers and not weathering extended outages, you shouldn't need anything high-end for that.

Maybe something like this to try to start?