UPS' To The Rescue

pogsnet

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Why do I need a UPS?
Normally, computers can tolerate slight changes in power. But large changes could cause the computer's power supply to fail. A UPS protects your computer and work against three main power problems:
Voltage surges and spikes – These are caused by lightning or other devices in the facility. The result is a sudden increase in voltage that could seriously damage computers and electronic equipment. Such events have been found to occur up to 600 times every year.
Voltage sags – These are caused by excessive demand on the utility which causes the power level to drop.
Total power failure – The most dramatic power event results in a complete power outage. Studies reveal this happens 7-14 times every year.

These problems have short and long-term consequences. In the short term, you could face loss of critical data, interrupted transactions and stress to your hardware that could lead to premature failure.

In the long run, you could face a backlog of work, loss of productivity, deterioration of customer service, interruption to critical processes, loss of transactional data, loss of market share, damage to your company’s reputation, missed deadlines, damage to equipment and frustration.

SUGGESTED BRAND BETTER THAN ABOVE MENTIONED:
http://www.ablerex-ups.com.sg
(cheaper with bunch of features including longer backup time)
 

PokeyJoe

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Why wasn't the TrippLite SU1000XLa mentioned?
This system is in the same ratings & price of the others & covers all electrical anomalies at a delivered 800 watts, $250,000 insurance on anything protected by it, and you get standard electrical sockets in the back so no strange cables to dig up or buy. (a no brainer :pt1cable: ) There's even a place to plug in additional battery for added runtime! So, it was ignored from the review why? Because it blows the competition out of the water. Techs who know, use TrippLite.

www.tripplite.com/products/product.cfm?productID=3180

Quick review:
- Uses double conversion, conditions incoming current for ideal power to your electronics within 2% of the ideal 120VAC during over & under voltages, 3-6 year battery life.
 

NewbieTechGodII

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OMG- I didn't know that FanBoi Syndrome extended to UPS'! What's next- keyboard FanBoi's?
 

bmgoodman

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Beware Belkin software under Windows XP. In my experience, the Bulldog software crashes and gives an error message on every login as a non-admin. When I push the sleep button to shut down, the system goes into sleep and immediately resumes, seemingly just to tell me that the communication with the UPS has been lost! If on resume you quickly push the sleep key again, it usually does sleep. Also, I have had cases where the computer won't enter sleep mode based on the time set in "Power Management". This part has been difficult to isolate because it seems so random as to whether it will or won't kick in. Belkin Tech support has told me they are aware of all these issues, but they have no fixes available. This from software to be run on a 6 year old OS! I mean, if they had such issues on Vista, I might give them a pass for a while, but XP?? :fou: Worse, I cannot just uninstall the Bulldog software and use XP's built-in UPS functionality like I can on my other computer with its APC UPS.

Really, I say you should save yourself the frustration and buy yourself a good APC UPS, preferably on sale.
 
For a variety of reasons, Belkin is on my "do not buy" list. Anything Belkin I ever bought (stopped a few years ago) was defective, quickly became defective, or simply didn't meet reasonable expectations.
For UPS units, I've used TrippLite and APC and been satisfied with both.
 

tygrus

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As our test system consumed approximately 142 W, you can easily calculate the run time at maximum load by dividing our results by 4.2, which is because 600 W is 4.2 times more than our 142 W load.
WRONG.
Obviously you haven't been using UPS's very much nor do you understand characteristics of UPS design.

Several factors affect runtime across the full load range. *** IT IS NOT LINEAR ***

Look at the APC runtime charts. eg.
http://www.apc.com/products/runtime_for_extendedruntime.cfm?upsfamily=251

UPS typical use a sealed lead-acid battery (SLA). High current means bigger battery voltage drop and shorter runtime than expected at high load. EG. The APC model is rated for 7mins at 600w load and 20mins@300w, .5 load = almost 3x runtime. It doesn't continue at that rate so .25 load is a fraction over 6x full load runtime.

The capacity is not lost it's just not useable until the load is reduced. System aims for max 80% discharge for deep cycle batteries. Temperature will effect apparent voltage and capacity.

