Going to pick a new UPS...

[Malkor_apc]

This was originally posted on APC forums on 9/28/2008

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(Note: I don't expect a reply today).

A few years back I got a few 550VA Belkin UPSes that have lasted for a while, but most of them are well beyond service life and batteries can only be replaced by tearing apart the unit. Each machine should have a UPS here because of brownouts that are fairly common (although with the grids being repaired I don't know if it will still happen) and did tear up a PSU or two before I got UPSes.

There are three things though that need to be considered.
1. I only want a UPS that will last about 10 minutes or less (5 min) on a quad core running dual SLI cards on a 750W power supply. In theory I think a 257W UPS would work, but I still get confused on all of the wattage. I would assuming the battery would produce X watts until going flat on the rating, correct me if I'm wrong.
2. It may or may not be switched from a PC to an Xbox 360 periodically. I know I cannot use both, and often that not I use the same LCD (VGA) display anyways.
3. How many watts can passthrough a basic UPS before overloading? Even though it's plugged into a 20A outlet I would figure that the passthrough circuit may not let out 20A.

Also, although not really useful, for my USB device hunt I got a 10Whr LI-ion APC pack on clearance that does regulate voltage.

[Erasmus_apc]

This was originally posted on APC forums on 9/29/2008

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The UPS you will probably be satisfied with is the BE750G. It has a max capacity of 450 watts and will provide you with 8-9 minutes of runtime at 260 watts. In regards to your question of wattage...wattage draw on the UPS is primarily related to UPS capacity (preventing an overload) and runtime (the more draw on the battery, the quicker the discharge, and so less runtime).

The only things I would worry about are a) do you have a power factor corrected power supply on your computer, and b) are we sure of the wattage draw of 260 watts? The PFC power supply is important since it will not be compatible with a Back-UPS unit and you will need to move up to a Smart-UPS (possibly an SUA750). The last issue is confirming the wattage draw...otherwise you would be all set with the BE750G.

[Malkor_apc]

This was originally posted on APC forums on 9/30/2008

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As for power factor, I don't know if it supports it or not. It's a PC Power and Cooling 750W Silencer if you wanted to look it up. For wattage draw, I might have to download a tool to calculate it, but here are just my guesses at idle:

1 Q6600 CPU - 100W
2 8800GT video cards - 220W (110 each I suppose).
And probably 100W or so for the 780i motherboard.

It's a beast of a multimedia system, in fact since it is a quad core I hear it's not the best in gaming (due to affinity issues and lowering FSB and overall MHz).

We do have brownouts (although with the rewiring of the grid I haven't seen any lately) but I don't know if I should buy a large UPS or simply just get a 200W for my gaming consoles (mainly because of warranty and no diagnostics I can do on it).

[Malkor_apc · Accepted solution]

This was originally posted on APC forums on 10/3/2008

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For the Xbox 360 (and possibly Wii and other things) I got a 350VA ES model on sale at a local Office Depot. It's only 200 watts so it probably can't do much for the PC, but probably long enough to properly shut down consoles and other things.

However for the desktops I'm still thinking of whether of using UPSes or not. I know replacing a PSU can cost a lot sometimes but it's a lot easier to maintenance than a 360 or a Wii.