Please help with UPS surge protector.

[crimson]

Hello. I was looking at a surge protector for my PC with 850W PSU. I was checking out the surge protectors, and noticed that they have wattage.

The one I was looking at is 330W:
Newegg.com - CyberPower Standby Series CP550SLG 550 VA 330 Watts 8 Outlets UPS Replaces existing model# CP550SL

Does this matter? Should this surge protector be able to keep my computer on for a few minutes in case the power goes out?

The power in this place probably went out twice because they forget to pay their bills. But often, there have been times when the power would blink off for a second or 2, then come back on. Enough to shut off my computer.

 

[PooMan UK]

Have a looky over here pal UPS Power Calculator (change the settings to the country you reside in)

 

[crimson]

It doesn't have an option for power supply. 850W. How does it work? I can't tell what I should get.

 

[crimson]

I don't understand. I just need something that will keep my computer on in case my power blinks on and off. Or goes off so I can shut it down in a few minutes. I don't need a UPS that will keep my computer on for an hour or so. I have 850W PSU so does the watts on a UPS matter?

 

[Lava King]

The 850 watt rating of your power supply is telling you the maximum amount of power it can supply continuously. If your system is not being pushed hard by gaming or video encoding or the like, then the power requirement will be much less.

For example, I have an APC brand battery backup rated at 1500VA (865 watts). Plugged in to the battery backup are the following items:

PC with 650 watt power supply
PC with 350 watt power supply
25" LCD monitor
cable modem
wireless router
gigabit switch
HP 6110 all-in-one printer

The display on the battery backup is showing 224 watts, even with all those items plugged in and operating.

So, unless you're playing a game or video encoding when the power blinks, a 300 watt battery backup will probably be more than sufficient. Pay careful attention to the rating as 300 VA is not the same as 300 watts. A rating of 300 VA would give roughly 175 watts which may or may not be enough to keep your system going.

 

[crimson]

Thanks! That helps alot. Ya the VA and Watts are on the box.


What if the usage goes over? Like say for example, you were running games, and had more than 865W showing on your APC UPS display. Will it still be able to keep it on for awhile if the power goes out?

OK I see about the PSU. So if I have an 850W PSU, I have to make sure that my PC isn't running anything higher than that right? I think everything I have will stay under 850W.

What if I have 2 GTX560 cards installed in SLI mode, and playing a high-end online game like TERA or something? So that particular UPS I was looking at was 330W. What if I'm playing something like that on my PC with 850W max power, and pushing more than 330W, and the power goes out. Will that UPS thing still keep the power on? Or do I have to look for something higher.

My build will be i7 processor, 1 hard drive, 2 GTX560 in SLI running on 850W Corsair PSU. I don't know how much Watts it will be using while playing a highend game, but I'm sure the 850W will cover. Just hoping the UPS will cover it as well.

 

[crimson]

How do I measure how much Watts my computer is using? Does Windows 7 do that or is there a software for that?

 

[Sub Styler]

How do I measure how much Watts my computer is using? Does Windows 7 do that or is there a software for that?

For that you would need a hardware meter for your plug socket, search for a plug in power usage meter and there are a range available from as little as £10. Many utility companies in the UK will give you one depending on your tarriff.

Most modern UPS's WILL continue to deliver the power above their rated wattage (it's more to do with current) but a risk of triggering a thermal cut out (instant off and ups reset) and a significantly reduced operating time. I would only have my rig and display powered from it for emergencies. The manufacturer warranty would also be void by such treatment.

 

[crimson]

If I have the 850W PSU, I don't think my PC will even be using close to that much.

Here's one I found with 600W
Intelligent LCD Series - CP1000AVRLCD | CyberPower Systems, Inc.

Do you think this one with 600W should be able to handle the system I described above? (850W PSU, i7 processor, and 2 GTX 560 cards.)

They also have a 510W, 750W, 810W, 900W.

Do you think the 600W one will be able to handle everything fine, or should I go with the 810W? It's about a $45 difference.

