UPS Specs for new workstation

jdbrody

Reputable
May 2, 2014
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4,510
Hello,

I was hoping someone could help me with figuring what specs I would need for an uninterruptable power supply for a machine I just ordered. The relevant specs are as follows:

  • ■ FRACTAL DESIGN Define XL R2 Black Pearl Silent Full Tower Case, EATX / XL-ATX, 9 Slots, No PSU, Plastic/Steel
    ■ SEASONIC Platinum-1200 1200W Power Supply w/ Modular Cables, 80 PLUS® Platinum, 24-pin ATX12V 2x EPS12V, 10x 8/6-pin PCIe, Retail
    ■ ASUS Z9PE-D8 WS, LGA2011 /2, Intel® C602, DDR3-2133 (O.C.) 256GB/64GB ECC/UECC /8, PCIe x16 SLI CF /4+2*, SATA 6Gb/s RAID 5 /6, 3Gb/s /8, USB 3.0 /4, HDA, FW /2, GbLAN /2, SSI EEB, Retail
    ■ INTEL 2 x Xeon® E5-2609 Quad-Core Processor 2.4GHz, LGA2011, 6.4 GT/s QPI, 10MB L3 Cache, DDR3-1066, EIST EM64T VT-d VT-x XD, 32nm, 80W, Retail w/o Fan
    ■ DYNATRON R17 Socket 2011 Active 3U CPU Cooler, 2500 RPM, 2 Ball Bearing, 160W TDP, 110mm Height, Aluminum/Copper
    ■ DYNATRON R17 Socket 2011 Active 3U CPU Cooler, 2500 RPM, 2 Ball Bearing, 160W TDP, 110mm Height, Aluminum/Copper
    ■ KINGSTON 32GB (4 x 8GB) ValueRAM™ PC3-12800 DDR3 1600MHz CL11 1.5V SDRAM DIMM, ECC Registered
    ■ EVGA GeForce® GTX TITAN Black SuperClocked Signature 967-1072MHz, 6GB GDDR5 7000MHz, PCIe x16 SLI, DP + HDMI + 2x DVI, Retail
    ■ WESTERN DIGITAL 1TB WD Black (WD1003FZEX), SATA 6 Gb/s, 7200 RPM, 64MB Cache
    ■ ASUS VE248H Black WideScreen LCD Monitor, 24" TFT Full HD LED, 1920x1080, 0.277mm, 250cd/m², 2ms, VGA/DVI/HDMI, VESA, w/ Speakers

I guess the main things that would draw power are the two Xeon processors and the Nvidia Titan. For what it's worth, I don't need the machine to stay up for a long time in a power outage, just long enough to send a single to the OS which can then shut itself down cleanly. Also, I probably wouldn't need to put the monitor on battery backup.

Some context -- I'll be running a computation (largely through the GPU) on this machine that could take weeks. I'd like to be sure that the computation and filesystem aren't corrupted if the power goes out.

Any advise would be greatly appreciated!
 
well... the most important thing to consider is what the actual power draw will be. your actual usage matters so if you have a way to measure this that would be helpful.

is this system going to be anywhere close to full load? if so you need to take that into account.

edit: removed suggestions since they were no longer relevant:

i'm not sure the 510w/850va will be enough if your system was running at max.
-if you were for some reason drawing more than 510w this battery backup wouldnt even work and your system would just crash (from a loss of power state)
-at 510w draw it would last about 1 minute. at half draw (255w) it would last for 8 minutes. per the spec
-if your system was not under full load (perhaps half load) then it might work for 3-4 minutes as i7baby stated.

thats quite alot of ifs... please reply with some more information.
 
@i7baby

yeah. the psu calc i used must be broken for 2 cpus. its normally pretty accurate but that figure just didnt make sense to me even when i put it down. 1000w does look more correct as a 100% usage rating to me as well. needless to say that original suggestion of yours was undersized.

on your new suggestion. at 100% load (assuming 1000w) it should get about 2 1/2 minutes of use out of the 2200va/1320w system. if the system is running at a much lighter load (say 80%) this will likely push it into the realm of 4-5 minutes. this looks to be a much better match and i would agree should be sufficient.

to better estimate we would need a kill-a-watt or other meter testing the power draw from the op. if the system is never used at max capacity then they could get by with a lower va/w set such as perhaps a 1500va/865w but if they ever for whatever reason exceeded that number (865w) it wouldnt be a good turnout.