Build Advice Need help for buying UPS or AVR

[Crobuss]

Hello. I bought my pc set since the pandemic and I need help with my AVR issue. I'm not a techie for pc parts but this is the description of the PC set I bought:

🔥All Brand New!!!

Ryzen 3 QuadCore 💻Computer Set

📟CPU Specification:

🔸Processor: AMD Ryzen 3 3200g QuadCore 3.6ghz
🔸Graphics: Built in Radeon Vega 8 2GB
🔸Motherboard: Gigabyte A320M
🔸Memory: HyperX Fury 8gb RAM DDR4
🔸Storage: 120gb Kingston SSD / 1TB Seagate
🔸Case: Keytech CPU Case
🔸Power Supply: 700watts

Also Included:

🔹Monitor: 22 inch BENQ LED Monitor (Used)
🔹Keyboard: LED type RGB color
🔹Mouse: LED type RGB color

😊 With Free:

👌Speaker
👌AVR - Secure Voltage Regulator
👌Mouse Pad
👌Software:

-Windows 10 Professional Activated
-Microsoft Office 2016
-Google Meet, Zoom, Skype, Messenger
-Adobe Photoshop, Lightroom

👍Plug n Play
👍100% Tested
👍1 year warranty

Now, I had a problem where my AVR suddenly made a kinda loud noise and I saw white sparks on the On/Off switch of the AVR. I immediately turned it off and since then I did not boot up my pc. Should I buy UPS or have my AVR checked?

ps. at the back of my pc case there's a label that says 230v 5a I don't know what that means tho.

 

[Aeacus]

Should I buy UPS or have my AVR checked?

AVR only helps against surges and voltage drops (brownouts), but UPS also helps against electricity loss (blackout). So, UPS is far better, especially when you get an UPS that has AVR built-in.

When looking for an UPS, there are 2 things to look out:
1. Output waveform (square wave, simulated sine wave and true/pure sine wave)
2. Design (stand-by, line-interactive and online)

From here you can read about the differences between output waveform,
link: https://suvastika.com/why-choose-a-sinewave-inverter-ups/

And here are explanations about the UPS design,
link: https://www.eetimes.com/document.asp?doc_id=1272971

Waveform and design
For PCs, line-interactive UPS would be more than enough since PSUs can easily handle the 2ms to 5ms transfer time of line-interactive UPS.
As far as output waveform goes, true/pure sine wave UPS is best used. While simulated sine wave UPSes are cheaper than true/pure sine wave UPSes, PSUs with Active PFC aren't compatible with simulated sine wave. You might get simulated sine wave UPS running with Active PFC PSU but there can be some major issues. Here's what, how and why.

How do you know which PSUs have Active PFC and which ones don't?
Simple, every PSU that has 80+ certification (e.g 80+ Bronze or 80+ Gold) has Active PFC.

What is Active PFC?
Further reading: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Power_factor#Power_factor_correction_(PFC)_in_non-linear_loads

What can happen when using simulated sine wave UPS with Active PFC PSU?
When simulated sine wave UPS switches over to the battery power, one of 3 things can happen:
1. UPS displays error resulting PC to shut down immediately.
2. UPS shuts down resulting PC to shut down immediately.
3. UPS switches to battery power resulting PC to power off from UPS (PC stays on).

Why it happens?
Simulated sine wave UPS produces a zero output state during the phase change cycle resulting in a power “gap”. This gap may cause power interruption for active PFC PSUs when switching from AC power output to simulated sine wave output (battery mode).

What to do next?
As stated above, your PC can run off from simulated sine wave UPS but be prepared when you face issues with it. When issues do rise, your best bet would be returning the simulated sine wave UPS and getting true/pure sine wave UPS. Or you can go with true/pure sine wave UPS off the bat.

Wattage
As far as UPS wattage goes, you need to consider the power draw of your PC and monitors. Maybe speakers and wi-fi router too if you plan to plug those into the UPS as well. Though, printers, scanners and other such hardware (full list on your UPS manual) don't plug to the UPS since their startup power draw is way too much for UPS to handle and you can fry your UPS.

Taking PSU's max wattage as a baseline is good idea since it will give your UPS more headroom and you can get longer runtime out of your UPS. Since your PSU is 700W, at least one monitor is added on top of it. Depending on the monitor size, they use between 23W to 52W. Wi-fi routers don't consume much power. For example, my Cisco EPC3940L consumes 12V at 3A which means 36W.

Good UPS brands to go for are CyberPower, TrippLite and APC. While there are other UPS brands as well, those three are the best out there.

That being said, you can look towards at least 1000VA/700W UPS, that is line-interactive and outputs true/pure sine wave.
Note: The more powerful UPS you have, the longer UPS can keep your PC running before it's battery is empty.

ps. at the back of my pc case there's a label that says 230v 5a I don't know what that means tho.

It means the max input power for the PSU.
PSU needs 230 Volts at max 5 Amps to operate.

 

[Crobuss]

AVR only helps against surges and voltage drops (brownouts), but UPS also helps against electricity loss (blackout). So, UPS is far better, especially when you get an UPS that has AVR built-in.

