[SOLVED] what UPS should I coose

[PaulosK]

Hello! I have a desktop with:
rtx 2060
Ryzen 5 2600x
2 tab had and 256gb ssd
Keyboard, mouse and headphones with rgb
One 27" 16:9 1080p 60ghz display and one 4:3 1024*768 (I think) 75hz display
My psu is 650w
I live in a place with frequent blackouts and power cuts. I am currently in the middle of one and I decide to buy a ups to protect my system.
What should I buy?
(I don't have my PC open all the time, so I want it to have an option to close if I don't need it. I will connect only my primary display and my desktop on it, so no need for more than 2 outlets, but more would be nice. I want it to last long enough so I can power off my system safely. Also, I know this is a stretch, but because of an issue with my ram frequencies and xmp not working, I want to do a bios update. I am pretty sure that they will decide for a power cut right in the middle of the flashing, so I would like to at least keep the desktop alive for 5 minutes that it is needed for the update. Last but not least, I don't want it to have coil whine. Price range 50-80 euros).
I have found this one but I don't really know if it's any good (it's green, so tell me if you need help with translating):
https://www.skroutz.gr/s/23613693/Powertech-UPS-Line-Interactive-1150VA-690W-με-2-Schuko-Πρίζες.html

 

[Aeacus]

I have found this one but I don't really know if it's any good (it's green, so tell me if you need help with translating):
https://www.skroutz.gr/s/23613693/Powertech-UPS-Line-Interactive-1150VA-690W-με-2-Schuko-Πρίζες.html

Almost good enough, except this one:

Κυματομορφή Εξόδου: Τροποποιημένου Ημιτόνου

And, No, i do not speak Greek. Instead i used Google Translate.

---

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://www.kstar.com/indexproblem/17355.jhtml

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 650W, at least one monitor is added on top of it. Since you have two, you need to look up both monitor's power consumption. (Or tell me your monitors make and model, so i can look up their power consumption.) 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.

---

In my opinion, every PC should have an UPS. My 2x PCs (Skylake and Haswell, full specs with pics in my sig) do have their own UPS, 1x UPS per PC. 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

Price range 50-80 euros

I don't think you'd be able to get true/pure sine wave, line-interactive UPS, with enough capacity for that little amount of money. The two UPSes i have, 4 years ago, i payed €230.10 Euros, per one UPS.

If you want to have good and cheap UPS, you have to buy two UPSes, the cheap one and the good one.

 

[PaulosK]

Almost good enough, except this one:

And, No, i do not speak Greek. Instead i used Google Translate.

---

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://www.kstar.com/indexproblem/17355.jhtml

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 650W, at least one monitor is added on top of it. Since you have two, you need to look up both monitor's power consumption. (Or tell me your monitors make and model, so i can look up their power consumption.) 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.

---

In my opinion, every PC should have an UPS. My 2x PCs (Skylake and Haswell, full specs with pics in my sig) do have their own UPS, 1x UPS per PC. 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



I don't think you'd be able to get true/pure sine wave, line-interactive UPS, with enough capacity for that little amount of money. The two UPSes i have, 4 years ago, i payed €230.10 Euros, per one UPS.

If you want to have good and cheap UPS, you have to buy two UPSes, the cheap one and the good one.

let's suppose i had the money to buy a pure sine wave ups. Would this be good (good as in will my pc fry, or will i ll be able to shut it down properly? Also not coil whine or any other annoying noice)

https://www.skroutz.gr/s/4122648/Powerwalker-VI-2200-UPS-Line-Interactive-2200VA-1200W-με-4-Schuko-Πρίζες.html

(I know 1200w is an overkill for my pc, but this is actually the cheaper i found with pure sinewave and not less than 650W)


or this one that is online, but more expensive:

https://www.skroutz.gr/s/7859242/Powertech-UPS-On-Line-1000VA-700W-με-2-Schuko-Πρίζες.html

 

[Aeacus]

https://www.skroutz.gr/s/4122648/Powerwalker-VI-2200-UPS-Line-Interactive-2200VA-1200W-με-4-Schuko-Πρίζες.html

(I know 1200w is an overkill for my pc, but this is actually the cheaper i found with pure sinewave and not less than 650W)


or this one that is online, but more expensive:

https://www.skroutz.gr/s/7859242/Powertech-UPS-On-Line-1000VA-700W-με-2-Schuko-Πρίζες.html

The mayor difference between the two UPSes, is their topology. One is line-interactive, another is online.

