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High end UPS for home destop?

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MikeJRamsey   08-02-2009 at 08:42:45 PM

For your home desktop computer, have you stepped up to an uninterrupted power supply with online topology, pure sine wave output waveform, or both? If so, what were your reasons for deciding that line interactive topology and stepped sine wave output waveform was not good enough?

I am trying to decide on a new UPS and was wondering if a higher end UPS was worth the 2X price tag.

See the following if the terms are unfamiliar.
http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/ [...] mshardware

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ainarssems   08-02-2009 at 10:19:29 PM
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I don't use ups and never considered getting one for home pc. Even if I got one for free i would probably sell it on e-bay instead of using it. It is for servers and mission critical professional pc's which my pc is not.

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ainarssems   08-02-2009 at 10:38:40 PM
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Modern PSU's can handle Voltages 90-264V and 47-63Hz so I do not see need for online topology unless you are running on cheap petrol generator in Your back garden and not the mains line. Especially since online topology are bigger, more expensive and less efficient.

I am not sure about output waveform but I think even square shoud not be a problem for modern PSU. I think best to contact manufacturer of Your psu and see what they say about it.

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MikeJRamsey   08-02-2009 at 11:00:14 PM
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ainarssems wrote :

I don't use ups and never considered getting one for home pc. Even if I got one for free i would probably sell it on e-bay instead of using it.
It is for servers and mission critical professional pc's which my pc is not.


OK. Good feedback and another data point.

I seem to get brief power outages, sometimes a couple-three times a month. It is enough to cause me to fix my house clocks. Since laptops have a built in UPS, they are unaffected by such outages. My desktop, OTOH, goes down like a brick which is a pain when I am working on something. An UPS would stop that.

I leave my system on at night to do virus scans and automatic updates. In case of a longer outage the UPS could trigger a graceful shutdown of the system.

It is for these reasons that I am thinking about it.

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MikeJRamsey   08-02-2009 at 11:06:07 PM
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ainarssems wrote :

Modern PSU's can handle Voltages 90-264V and 47-63Hz so I do not see need for online topology unless you are running on cheap petrol generator in Your back garden and not the mains line. Especially since online topology are bigger, more expensive and less efficient.

I am not sure about output waveform but I think even square shoud not be a problem for modern PSU. I think best to contact manufacturer of Your psu and see what they say about it.



Your 2nd post touches on my reason for starting this thread. My power is fairly well regulated but an occasional brownout is not unheard of. Especially in the middle of summer.

Are their tangible benefits to a UPS that offers online topology and/or pure sine wave output waveform? Why would it be worth 2X the price?

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ainarssems   08-02-2009 at 11:07:56 PM
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I only get power outage mayby 2-3 times a year so it is not a problem. In your situation I might get UPS but nothing fancy. At the same time from reputable vendor and not some unknown maker but one of the base models with a bit higher power rating then needed.

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MikeJRamsey   08-03-2009 at 03:07:39 AM
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I once had a client that supplied me with a notebook and a docking station with all the usual equipment. I noticed that even when the office took a power hit my laptop kept working. This got me thinking about UPS for my home.

Lightening strikes are rare (my neighborhood's utility lines are buried) but friends have had their PC and TV burned out by lightening strikes. OK, one friend.

I am looking at the APC Back-UPS RS 800VA 120V Black, sku=BR800BLK. List is $134.

It's real power is 540 watts. My system should draw a calculated 413 watts. I have a 750 watt PSU so the actual draw is less than 60% of my PSU's peak output as per recommendation.

Back to the UPS, I was wondering why anybody would pay $300 for the high end equivalent. There must be reasons; not everybody is a simpleton. :whistle:


Message edited by MikeJRamsey on 08-03-2009 at 12:58:23 PM
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MikeJRamsey   08-04-2009 at 03:14:41 AM
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OK. I think that I have it .

Power Supply Units (PSU) with Active PFC (Power Factor Corrector) do not get along well with UPS' that supply square or stepped sine wave output waveforms. Lots of problems have been reported. So if you have a high end PSU you will need a high end UPS to output the needed pure sine wave output waveform.

Rats! My milk money for a year.~

EDIT: See http://sureshks.netfirms.com/article/ups/ups.htm especially the last paragraph.

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Message edited by MikeJRamsey on 08-04-2009 at 05:35:13 AM
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Anonymous   08-20-2009 at 08:54:16 PM
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MikeJRamsey wrote :

OK. I think that I have it .

Power Supply Units (PSU) with Active PFC (Power Factor Corrector) do not get along well with UPS' that supply square or stepped sine wave output waveforms. Lots of problems have been reported. So if you have a high end PSU you will need a high end UPS to output the needed pure sine wave output waveform.

Rats! My milk money for a year.~

EDIT: See http://sureshks.netfirms.com/article/ups/ups.htm especially the last paragraph.



Mike - The above article was written between 1998 and 2001. Most PSUs today (>500w) are active PFC(it is generally more efficient). The problems that people have had were with older UPS when using some of the earlier PFC PSUs. There have been numerous discussions regarding this with PSU makers as well as APC (a UPS maker). The conclusion is that as long as your active PFC PSU supports ~90V - 240V operation (almost all new PSUs sold in the USA do), and as long as you are running it at ~110V it will be able to handle the garbage "modified square"/ "stepped sine" thrown at it by the consumer-level UPS. Otherwise just about everyone running a modern (post 2004) system would be beating down APC's door to get a refund on their UPS. I'd hate to see someone spend >$200 on a pure sine model UPS for their home PC when it's unnecessary...

See http://www.jonnyguru.com/forums/showthread.php?t=3964

and

http://www.badcaps.net/forum/showthread.php?t=5181

-Larkspur

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