APC UPs es 350 or any other model for that matter

[Anonymous user]

i am sure this is posted somewhere else but its late and i don't have time to look any more than what I already have. Simple questions.

Is it best to recharge the batteries in them with all computers turned off and plugged in, but the ups turned on. Or best to just plug the ups into wall outlet and leave unplugged? Or unplug everything to it and power apc on?

Simple questions is all i am asking for.

Thinking about buying a new one. Do you all prefer the

http://www.walmart.com/ip/APC-Back-UPS-650/17472692

or the

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16842101311

Obviously the second link is a better backup, but they don't sell those at wallmart unless ordered and if i am going to order one it would be from newegg, but with wallmart you can take anything back with no shipping. Any suggestions would be appreciated much!

I have a 1300 watt psu, 8 core amd, ati7850, and all other stuff in case is just normal stuff no need in posting it. I just thought the power supply and video card was the important things to know.


Thanks very much all!

[BillP · Accepted solution]

to answer your questions regarding charging, its up to you. just know the UPS will require charging to provide full runtime if there is an outage. so, if you are expecting a power outage, i'd just leave the UPS off (doesn't matter if you have stuff plugged in or not) and let it charge up and then turn it on with a full charge. if you are not expecting an outage, you can turn it on with your equipment and it will charge up - just know if there is a power blip, you will not necessarily get the full runtime.

you're computer sounds pretty high end and the UPSs you are looking at size and feature wise are on the lower end.

you have a 1300 watt PSU - do you know what your typical power draw is? you'll need to know for start up most likely but I imagine you actually may pull 300 watts typically but that is just a guess.

you should try to find the actual power draw - typical and at start up - so you can appropriately size a UPS. I feel like it could be more than these UPSs you are looking at can handle - maybe not - but i would not personally feel comfortable suggesting one of those without asking these questions for a computer system like you are describing.

what i am thinking could happen is especially on system start up that the UPS becomes overloaded or you get less than desired runtime - which is another question - how much runtime do you want?

lastly, what model of power supply is this? some higher end power supplies cannot handle the step approximated sinewave outputs and/or transfer time of the UPS from online to battery. i bring that up because again since these are lower end UPS models, some higher end systems might not deal with them well.