UPS ? – Uninterruptible Power Supply

I have been in the middle of a set of tournaments when the power flicks off. By the time my computer reboots my stack is blinded away.

Often I will only need the backup for a minute. However, I may need power for 20 minutes or more.

I just need to power my desktop, modem and 2 LCD’s (no printers, etc).

I want to know what UPS specs to look for and would appreciate your help. Thanks.

ICMoney

[handsome]

I'm no UPS expert but I'd say get at least 400W just to be safe, and when you get it, test it. Obviously a battery run time of longer than 20 minutes.

[swiftrhett]

I bought a good 950W UPS from newegg.com for like $150ish. Definately get a UPS.

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I bought a good 950W UPS from newegg.com for like $150ish. Definately get a UPS.

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Thanks for the replies. What is your setup and how long does the 950w USP power it?

ICMoney

[Guthrie]

I have a 350 watt on one system and a 420 watt on the other and have never had any problems running a few minutes before shutting down. By far the most frequent use of a UPS will be to ride out momentary outages without rebooting your PC, not for extended blackouts.

If you play tournaments, however, you may well need to stay up for an extended period of time. There is a forumla that will tell you how long you are supposed to be able to run depending on how much power you are drawing, but give yourself a wide margin of safety. Actually, just get the biggest one you can afford. Anything over 500 watts will probably be enough unless you are running multiple monitors and need to keep them up. If you are running two monitors, but only need one to finish your tourneys, you can always shut down the other.

Be sure to plug critical equipment into your UPS, such as your cable modem and router, and power for speakers, USB hubs, wireless mice, etc., otherwise one small component will shut you down even if everything else is running. Once you get set up, and the battery charged, unplug it and test it.

Don't plug anything else into the UPS that you don't absolutely need, otherwise you'll just be cutting your run time.

The smaller ones are frequently on sale and are very handy for your TV, Tivos, VCRs, etc. I wouldn't recommend trying to run a big-screen television for an extended period during a blackout, but your Tivo or VCR will continue downloading your porn for a long time using a cheap UPS. They also give you surge protection for your consumer electronics.

And, of course, for the techno purists, these things we are talking about are really battery backups, not a UPS, which is a combination of a battery backup to bridge the gap before your generator kicks in. For the real power poker player, you can get a natural-gas powered home UPS from Home Depot for a couple of grand plus installation.

[swiftrhett]

This is what I bought: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16842107114

It only will only deliver power for about 15 minutes, but I have brownouts a lot, and it seems to protect against those, though it makes an annoying clicking sound when the power drops for a second.

The 8 outlets are nice.

This is what I got:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16842102006

which is about the max for a 20 amp circuit anyway. I get about 40 minutes uptime. Be sure to look at how easy it is to replace the batteries because they will go bad with time (couple of years). This cyberpower is very easy to replace the batteries.