When looking for an UPS, there are 2 things to look out:
1. Output waveform (square wave, simulated sine wave and true/pure sine wave)
2. Design (stand-by, line-interactive and online)

From here you can read about the differences between output waveform,
link: https://suvastika.com/why-choose-a-sinewave-inverter-ups/

And here are explanations about the UPS design,
link: https://www.eetimes.com/document.asp?doc_id=1272971

Waveform and design
For PCs, line-interactive UPS would be more than enough since PSUs can easily handle the 2ms to 5ms transfer time of line-interactive UPS.
As far as output waveform goes, true/pure sine wave UPS is best used. While simulated sine wave UPSes are cheaper than true/pure sine wave UPSes, PSUs with Active PFC aren't compatible with simulated sine wave. You might get simulated sine wave UPS running with Active PFC PSU but there can be some major issues. Here's what, how and why.

How do you know which PSUs have Active PFC and which ones don't?
Simple, every PSU that has 80+ certification (e.g 80+ Bronze or 80+ Gold) has Active PFC.

What is Active PFC?
Further reading: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Power_factor#Power_factor_correction_(PFC)_in_non-linear_loads

What can happen when using simulated sine wave UPS with Active PFC PSU?
When simulated sine wave UPS switches over to the battery power, one of 3 things can happen:
1. UPS displays error resulting PC to shut down immediately.
2. UPS shuts down resulting PC to shut down immediately.
3. UPS switches to battery power resulting PC to power off from UPS (PC stays on).

Why it happens?
Simulated sine wave UPS produces a zero output state during the phase change cycle resulting in a power “gap”. This gap may cause power interruption for active PFC PSUs when switching from AC power output to simulated sine wave output (battery mode).

What to do next?
As stated above, your PC can run off from simulated sine wave UPS but be prepared when you face issues with it. When issues do rise, your best bet would be returning the simulated sine wave UPS and getting true/pure sine wave UPS. Or you can go with true/pure sine wave UPS off the bat.

Wattage
As far as UPS wattage goes, you need to consider the power draw of your PC and monitors. Maybe speakers and wi-fi router too if you plan to plug those into the UPS as well. Though, printers, scanners and other such hardware (full list on your UPS manual) don't plug to the UPS since their startup power draw is way too much for UPS to handle and you can fry your UPS.

Taking PSU's max wattage as a baseline is good idea since it will give your UPS more headroom and you can get longer runtime out of your UPS. Since your PSU is 700W, at least one monitor is added on top of it. Depending on the monitor size, they use between 23W to 52W. Wi-fi routers don't consume much power. For example, my Cisco EPC3940L consumes 12V at 3A which means 36W.

Good UPS brands to go for are CyberPower, TrippLite and APC. While there are other UPS brands as well, those three are the best out there.

That being said, you can look towards at least 1000VA/700W UPS, that is line-interactive and outputs true/pure sine wave.
Note: The more powerful UPS you have, the longer UPS can keep your PC running before it's battery is empty.


It means the max input power for the PSU.
PSU needs 230 Volts at max 5 Amps to operate.

Thank you for the suggestions and tips. I will try to find a 1000VA/700W UPS that fits in my budget.

Question: In the meantime, is it safe to use my AVR while I try to find an UPS? As I've mentioned, my AVR did a white spark on the switch and made a kinda loud noise and I'm afraid it will explode but I still have a fuse tho.

 

[Aeacus]

is it safe to use my AVR while I try to find an UPS?

NO!

AVR has sustained catastrophic failure and is not fit for the job it has to do. Your AVR is dead/toast/done. Junk it.

 

[Aeacus]

Oh, one more thing:

that fits in my budget.

It may seem that you've underestimated the cost of a proper, good quality UPS. Since UPS'es job is to keep your PC running when there's blackout by supplying good and stable electricity to your PC, they also cost a lot of money.

For example, i payed €230 Euros for one of my CyberPower CP1300EPFCLCD (1300VA/780W, true/pure sine wave, line-interactive with built-in AVR) UPS and i have two of them in use, one for Skylake build and another for Haswell build (full specs with pics in my sig).

Since your PC is expensive, it's not easily replaced. Like it or not, if you want the protection, it's not going to be cheap. Though, if you want cheap and good UPS, you need to buy 2x UPSes; The cheap one and the good one.

 

[Crobuss]

NO!

AVR has sustained catastrophic failure and is not fit for the job it has to do. Your AVR is dead/toast/done. Junk it.

Okay noted. Thank you for the clarification.

Oh, one more thing:

It may seem that you've underestimated the cost of a proper, good quality UPS. Since UPS'es job is to keep your PC running when there's blackout by supplying good and stable electricity to your PC, they also cost a lot of money.

For example, i payed €230 Euros for one of my CyberPower CP1300EPFCLCD (1300VA/780W, true/pure sine wave, line-interactive with built-in AVR) UPS and i have two of them in use, one for Skylake build and another for Haswell build (full specs with pics in my sig).

Since your PC is expensive, it's not easily replaced. Like it or not, if you want the protection, it's not going to be cheap. Though, if you want cheap and good UPS, you need to buy 2x UPSes; The cheap one and the good one.

I don't really have enough money yet but I will try to save up as much as I can to buy that 1000VA/700W UPS. Thanks again sir!