UPS Back-up Recommendations

[Tal]

I've decided given our homes recent turn at power flickers to invest in a backup power supply solution for our PCs. I'm capable of reading reviews of products but would still like to hear from the Lurkers what brands/models they use and prefer. I'm not terribly worried about price (provided its not in the thousands range) either.

[Kevin]

I've decided given our homes recent turn at power flickers to invest in a backup power supply solution for our PCs. I'm capable of reading reviews of products but would still like to hear from the Lurkers what brands/models they use and prefer. I'm not terribly worried about price (provided its not in the thousands range) either.

I'm using an APC Back-UPS 650 ES right now. Works just fine. I still prefer APC for UPS over other brands. I'm sure with all the flickers and outages and undervoltages we get in this house that it has saved our systems several times. I think these are pushing 2 years old now.

[Raelynn]

I've had an APC Back-UPS ES 725 for almost 2 years now. I haven't had any problems with it and it's helped out a bunch over that timeframe.

[Sinomin]

I've had an APC Back-UPS ES 725 for almost 2 years now. I haven't had any problems with it and it's helped out a bunch over that timeframe.

Exactly the same one I use, going on 4 years. Has done the job very well.

[Kevin]

I've had an APC Back-UPS ES 725 for almost 2 years now. I haven't had any problems with it and it's helped out a bunch over that timeframe.

Budget is what kept me from the 725.

Of course with APC you can just hit the site and use their tool to get recommendations as well. The 650 was good enough and though the 725 would have been better it met the requirements I had for it. That's another good thing about APC is if you use their online tools they do let you consider budget as a parameter. Sure they want to sell you something that gets them a better profit, but they also want you to buy something period. :)

I had an old 650 Pro that I got back in 97 that lasted me till 03. I didn't get anything new till 05 because the place we lived in was very stable on the power and with running 2 systems instead of just the one (Treesh actually had her own system as early as 99 but it was always way worse than mine so not as valuable to protect) I didn't really want to put the budget out for one UPS to run both systems or 2 seperate ones. But when I got these both systems were pretty much equal (her's is actually better than mine) and the power in the place we are in now is much much worse so it was pretty critical to protect them both. I actually lost a power supply due to not having one for a short time.

So that's just a long way of saying I think your choice was excellent but I figured I'd give more details as to why I downgraded a bit. It was still cheaper to get the 2x650's than to get the 1 that could supply both the machines.

[kandrathe]

I have APC BACKUPS 650's.

[khgerg]

I have recently purchased two "APC BACK-UPS RS 1300VA LCD 120V". At the time I purchaced them they were on sale for $130 with a $30 mail in rebate. I could only get the rebate once though.

I have an 24" imac, a newtork switch, and a USB hub connected to one, which is definately overkill.

The other one has one Windows machine, one Linux machine, two flat panel LCD monitor, a newtork switch, a wireless network router, and my eqivalent of a cable modem connected to it.

One reason that I went with APC is that software exists for Windows, Linux, Mac.

I installed no software on the Mac. The Mac has built in power management software that works with this UPS.

On Linux I installed apcupsd which can be found at http://www.apcupsd.org/

On Windows I could not use the software that came with the UPS because I plugged the USB cable into the Linux box. So to get Windows to automtically shut down, I configured apcupsd on the Linux machine as a server and then installed apcupsd on the Windows machine and told it to talk to the Linux machine to get the UPS data.

[Pantalaimon]

I've decided given our homes recent turn at power flickers to invest in a backup power supply solution for our PCs. I'm capable of reading reviews of products but would still like to hear from the Lurkers what brands/models they use and prefer. I'm not terribly worried about price (provided its not in the thousands range) either.

Small, but relevant, tangent :)

How often does your (and everyone else's here) power flicker and undervolt, out of curiosity? Is this because of a generation/supply shortage, or transmission problems?

I ask because here in Ontario we've traditionally had an excess of power, even exporting down to the NE states. Yet with recent governmental pledges to chop back on coal generation, and the age of some of our nukes, combined with a (relatively, for Canada) large population boom I think we're going to be encountering problems soon. But I can count on one hand the number of outages in the past year (2), and those were both weather-related line downages. Am I simply spoiled with a good grid?

