UPS recommendations

SarelSeemonster

SarelSeemonster

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I work from home and feel the need to invest in a decent UPS, mostly to give me a few minutes time to cleanly shutdown my OS (Win7 x64) when there is a power failure and to protect my hardware against power spikes/brownouts and the like.

I really have no clue when it comes to UPSs though.. would appreciate some recommendations.

I plan to connect only my PSU (750W) and one of two monitors (Dell U2412M 24") to the UPS. A USB connection with drivers to make the OS auto-shutdown when a power failure is detected is not required but would be nice to have.
 
APC is pretty good, but tends to be somewhat expensive. The bonus is that you can often add extra battery packs to the basic UPS to achieve extended runtimes.

The main thing is that if you are working from home, you really need to have the machine available in the event of load shedding, which seems to be something that could be on the way again. In which case, an inverter-based solution may be what you need.
 
I got me a Mecer 2000. APC was too expensive for me. I run WinNUT on the PC to tell the UPS how long it can still supply power to the NAS, router, PC, laptop (without battery) and a switch. I think the model in the link is the newer model
 
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APC is the only affordable brand that will deliver what they claim.

The rest of the stuff like Mecer, Mustek, Proline etc. are very low quality re-branded Chinese products. I've heard too many stories of those things exploding or catching fire to ever be brave enough to trust them but to each his own.
 
I just Googled "UPS catching fire" and the first link is about APC catching fire.

Point is that all UPSs can catch fire.
 
Since OP does not appear to have a budget, I recommend a flywheel based solution. EFT me half a dozen million and I'll get you one that can power real monster of a PC for a very long time...I think I know of a uni in Germany that doesn't need theirs anymore. Warning: Shipping costs not included. Couple of tons gross weight.

Gnome said:
APC is the only affordable brand that will deliver what they claim.

The rest of the stuff like Mecer, Mustek, Proline etc. are very low quality re-branded Chinese products. I've heard too many stories of those things exploding or catching fire to ever be brave enough to trust them but to each his own.
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Thats a bit too bold a claim imo, but it is true that you do broadly speaking get what you paid for.
 
I was thinking around R1,500 but that was based on ads I saw for said low quality re-branded Chinese products.

Not too worried about extended load shedding affecting my ability to work; can switch to a laptop and then a tablet and then a smartphone and then... an Internet cafe, I guess :P if it's really important.

I'd much rather save up a bit and get a more expensive APC then, sounds like people have had good experiences.

Cheers for the replies!
 
OGroteKoning said:
I just Googled "UPS catching fire" and the first link is about APC catching fire.

Point is that all UPSs can catch fire.
Click to expand...

Haha, nice one. Did you actually read the guys thread tho?

APC sent out someone to inspect it immediately and replaced it less than 24 hours later.

HavocXphere said:
Thats a bit too bold a claim imo, but it is true that you do broadly speaking get what you paid for.
Click to expand...

Not really, APC is widely used in the enterprise. It is the no.1 server UPS.
 
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