There's been frequent power outages in my area.
I was wondering what UPS I should get if I just need enough time for me to save my work. About 5-10 minutes should be fine.
Sure, it's a bit powerful for your needs, at 1500VA/900W, but with it, you can get ~30mins runtime out of it, which should be ample time to safely end and close down your PC. Oh, it also has Type B sockets.
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 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:
UPS displays error resulting PC to shut down immediately.
UPS shuts down resulting PC to shut down immediately.
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 650W, at least one monitor is added on top of it. Your monitor is 21W, so this would be added on-top of what your PSU can deliver. 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.
Note: The more powerful UPS you have, the longer UPS can keep your PC running before it's battery is empty.
To suggest an UPS for you, i need to know any other piece of hardware make & model you're planning to plug into UPS. Also, i need to know your location (e.g USA, Germany, Italy, Australia etc) so i can suggest UPS with correct power sockets.
But for general suggestion, look towards: 1000VA/700W, true/pure sine wave, line-interactive UPS.
-----
In my opinion, every PC should have an UPS, regardless if the electricity is good or sporadic.
My Skylake and Haswell builds (full specs with pics in my sig) are also running off from UPSes where both PCs have their own UPS. I have two of these in use: CyberPower CP1300EPFCLCD (1300VA/780W, true/pure sine wave, line-interactive),
specs: https://www.cyberpower.com/hk/en/product/sku/CP1300EPFCLCD
And under the spoiler is combined image of my UPSes, click on spoiler to view.
Top left: After unboxing
Top right: Power-on test
Bottom left: Haswell build UPS in service
Bottom right: Skylake build UPS in service
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 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:
UPS displays error resulting PC to shut down immediately.
UPS shuts down resulting PC to shut down immediately.
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 650W, at least one monitor is added on top of it. Your monitor is 21W, so this would be added on-top of what your PSU can deliver. 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.
Note: The more powerful UPS you have, the longer UPS can keep your PC running before it's battery is empty.
To suggest an UPS for you, i need to know any other piece of hardware make & model you're planning to plug into UPS. Also, i need to know your location (e.g USA, Germany, Italy, Australia etc) so i can suggest UPS with correct power sockets.
But for general suggestion, look towards: 1000VA/700W, true/pure sine wave, line-interactive UPS.
-----
In my opinion, every PC should have an UPS, regardless if the electricity is good or sporadic.
My Skylake and Haswell builds (full specs with pics in my sig) are also running off from UPSes where both PCs have their own UPS. I have two of these in use: CyberPower CP1300EPFCLCD (1300VA/780W, true/pure sine wave, line-interactive),
specs: https://www.cyberpower.com/hk/en/product/sku/CP1300EPFCLCD
And under the spoiler is combined image of my UPSes, click on spoiler to view.
Top left: After unboxing
Top right: Power-on test
Bottom left: Haswell build UPS in service
Bottom right: Skylake build UPS in service
Appreciate the detailed response!
I'm only going to need it for the PC and monitor, my router is plugged in a different room entirely.
Oh and I live in the Philippines.
Looked, and there is no universal power socket at your place, but instead 3x different ones: 🤔
Also, have you any idea what those are called officially? And which one you have?
E.g i live in Europe (Estonia) and we have Schuko Type F CEE 7/7 in use here.
Or better yet, link local stores, where UPS can be bought and i'll look what they offer. Since UPSes in local stores should already come with proper power socket.
Looked, and there is no universal power socket at your place, but instead 3x different ones: 🤔
Also, have you any idea what those are called officially? And which one you have?
E.g i live in Europe (Estonia) and we have Schuko Type F CEE 7/7 in use here.
Or better yet, link local stores, where UPS can be bought and i'll look what they offer. Since UPSes in local stores should already come with proper power socket.
Sure, it's a bit powerful for your needs, at 1500VA/900W, but with it, you can get ~30mins runtime out of it, which should be ample time to safely end and close down your PC. Oh, it also has Type B sockets.
APC UPS, besides being far more expensive (i don't know why), also has different sockets, IEC-320 C13, so you need to use adapter cable.
Oh, APC is mostly known by making simulated sine wave (aka stepped approximation to a sinewave) UPSes, hence why there are loads of APC UPSes on sale. But for PC use, true/pure sine wave UPS is needed, which is both rare and quite a bit more expensive as well.
And with AWP, i wasn't able to find out what their output waveform is. But based on how cheap those are, ~4x times cheaper than CyberPower/APC, AWP doesn't seem to be quality product either. So, best to avoid those.
APC UPS is far more expensive and has way too much of a capacity for your usage, while you'd also need adapter cable.
And AWP is way too cheap to offer quality products, nor do they list what the actual output waveform is.
Sure, it's a bit powerful for your needs, at 1500VA/900W, but with it, you can get ~30mins runtime out of it, which should be ample time to safely end and close down your PC. Oh, it also has Type B sockets.
APC UPS, besides being far more expensive (i don't know why), also has different sockets, IEC-320 C13, so you need to use adapter cable.
Oh, APC is mostly known by making simulated sine wave (aka stepped approximation to a sinewave) UPSes, hence why there are loads of APC UPSes on sale. But for PC use, true/pure sine wave UPS is needed, which is both rare and quite a bit more expensive as well.
And with AWP, i wasn't able to find out what their output waveform is. But based on how cheap those are, ~4x times cheaper than CyberPower/APC, AWP doesn't seem to be quality product either. So, best to avoid those.
APC UPS is far more expensive and has way too much of a capacity for your usage, while you'd also need adapter cable.
And AWP is way too cheap to offer quality products, nor do they list what the actual output waveform is.
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