Uninteruptable Power Supplies??

[juandeez]

I live on a college campus with electrical issues, and it is not unusual for there to be power failures pretty regularly. I am concerned about my computer losing power without warning, and I want to know about UPSs. What are they? How do they work? Are they worth the cost? What can I do with one? Do they protect against surges? Any other information will be helpful! Thanks y'all!

[Roy]

An UPS uses a lead-acid gel-cell battery to run an inverter/converter that puts out AC power for a computer. The battery is continually charged from the mains ... when they're working.

The computer is isolated from the power line and immune to its problems. Smaller units usually provide about 15 minutes of operation, long enough to finish what you're doing and shut down.

A search on "uninterruptable power supply" will give you more than you ever want to know.

[Rat]

A UPS is basically a battery with an inverter attached to it and an auto sensing switch to detect a power loss. When the power goes out, the inverter kicks in automatically and keeps your computer going for approximately 15-30 mins (depending on the size of UPS you get.) UPS's go for about $100 on up. Most home users can get away with a 500-750 VA UPS, while power useers, companies and servers require more power.

Rat...

[pickel]

I have my " Blackout Buster" right at about a year now and I think it's great!! Got it on sale for $99.00 w/ $ 50.00 rebate. How can you go wrong. Just gotta watch those Sunday newspaper adds. http://sysopt.earthweb.com/forum/smile.gif

[OuTpaTienT]

APC is one of the better brands of UPS'.

http://www.apcc.com/products/back-ups/index.cfm

[thekingofpain]

I use APC's and they seem most used and available, being in California id like to hook my entire pad to one at this point...we are being threatened with rolling blackouts, I have a Honda generator ready to fire up the most important part of the house...

[Fingers]

UPS - Uninteruptible Power Supplies provide battery power and allow you to continue to work through short power outages and "brown-outs" without loosing data. Your computer memory requires a constant supply of power to maintain what is stored in memory. Even a short sag in power can result in corruption of the data that is in memory. Power outages and power sags are the leading cause of data loss and corruption. I wouldn't even consider turning on a computer that has important info on it without having it connected to an UPS.

Most UPS units also provide protection against power line surges as well as surge protection for your phone line.

You can get an APC Back-UPS Office 350 for as little as $69, it probably will only keep you up for about 7-10 minutes, but that's plenty of time to shut down safely. APC UPS units also offer a feature called PowerChute that will automatically close your programs and safely turn off your computer if the computer is unattended during a power outage...Very Cool http://sysopt.earthweb.com/forum/smile.gif

APC UPS Selector for PCs (http://www.apcc.com/template/size/workstation/single/)

<Edit> changed price, they're only $69.99 directly from APC.

[This message has been edited by Fingers (edited 01-17-2001).]

[Richard_Cranium72]

$71.99 ,, $81.99 - $10 coupon

Buy.com
$10 off $30 New Customers (80335209) Expires: Feb 28

Capacity / Average Run Time - 20.7 min
full load at 300va / 5 min
http://www.us.buy.com/retail/product.asp?loc=101&sku=10242161&PageFormat=7#product

DrVette

[Fingers]

That's a Back-UPS 300 (http://www.apcc.com/products/back-ups/index.cfm) , I was talking about a Back-UPS Office 350. (http://www.apcc.com/products/back-ups_office/index.cfm)

I've got a Back-UPS400 and a Back-UPS650 also, but I kinda like the design of my Back-UPS Office. It has 3 widely spaced outlets that allow for 3 transformers to be plugged in side-by-side.

[Jeff7]

I use Tripp-lite surge protectors and power-supplies. Their reaction time is <1ns, as opposed to APC's usual 5ns. Might not amount to much, but I prefer to keep my system pretty safe. Oh wait, I overclock too. http://sysopt.earthweb.com/forum/wink.gif