Recommend a UPS for a desktop (Cyber Monday style)

Comfortably Lomb

Koko the Monkey
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Feb 22, 2004
12,959
The Paris of the 80s
Hey folks, any recommendations for a UPS for my desktop... preferably on Amazon? I’ve been hit with a bunch of brief power outages lately and want to hook my desktop up to one of these things. Are the APC models that are around $150 pretty much the standard? Cost isn’t a major concern if under $200 but I’d like to not spend money that doesn’t need to be spent.
 

Nick Kaufman

protector of human kind from spoilers
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Aug 2, 2003
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A Lost Time
I got the CyberPower BRG1500AVRLCD 6 months ago.

I did a lot of research and I thought this was the most reputable ups with the longest battery life for consumer use. Maybe you can get one of their lower models; i just needed to last as long as it could and by my count it lasted an hour I think - though I think that over time with battery deterioration, it's going to give me 20-30 minutes.
 

LoweTek

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May 30, 2005
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I have two 1500PFCLCD Cyberpower. Amazon $199. AVR and sine wave quality management. Some devices do not like the squared sine waves standard in most UPSs.

I used to be a big APC advocate and I had quite a few. They started dropping like flies, irreparable, within 3-5 years. No more APC for LT.
 

Comfortably Lomb

Koko the Monkey
SoSH Member
Feb 22, 2004
12,959
The Paris of the 80s
Sounds like Cyberpower is the winner. LoweTek, I’ve seen that one recommended a few places. I’m going to pull the trigger. Thanks everyone!

Edit: btw, what’s the deal with the smell people mention about these things?
 

Couperin47

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I have two 1500PFCLCD Cyberpower. Amazon $199. AVR and sine wave quality management. Some devices do not like the squared sine waves standard in most UPSs.

I used to be a big APC advocate and I had quite a few. They started dropping like flies, irreparable, within 3-5 years. No more APC for LT.
I have a pair of ancient APC RT900 units bought used for dirt when Compaq was sold to HP, seems they had, literally, hundreds used in their labs. Built like tanks and weigh as much, every 4-5 years I replace the 4 batteries each uses. Not nearly as efficient as modern units and, of course, square wave output, but the things will run forever....
 

LoweTek

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This has not been my experience with recent APC purchases. But, we get a lot of surges and sags around here so maybe they take a bit more of a beating and this contributes to their short shelf lives. I have never changed an APC battery more than once before it crapped out.
 

cgori

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Oct 2, 2004
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SF, CA
To those who have the CyberPower units - how's the software for them? I have an 6 or 7-year-old BackUPS 1500 that works OK but the battery is probably degraded. I think I got it because the Linux support was decent. Then I stopped dual-booting this machine so the Windows software was the only thing that mattered. The APC software is functional, if maybe a little underwhelming.

(To the OP, I have an older version of this - $155 on Amazon, I've had no troubles with it. Mine isn't sine-wave though, which seems to be this for $190. So the CyberPower boxes seem to be in the same price ballpark. If you are going to hook things directly up to the UPS, check the outlet spacing, some are pretty tight, but the BackUPS has at least 2 staggered/larger-spacing plugs which can be handy. If you're hooking everything up to a power strip it doesn't matter.)
 

Couperin47

Member
SoSH Member
To those who have the CyberPower units - how's the software for them? I have an 6 or 7-year-old BackUPS 1500 that works OK but the battery is probably degraded. I think I got it because the Linux support was decent. Then I stopped dual-booting this machine so the Windows software was the only thing that mattered. The APC software is functional, if maybe a little underwhelming.

(To the OP, I have an older version of this - $155 on Amazon, I've had no troubles with it. Mine isn't sine-wave though, which seems to be this for $190. So the CyberPower boxes seem to be in the same price ballpark. If you are going to hook things directly up to the UPS, check the outlet spacing, some are pretty tight, but the BackUPS has at least 2 staggered/larger-spacing plugs which can be handy. If you're hooking everything up to a power strip it doesn't matter.)
Note: if hooking up a power strip to improve spacing for a ton of stupidly sized wallwort power supplies: it should be a 'plain' strip, NOT including additional 'surge protection' which usually means MOVs
 

Nick Kaufman

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I remember doing some reading on sine wave when I was shopping. IIRC it's an issue if you plug something not computer related; like people have medical devices requiring a UPS and those devices do require clean power.

But if you want the UPS for your computer, if your PSU is reputable enough and not some no name Chinese brand, then you shouldn't worry about it, nor pay for it IMO.
 

Couperin47

Member
SoSH Member
I remember doing some reading on sine wave when I was shopping. IIRC it's an issue if you plug something not computer related; like people have medical devices requiring a UPS and those devices do require clean power.

But if you want the UPS for your computer, if your PSU is reputable enough and not some no name Chinese brand, then you shouldn't worry about it, nor pay for it IMO.
Mostly true and, once upon a time, pure sine wave supplies cost considerably more, these days there is virtually no difference in cost which is why all but the cheapest older designs are becoming true sinewave. BTW, virtually all computer power supplies, even the best brands are ALL made in China, by about 7/8 companies . All the major name brands here actually source from several of these suppliers.
 

LoweTek

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I solved the outlet adjacency problem with these. And cleaned it all up with these.

Some interesting reading about pure sine wave power here.

I also power some fairly pricey audio gear from the CyberPower units. Anything minimizing line noise helps the cause.