Total battery load = Static/min load of inverter + load/efficiency
runtime = available capacity@load / total battery load
runtime mins = (Ah * V / W) * 60

SLA batteries rated for 20Hr charge and recharge rates (calculate Ah Capacity).
UPS optimum at 1hr use. Select UPS based on 2x current load (ie. use 50% max rated load).

In three years of typical use the batteries may only support the load for < half of the original time. Good to have some capacity in reserve for new/additional hardware. Typically starts shutdown several minutes before the batteries are expected to runout (cannot support the load).

Even if the UPS doesn't use a fan, transformer and electronics may still produce audible hum (as my old APC SUA1000i does at home).
 

jmchristy

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I will only buy TrippLite power products, I'm suprised that wasn't reviewed. APC is arguably the WORST choice for UPS solutions in terms of it being a robust product.

Seemed like almost everytime my company lost power, I had to replace the battery in the APC unit because it would be dead. Plus alot of the units make this annoying beeping noise until you replace it as if the big red light next to replace battery wasn't enough?? I hate you APC :p
 

pogsnet

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You take your gaming seriously. Whether it's the exhilaration of high adventure or the thrill of fast-paced action, the virtual world is an experience like no others, where you roam or dominate.

With Blade, your precious leisure time won't be interrupted by an unstable or unreliable power. Protect those crucial gaming moments with some serious power.

ABLEREX BLADE UPS
*Increase the performance of your console by up to 90%
*Prevent halts or system crashes
*Ensure 100% connectivity to power
*Guards your Consoles & PC against short circuit and sudden surges
 

erloas

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I haven't had good luck with TrippLite so far, though that has been for DC-AC inverters rather then for UPSs. Something about how they convert the power just screws up a good portion of our instrumetation.

As for why they have compared these 3 specific UPSs, its very simple. These are the companies that sent them product to test.

Right now I'm using a Belkin UPS and it has been working fine for me. Its not that old yet, so we'll see how it lasts with time. I never expected it to support my system for continued use, just long enough to shut things down right. The 3 times I needed it to work last weekend it worked without any problems.
 

sailer

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Just for a different point of view, the first battery on my APC lasted 6 years, and the second has worked fine for the past 3 years. Maybe I got a larger model or something, but I've been pleased with the performance. I didn't like the one Belkin I bought. It failed quickly.
 

PokeyJoe

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APC does have some nicer high end UPS's there a matrix 5000 UPS and we recently had a lightning strike and blow the fuse on a transformer located on a pole on our property. I had purchased the APC matrix 5000 on ebay for a quick low-cost corporate backup solution, it does require a 220 3 phase 50 Amp power supply but the thing kept up the corporate phone systems and with it's 5 powered components including an Adtran 650 T1 Circuit for 4 hours (with plenty of time to spare), this along a 900 Watt Server, it's monitor & KVM (which was shut down manually after 30 minutes) So APC does do a decent job with their high end UPS's but for mainstream home/small office, they don't provide high end technology scalled down for the masses.
 

eaglesfan

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Just so the APC haters are aware, I have worked in 6 hospitals, and they are all that they have trusted.

Trust me...20 years of trial and error with $2 million lab analyzers, multi million dollar MRI/CT consoles, and the like says more than your $1000 computers...
 

PokeyJoe

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Did you not see the UPS back images in the review?
I am talking about the wierd dongles needed for those UPS sockets that look like a revese PC PSU socket.
None of the reviewed UPS's include enough dongle plugs to fill all the holes in the back of their own UPS's...

TrippLite UPS's have standard 3-prong wall plugs sockets, and gereally speaking, most people have at least 1 network device that doen't use a PC PSU style plug. Can you say Cable/DSL Modem? Wireless Router anyone?
 

stu_san

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This is off of the fanboy ranting going on. My complaint is with this article is the testing that was done.

The main test of a UPS is how well does it keep my computer up when all around it the power is going nuts. The issue in my mind, however, is not so much "on or off?" but brownouts, oversupplies, glitches, noise, and all that other crud.

Many of us are blessed with good, stable power. However, others are not so lucky. Even here in the good old U S of A, if you live in a rural area, your power may end up looking like a graph of last weeks stock market prices.