 

[Comp Cmndo]

I recommend an APC UPS
Newegg.com - apc ups

Specifically: Newegg.com - apc ups

 

[Phone Man]

Take a look at a Kill A Watt. Search online you may find it cheaper. Newegg has had it for $16 at times.

Newegg.com - P3 Kill A Watt Electricity Load Meter and Monitor

Jim

 

[Sub Styler]

you can work out your power usage here for free: eXtreme Power Supply Calculator

Remember TDP is comparable to how hard you are pushing the machine at the time of the outage.

and then just add the nominal wattage of your display (manufacturers website). the UPS you listed above is only rated for 2mins a full load anyway so I wouldnt advise overloading it (it also has an overload alarm).

 

[TBoyd]

I recommend an APC UPS
Newegg.com - apc ups

Specifically: Newegg.com - apc ups

Bingo! I agree. Buy a model that has a USB connection available to connect to your PC. The software will tell you lots of information, including how much load you have on the unit & approximate runtime you have available. You can also run self tests to check on the condition of your battery. This is much better than buying a "dumb" UPS that never lets you know it is overloaded or the batteries are getting weak - until it's too late!

 

[Phone Man]

I have been using APC for years and I have three of these. One on my PC system and one each on my large TV's and cable box. This model has added features to show load and power usage and cost and will shutdown your PC gently when the battery is getting low. The price of $81.99 with FREE shipping is a good deal and its a very nice unit.

Newegg.com - APC BE750G 750 VA 450 Watts 10 Outlets Power Saving Back-UPS ES





Jim

 

[crimson]

you can work out your power usage here for free: eXtreme Power Supply Calculator

Remember TDP is comparable to how hard you are pushing the machine at the time of the outage.

and then just add the nominal wattage of your display (manufacturers website). the UPS you listed above is only rated for 2mins a full load anyway so I wouldnt advise overloading it (it also has an overload alarm).

That thing calculated my SLI build to be 753W

What about the power usage?

Do you think 600W UPS-surge should be able to handle the system I described above? (850W PSU, i7 processor, and 2 GTX 560 cards in SLI.)

Or should I get something closer to my 850W PSU?

 

[crimson]

Thanks for giving the brand. I still don't know if getting 600W is fine according to the information in the post above.

 

[Sub Styler]

753w is your consumption (850w is max your PSU can deliver) so at peak times your machine will be using 753w but normally less so you should be ok with a 600w, although as mentioned by another post on this thread a decent UPS with monitoring via USB will be the best way to give you answers in a real world scenario. Did you actually check the link in the first reply? This will tell you everything you need, it's not important how much you power supply can deliver, you could have a 10million watt PSU but it will only draw what the components demand.

 

[Comp Cmndo]

Get one for free with a dead battery & replace with external car battery. I've got a couple of used Optima Marine AGM batteries in parallel on an old APC UPS. It'll run for hours on a car battery. Most APC's run on 12V gel cells.

 

[dogbert2]

I have an APC Back-UPS XS 1300 LCD (cost about $125 a few years ago). My Box is a OCZ Fatal1ty 550W 80Plus PSU, GTX 460 graphics card, Phenom II X4 965 processor, 8GB DDR2-1066Mhz RAM, Asus M3A76-CM Motherboard, Zyxel 635 DSL modem, Samsung 205BW 20.5" LCD, Altec Lansing 221 Speaker System, and Buffalo WHR-G54S Router running DD-WRT v2.4 pre-SP2 (build 14929). The UPS load under maximum CPU and GPU usage peaks at about 350-370W (when doing normal stuff it runs about 180-210W).

This type of UPS can show the total load on the UPS, how much runtime remains on battery, and is great for brownouts or surges in power. I've used it when the power has been off for upwards of 45 minutes...if it looks like the power is going to be off longer than that, I power down my system.

 

[seekermeister]

Here is what I just bought for one of my computers. I like it very much:

NEW APC BX1000G Line-interactive UPS 600W 1000VA Power- | eBay