In a nutshell, line-interactive is cheaper (if same capacity) and while it has small transition time, it is more than enough to keep the PC running. Now, online topology means that PC is powered off from the battery at all times, while at the same time, battery is recharged. This doesn't produce any transition time when power loss happens. Downsides are more expensive price and wearing out battery much faster (since battery will be used constantly). Oh, constantly running fan too, to cool down the UPS.

So, for home use, i suggest looking towards line-interactive UPS. Online UPSes are mainly used in server farms, where no kind of power loss is tolerated, regardless how short it is. Noise level isn't important in server farms either. And server farm owners have the money to replace the batteries as well. Once a year or so. While for line-interactive UPS, battery can last 3-5 years before replacement is needed.

Would this be good (good as in will my pc fry, or will i ll be able to shut it down properly?

Both are good, since both output true/pure sine wave.

2200VA/1200W line-interactive UPS is better, since it has more capacity and has runtime of: 1200W - 30 seconds, 600W - 5 minutes.
1000VA/700W online UPS doesn't list it's runtime, which is strange.

Your system, on average, should consume ~400W, which would give you ~10 minutes of runtime with 2200VA/1200W line-interactive UPS. Maybe more. Hard to guess this stuff.

Also not coil whine or any other annoying noice

This, i can not confirm.

I have not heard that UPSes would output coil whine. But may UPSes keep the internal fan running at all times, and that fan can be loud.

The CyberPower UPSes that i have, are dead silent, without any operational noise. They do a loud "CLICK" when switching to battery power, when power loss happens and when power loss is longer than 1 second, they start beeping loudly, indicating that i'm running off from battery power.

Here, contact the store and ask them if those UPSes have constantly running fan in them, or semi-passive fan.

 

[PaulosK]

The mayor difference between the two UPSes, is their topology. One is line-interactive, another is online.

In a nutshell, line-interactive is cheaper (if same capacity) and while it has small transition time, it is more than enough to keep the PC running. Now, online topology means that PC is powered off from the battery at all times, while at the same time, battery is recharged. This doesn't produce any transition time when power loss happens. Downsides are more expensive price and wearing out battery much faster (since battery will be used constantly). Oh, constantly running fan too, to cool down the UPS.

So, for home use, i suggest looking towards line-interactive UPS. Online UPSes are mainly used in server farms, where no kind of power loss is tolerated, regardless how short it is. Noise level isn't important in server farms either. And server farm owners have the money to replace the batteries as well. Once a year or so. While for line-interactive UPS, battery can last 3-5 years before replacement is needed.



Both are good, since both output true/pure sine wave.

2200VA/1200W line-interactive UPS is better, since it has more capacity and has runtime of: 1200W - 30 seconds, 600W - 5 minutes.
1000VA/700W online UPS doesn't list it's runtime, which is strange.

Your system, on average, should consume ~400W, which would give you ~10 minutes of runtime with 2200VA/1200W line-interactive UPS. Maybe more. Hard to guess this stuff.



This, i can not confirm.

I have not heard that UPSes would output coil whine. But may UPSes keep the internal fan running at all times, and that fan can be loud.

The CyberPower UPSes that i have, are dead silent, without any operational noise. They do a loud "CLICK" when switching to battery power, when power loss happens and when power loss is longer than 1 second, they start beeping loudly, indicating that i'm running off from battery power.

Here, contact the store and ask them if those UPSes have constantly running fan in them, or semi-passive fan.

I have found a ups that the reviews said that it had a lot of coil whine.
Anyways, thank you for your help and recommendations <3