I would have liked to see Tom's actually *test* these UPS's the way that y'all nail everything else. What's the lowest voltage before the UPS kicks in? If it's settable, does the UPS actually kick in when you tell it? How about over-voltage? When someone drops a nice inductive load on the line can the UPS take the weird supply variations?

Granted, your basic entry-level standby UPS will probably not deal well with power drop outs, but at least *measure* it! If you're testing a line interactive UPS, does it meet the specs?

All you've told me is that you got three UPS units in the mail, you plugged 'em in, charged 'em up, then cut off the power to see which one died first.

Sorry, Tom's. This article is, in my book, not a keeper.

Stu
----
Cheap. Fast. Good. Choose Two.
 

joex444

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This "review" as it were isn't. You tested runtime based on some random system drawing 142W. OK, great. Not a review.

You didn't even bother to include a simple efficiency graph. For example, you have the 3 UPS systems, 5Ah, 7Ah, and 9Ah. Based on you proposed linear model, if 5Ah = 17min, then 9Ah = 30.6min. Yet, 9Ah yielded 41 minutes! Conclusion: The APC is more efficient than the Belkin. That is, it has what could be described best as a lower internal resistance. Of course, this might change if you were instead using 75W instead of 142W, or perhaps gaming at 400W when the power died.

Next up, the big difference between UPS systems of the same class (Ah rating, runtime) is the power quality. You would need to have an oscilloscope to test the amount that the power output signal deviates from the theoretical sine wave, compared - of course - with the AC line. Also, you would need the UPS power output signal quality when the system is plugged in and not running off battery, to ensure that it at the least does not do harm to the quality.

Mr. Schmidt has, again, missed very key points in what appears to be a simple review. Instead, offers us 17 pages of pointless marketing drab. The only conclusion one can draw from his review is that you need more Ah, and APC offers them.

Someone please fire this clown.

 

silence

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What I would be very interested in is the Noise rating on these UPS's. I have a quiet water-cooled PC and adding a UPS with a high pitched fan that whines loudly every time it spins up is extremely irritating and defeats the purpose of getting a silent PC.
 

jstall

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So, I buy one of these Ablerex UPS 's and the performance of my system increases by 90%, prevents my system crashing, Ensure's 100 Connectivity to power and prevents any type of short circuit in my system.

I know a few people who would be interested in these UPS's

AMD - they could use the performance boost atm, although I guess Intel could strike back with an Ablerex Quad core bundle......
Microsoft, if they throw one in with every copy of Vista, bingo, no more crashes... they will be onto a winner!!!!

I think you are an employee of this company with some nice market spin, somewhat unrealistic but amusing all the same, thanks for brightening up the day.

As a side note, I have not come across a UPS without surge protection.


Edit* Not sure what happened when I quoted this message but it quoted the wrong person, I edited the quote but it still says it's quoting the wrong person... *shrug*
 

Darkk

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I personally own three CyberPower UPS systems and been very happy with them. The oldest UPS I replaced two batteries and gave it to a friend of mine before moving to California (too heavy to be shipped or moved). My main system is using the CyberPower AVR 1500 and love it's durablity. I've had this thing for almost 5 years and still with the original batteries. Of course, I recently did a test and still have some juice left in it. I will soon have to order replacement batteries which I can get anywhere.

APC is nice but CyberPower works for me.

Darkk
 

Stop quoting that site.
Sorry no ups makes your consoles faster....WTF

@ the normal plug comment....those may be what 230/240 volt plugs look like?

my apc keep me happy....why? cause once i installed it the power stopped f'in up :) even in storms....it only got to run when i unplugged it to route the cables :)

Also on the APC comment...i have NEVER seen a ups in a business that was not APC(one reason why i decide to get it and it was cheap cause of last years model. i do wish i had the expandable[the bx1500 has the option but not the 1200 :( ] batteries cause those last LONGGG)
 

zenmaster

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Actually, the UPS can increase Console performance by infinite amounts. The fact he only claims 90% is quite odd.

It's most about when it increases performance.
I find my System runs @ 3.0Ghz when my house has power.
0 Ghz when no power and no ups but 3.0Gzh when no power and ups.

0->3.0Ghz is an infinite increase.
Not really sure how to get a 90% increase from 0.0Ghz.