[SOLVED] Can an UPS bottleneck a PSU?

[boogie_1987]

Hi everyone!.

I know the question sounds a bit stupid but I'm totally lost on how how to choose the correct UPS for my system.

I have a:

1. Ryzen 5 2600x
2. Aorus B450 Pro wifi
3. Nvidia RTX 2060 Super
4. 16GB RAM DDR4 3200MHz
5. Cooler Master H500 - 2x 200mm rgb fans on the front, 1x 120mm fan on the back, 2 x 140mm rgb fans at the top.
6. BenQ 2k, 27' inch monitor
7. Seasonic Focus+ Gold, 650W 80 Plus Gold. (too much gold)

According to those calculators like the one from Seasonic's site, my system draws 415W at its peak performance, plus 58W from the monitor we get 473W or so.

Most people say that you don't necessarily have to buy an UPS that matches your PSU wattage. But what does VA and W mean in a UPS?, is that only related to the battery and the time my PC will remain turned on during a power outage? or it is also related to the power delivery and protection?, if that's the case, wouldn't a 900 to 1000va - 500W unit for example, bottleneck or render my 650W PSU useless?, wouldn't I be wasting 150W from my power supply?. Even when my system only draws like 400W I bought a 650 unit to have a bit of breathing room but if I'm going to hook all of this into an UPS that only delivers 500W, would that be a waste?.

In the other hand, there are power regulators with surge protection that can easily exceed my power supply wattage for a better price, I'm not talking about cheap power strips, these are devices as good as an UPS except they don't have batteries. UPS units that can exceed or match my PSU wattage go for really high prices just to have a few minutes of extra power to shut down my PC. So that makes me wonder, is it really worth it?. who really needs an UPS? and who only needs power regulation and surge protection?.

Thanks!.

 

[kanewolf]

The proper way to buy a UPS is to measure the wattage used by your computer when running as you use it. Then take that measured wattage and use the tables on APC's website, along with an idea of how long you want to run on battery power. Lets say your PC does use a measured 400W when gaming. So you take that info (400W) and know that you want at least 10 min battery protection because you might not be in the room to shut down. You can then use the charts on APC's website. With 10 min and 400W, the chart would say you need a 1350VA UPS at a minimum. A 1500VA would give you 14+ min of battery backup.

If you don't measure the actual power consumption. you can use a power supply estimator to get a number for wattage. It won't be as good a measured but it is better than guessing.

 

[boogie_1987]

The proper way to buy a UPS is to measure the wattage used by your computer when running as you use it. Then take that measured wattage and use the tables on APC's website, along with an idea of how long you want to run on battery power. Lets say your PC does use a measured 400W when gaming. So you take that info (400W) and know that you want at least 10 min battery protection because you might not be in the room to shut down. You can then use the charts on APC's website. With 10 min and 400W, the chart would say you need a 1350VA UPS at a minimum. A 1500VA would give you 14+ min of battery backup.

If you don't measure the actual power consumption. you can use a power supply estimator to get a number for wattage. It won't be as good a measured but it is better than guessing.

Thank you for your answer. I did that I just don't understand the correlation between a PSU Wattage and an UPS wattage. I've done some research and apparently it's just about the battery.

 

[kanewolf]

The PSU wattage is the amount of DC voltage it can create given an unlimited AC input without damaging itself or powered components.
A UPS wattage is based on battery size and how much it can support for how long. Given that the output is fixed voltage.