Do they have to brown you out during peak supply periods?

Just interested:)

[Tal]

Small, but relevant, tangent :)

How often does your (and everyone else's here) power flicker and undervolt, out of curiosity? Is this because of a generation/supply shortage, or transmission problems?

I ask because here in Ontario we've traditionally had an excess of power, even exporting down to the NE states. Yet with recent governmental pledges to chop back on coal generation, and the age of some of our nukes, combined with a (relatively, for Canada) large population boom I think we're going to be encountering problems soon. But I can count on one hand the number of outages in the past year (2), and those were both weather-related line downages. Am I simply spoiled with a good grid?

Do they have to brown you out during peak supply periods?

Just interested:)

I don't think its a brown out - I think its just bad transmission.

[Tal]

Thanks for the recommendations folks - the reviews and recommendations were overwhelmingly in favor of APC so I went with the APC 1300VA.:)

[Maitre]

Small, but relevant, tangent :)

How often does your (and everyone else's here) power flicker and undervolt, out of curiosity? Is this because of a generation/supply shortage, or transmission problems?

I ask because here in Ontario we've traditionally had an excess of power, even exporting down to the NE states. Yet with recent governmental pledges to chop back on coal generation, and the age of some of our nukes, combined with a (relatively, for Canada) large population boom I think we're going to be encountering problems soon. But I can count on one hand the number of outages in the past year (2), and those were both weather-related line downages. Am I simply spoiled with a good grid?

Do they have to brown you out during peak supply periods?

Just interested:)

The issue in my house is poor wiring / poor selection of AC equipment. The draw of our central air unit and the accompanying compressor unit at startup causes the lights to dim, etc. We in Virginia haven't been subjected to shortage as yet, but I've heard some Maryland residents complaining of shortages.

Seperate question: Both my wife and I have laptops as primary PCs and I'm wondering, should I be using a UPS system to firewall the laptops' AC adaptors from the house, or are we okay with the AC adapters alone? Also, how much damage am I doing to my laptop using the power outlets while traveling on the Acela (Amtrak's business service serving DC, Boston and major cities between) with the power supply going in and out once an hour or more?

[Raelynn]

Seperate question: Both my wife and I have laptops as primary PCs and I'm wondering, should I be using a UPS system to firewall the laptops' AC adaptors from the house, or are we okay with the AC adapters alone? Also, how much damage am I doing to my laptop using the power outlets while traveling on the Acela (Amtrak's business service serving DC, Boston and major cities between) with the power supply going in and out once an hour or more?

I'm not 100% sure about this, but since laptops generally have converters in the power supplies and have batteries, the change in power supply affects them less, but it does not necessarily mean there's no affect. I would think that most of the damage would be eaten by the power supply rather than the laptop.

If they did take damage from losing power, then someone who moves around a lot, thus unplugging the laptop, would be in for a lot of trouble. :)

[LochnarITB]

For laptops, the thing I have been told to worry about regarding power, especially if you mostly run from an outlet like I do, is to run the battery out completely once in a while. It is better for the life of the battery to actually run fully through its discharge/charge cycle once in a while.

[Maitre]

For laptops, the thing I have been told to worry about regarding power, especially if you mostly run from an outlet like I do, is to run the battery out completely once in a while. It is better for the life of the battery to actually run fully through its discharge/charge cycle once in a while.

Regarding battery life and the discharge/recharge issue, I've heard it described as cordless phone syndrome, and had a laptop battery that suffers greatly from this issue, so I'm with you there. I think the biggest cause of this is repeatedly running down the battery to 50% or so and recharging fully. It's like conditioning the battery into only providing 50% of it's rated power.

I did get my answer, I think, regarding the role of AC adapter in providing some degree of shielding from changes in supply, so thanks to Raelynn.

[Bun-Bun]

For laptops, the thing I have been told to worry about regarding power, especially if you mostly run from an outlet like I do, is to run the battery out completely once in a while. It is better for the life of the battery to actually run fully through its discharge/charge cycle once in a while.

Only if it's a NiCad battery. Lithium-ion cells do better with partial recharges.