Question What is the best UPS for a desktop PC?

[Hobbles]

I bought a CyberPower CP800AVR AVR UPS System, it sucks. It worked once during a blackout but now cant kick to battery. Everytime I get a power fluctuation it just kills my computer. I need a pure sinewave line interactive UPS with AVR that can run one monitor and one gaming PC (idling or browsing the web) for 45-60 min. Price range: less than 300$

 

[Lutfij]

Might want to list your specs for the system that the UPS will provided backup for. List them like so:
CPU:
Motherboard:
Ram:
SSD/HDD:
GPU:
PSU:
Chassis:
OS:

If you've overloaded the UPS with a higher wattage system, the battery can and will fail. Also, if you're within warranty period, might be worthwhile to reach out to CyberPower as well.

 

[jonnyguru]

I bought a CyberPower CP800AVR AVR UPS System, it sucks. It worked once during a blackout but now cant kick to battery.

Maybe you got a dud. Cyberpower has a warranty. You should see if they'll replace it for you.

 

[Karadjgne]

Hmm. The CP800AVR is line interactive, simulated sinewave, 450w. If it did kick in, you'd get 13 minutes at half load (web surfing) and 1 minute at full load, gaming.

Unfortunately, a pure sinewave APC soaks up a massive amount of battery power, and aren't cheap. Depending on the psu/draw, expect anywhere from 3-5 minutes at a gaming load. You won't get anything close to 1hr, and definitely not at $300 or less.
PCPartPicker Part List

UPS: CyberPower - CP1500PFCLCD UPS ($199.95 @ Amazon)
Total: $199.95
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2019-07-22 12:31 EDT-0400

With a 11minute half load, you might squeek out 25-30 minutes at less than a 200w load, but to get an hour would require an APC with a battery/s the size of what's in your car, or bigger.

 

[jonnyguru]

You don't need a pure sine UPS with 99% of the PC's out there. I mean, you'd have to have a REALLY cheap or old PSU for it to take a dump on a simulated sine wave.

Also, UPSs are like assholes are like opinions. Everyone has one. I have an OOOOOOOOOOLD APC 1500VA LCD that still has its original batteries and still works after 7 years. Yet not long ago in these forums there was someone with a post similar to yours that had the exact same UPS I have and he saying he wanted ANYTHING BUY an APC.

APC, CyberPower, MinuteMan and Tripp-Lite are all good brand UPSs. And in a lot of cases, they're made in the same factories. Like everything else you buy, there's always a potential for a bad unit.

 

[Hobbles]

hey y'all, thanks for the insight and feedback, seems I vastly overestimated run time. When I plug into the UPS it says my idleing power draw (with chrome open and some tabs) was around 170-200w. So the best I can get is enough to coast through very short outages or auto-shutdown the computer to prevent damage/corruption? Appreciate all the help!

CPU:I5-6600k
Motherboard: z170A SLI
Ram: 32gb Corsair Vengeance LPS 3200mhz
SSD/HDD: 1 Samsung 970 evo Plus NvME m.2
1 1TB 960 Evo SSD
1 500gb 950 evo ssd
GPU: Gigabyte 1070 G1 gaming
PSU: 6750 W Platnium EVGA supernova(?)
Chassis: phanteks eclipse p600
OS: win10 64gb

 

[AllanGH]

1.) Just replace the batteries.
2.) When you have an outage, save your work, and shutdown the computer system. Don't run the UPS until the batteries are completely drained--that's a battery-killer, right there.

 

[Karadjgne]

A lot will depend on the psu itself. Some are more picky than others.
I've got a 15yr old Minuteman Pro 700E that's on its 3rd battery and still works like a champ, on my Seasonic M12-II semi modular 520w that's over 6 years old itself. Never a worry about it flipping to battery. On the other hand, my more expensive Evga G2 550w and that Minuteman do not like each other in the slightest. Soon as power is interrupted, pc shuts off. Monitor is still on, but pc is done.

 

[jsmithepa]

Computers with switching power supplies don't need pure sine wave, you are overdoing it.

 

[jonnyguru]

Computers with switching power supplies don't need pure sine wave, you are overdoing it.

Eh.. Some cheap PSUs will blow up or shut down because of the peak of the square wave. But that usually only happens where you have high line mains.

 

[Hobbles]

Everything seems to be pure sine anyway, so not requiring pure sine does little for me it seems. My area has frequent power fluctuations, and even brownouts. I want to protect my rig and keep playing through a 1/2 second or 2 minute outage. I can set up an auto shutdown according to battery life remaining on most UPS units I have seen. I just really dont like this one because best case scenario one of the outages kileld its ability to switch to battery power. I dont trust it, even if I get it replaced it could die in one of the 2 or more fluctuations I get a DAY.

 

[AllanGH]

My particular APFC PSU, seems to prefer a Pure Sine Wave (PSW, maybe?) UPS.

When the PSW UPS kicks-in, both run quietly.

If I run it on a Modified Sine Wave (MSW, as well?), and the UPS kicks-in, the PSU buzzes like crazy, and the UPS is also quite noisy. My instinct tells me that that's hard on any APFC PSU, and this one is the cream of the crop, so I prefer to take care of it properly.

Computers with switching power supplies don't need pure sine wave, you are overdoing it.

Well, the manufacturer recommends a PSW UPS, so I go with that recommendation. I can't see a rational reason for not running a PSW UPS, quite frankly.