How much headroom should there be with a UPS?

[Anonymous user]

Hello everyone, I had a question about UPSs and was hoping I could get an answer here. How much headroom should a UPS have for a gaming desktop?

I have a 1050VA/620W UPS and it works well but it doesn't backup properly when the power goes out when I'm playing a demanding game. If I take the monitor out, which draws around 25-50 watts max, I notice the PC keeps running even under the heavy load on the UPS. I assume that all the headroom I have is around 50 watts. Could this be dangerous for my computer's hardware? 

The computer is only in this situation for a couple seconds until I press the windows key which brings me back to the desktop, bringing the power usage down. I plug in the monitor and shut the PC down.

Thanks a lot. 

[Anonymous user]

S,

What is the model of your UPS, it should be on the front or also on a white sticket on the back or bottom of the unit.

Are you using the Powerchute software between the UPS and your PC.

If so it should be able to show the watts / load% when you in heavy load time when gaming.

My rule of thumb is to have at least 30% head room.

So you would need something like a 1300va(750w)  or better yet a 1500va(950w)

UPS around or below 100va don't always have an internal fan, those Above like an 1300 / 1500va do have 1 or 2 fans.

When the LOAD on the UPS exceeds 70 or 75% the fan will run at high speed if it has an internal fan.

[Anonymous user]

Ah, okay.

My UPS is an Intex 1050 Mission. It doesn't have any monitoring software.  

Hmmm, the formatting isn't right in my first post, strangegrammatical errors, yet going into edit mode they don't show up.... anyway....

Edit: Looks like the capacity isn't 620W--it's 525W under the tech specs! Shouldn't 1050VA come around to 620Ws?

[Anonymous user]

S,

 It should be close to 620w. the rule of thumb is Va x .6 which would be 630w.

That being said it sound like you at or near max load, when doing heavy gaming.

You should look for a larger UPS 1200+va. for you PC and Monitor.

You could use this older UPS to power your internet modem / wifi router etc.

[Anonymous user · Accepted solution]

I'll look for a larger UPS. Thanks for the information. I appreciate it a lot.