Can You Recommend A Good UPS?

[gamer128]

Hello everyone, over the past 6-8 months I have had a total of 4 power supplies fail on me. Two of them being ones to a HP laptop, which were provided by HP, and the other two 80 plus certified PSUs from custom built machines. I live in a pretty old house in which about two and a half generations have lived in, so I was wondering if it could be something to do with the power. Someone told me if it IS the power, then getting a good UPS would fix that issue for me. So I was wondering what a good UPS I could get. Was what I heard about them true?

Thanks!

 

[ko888]

Does your home electrical system have proper electrical grounding?

What is the wattage rating of the power supplies and devices that you are going to power with this UPS?

 

[gamer128]

I'm not sure about the first question, I will get back to you on that one. I am going to be connecting my 650 watt Antec Earthwatts PSU to it along with my PC's monitor. I'm not going to connect anything else to it besides that, as that is my main gaming PC. I may end up buying another later on, but for right now, that's it.

 

[ko888]

I'm not sure about the first question, I will get back to you on that one. I am going to be connecting my 650 watt Antec Earthwatts PSU to it along with my PC's monitor. I'm not going to connect anything else to it besides that, as that is my main gaming PC. I may end up buying another later on, but for right now, that's it.

Without proper grounding I don't think a UPS is going to help.

What is your detailed system configuration including the make and model of the monitor? Need to know this to determine the actual power draw that the UPS needs to handle.

How much run time would you like when operating on battery power?

 

[gamer128]

System Specs:
i5 2500k
GTX 560ti
Antec Earthwatts 650 Watt
HAF 912
AsRock Extreme 3 Gen 3
1TB 7200 RPM HDD
8 Gigabytes of RAM

Monitor: I don't know much about it other than it is an Acer 23 inch Monitor, however it's "PSU" says it outputs a total of 19 volts.

When on battery power all I would need is a couple of minutes to power everything down. So maybe 5 minutes?

 

[ko888]

Is the CPU and/or graphics card over clocked? If yes what are their overclocked clock speeds?

There should be a wattage rating on the PSU for the monitor.

 

[gamer128]

They are not...yet. I know I won't go over 4.5Ghz for the CPU, the GPU however I am not sure. We might want to go with one with some headroom just for that.

I have looked over my laptop's PSU for a reference to the monitor's to try and find the wattage, however it isn't on the monitor's PSU. I can find it right next to the voltage on my laptop's, however all it gives for the monitor is voltage.

 

[ko888]

If you're in the midst of gaming your PC's AC power draw will be in the 510 Watt range with an overclocked CPU and GPU and LCD Monitor with LED back light.

Look for a UPS with a 900VA or higher rating based on your budget and product availability.

 

[gamer128]

Ok thanks, I'll start looking into one.

 

[gamer128]

I have another question now. I was doing some more research on a UPS and came across something that said if I don't need the extra battery power when the lights go out, a really good surge protector from a company called APC would work just as good as the UPS would. So instead of an UPS, since I don't really need the extra battery life, could a surge protector do about the same thing?

Also, I do believe my house to be properly grounded. The electricity company comes around here time to time to inspect everything, and I read that it is required by law to be properly grounded, so it probably is. I assume so anyway. I am going to check the outlet in the room I use for my PCs, as I suppose that could be the issue too.

 

[ko888]

A surge protector doesn't have voltage regulation to protect your equipment against continuous undervoltage brownouts and overvoltage surges. All it does is suppress AC line voltage spikes.

A UPS combines the protection of the surge protector along with voltage regulation and battery backup.

There are also Line Conditioners/Stabilizers that combine surge suppression with voltage regulation but don't have a battery backup. This seems to be what you are looking for.

OPTI-UPS SS1200 Stabilizer Series 6-Outlet Automatic Voltage Regulator (600W, 1200VA) for $24.95
http://www.amazon.com/OPTI-UPS-SS1200-Stabilizer-Automatic-Regulator/dp/B0007P11M4/ref=pd_sxp_grid_pt_1_1

OPTI-UPS Home AVR Series SS2000 6-Outlet Automatic Voltage Regulator (1000W, 2000VA) for $43.99
http://www.amazon.com/OPTI-UPS-AVR-SS2000-Automatic-Regulator/dp/B00305K3E0

 

[gamer128]

Oh yes, that is perfect. I will probably go for the $44 one just for future proofing, and as it isn't that much more bucks. Thanks so much! I didn't want to shell out so much on an UPC when I don't really want the battery backup, but just the surge potection like you said. I really appreicate it!

 

[gamer128]

Best answer selected by gamer128.