power cut / UPS

[swordfish86]

HI,
Does anybody use or know anything about UPS's (not the delivery company) for your computer?
had a power-cut yesterday that obviously resulted in my mac switching off without shutting down, this dosent happen v often at all as we have reliable electric in my area, but just got me thinkin weather its worth pickin up 1 of these, just incase.
I have a good belkin surge protector at the mo, is this good enough protection do u reckon?

i have done hardware check, verify disc & permittions ect and all seems fine, does this mean the power cut has had no damage, just want confirmation lol


cheers

 

[Lovesong]

I used to live in a house that had some waky wiring issues. Basically if you had too many appliances on, the main fuse would bail. I ended up getting one of these (an APC 1200), and I haven't regretted it.
At work (in the lab), pretty much all the computers are hooked up to one of these.
I'd say, if you care about your machine, and the data that's on there, get one. Yes, it's ~$200. Think about how much a new HD or (god forbid motherboard) would cost.

 

[swordfish86]

thanks for that, i have found one for $155 which sounds ok, i might order one.
will this be compatable with the mac pro, as i has heard about a few issues with usp's

do u reckon my mac is ok then, just a little paranoid lol

i supposed ur alloed to be wen you spend so much money

thanks

 

[volvoben]

Indeed, a UPS is a nice insurance policy, particularly if your power grid may not be the most...reliable.

There have indeed been problems with the Mac Pro and UPSs, namely that if your mac pro is asleep and the power goes out, the UPS software wakes the machine back up in order to shut it down properly, but this causes a spike in power demand and forces to UPS to quit altogether (not much better than just losing power altogether is it). I'm not positive where I read all these descriptions, but I believe the cure is just to invest in a heavy duty UPS that can handle the 1kw power supply on the Mac Pro.

Unfortunately this can be expensive, and also remember that you'll need to replace the battery once every 1-2 years, because the machine will actually be running off the battery all the time in order to separate it from the grid.

 

[product26]

We have one on every computer in our office.

Get one. Just make sure it has enough power for all of your components

 

[BlackMax]

I have three APC BACK-UPS ES 8 Outlet 500VA 120V in my home office with all my PCs, Macs, printer, router, switch and DSL modem connected. When the power goes off I just keep on running, Internet connection and all (up to 5 minutes and then I run out of battery juice).

 

[kitki83]

I want to know I got a 20 dollar UPS from Office Depot or Office Max during the black friday but when the lights go out the thing shuts off not letting me to turn off the computer. The only think hooked up is the Apple computer.


I dont know how these things work but the machine said based on my watt consumption it would last about 2-3minutes.


We also got one just for plasma TV and that didnt work so great.

I know I missing something but I dont know what?

 

[trainguy77]

I want to know I got a 20 dollar UPS from Office Depot or Office Max during the black friday but when the lights go out the thing shuts off not letting me to turn off the computer. The only think hooked up is the Apple computer.


I dont know how these things work but the machine said based on my watt consumption it would last about 2-3minutes.


We also got one just for plasma TV and that didnt work so great.

I know I missing something but I dont know what?

Did you plug it into the right ports? There is sometimes two sets of outlets on it. Some surge, some battery backup. Also if you have a mac pro a $20 thing will not handle the wattage. What UPS is it? and what mac do you have?

 

[Sun Baked]

Spend more for something with AVR (automatic voltage regulation) -- instead of a pure battery backup.

It'll help protect against the more damaging power problems under/over volt situations.

Which are more likely in the high power demand times than the power just going out -- and likely to creep by a plain battery backup and shut the machine down anyways.

---

So that $20 UPS mentioned above will likely be useless as any real protection.

 

[kitki83]

Did you plug it into the right ports? There is sometimes two sets of outlets on it. Some surge, some battery backup. Also if you have a mac pro a $20 thing will not handle the wattage. What UPS is it? and what mac do you have?

http://www.officedepot.com/ddSKU.do?level=SK&id=281456


Ok what are some examples of AVR (automatic voltage regulation)

since the Office Depot employee on black friday mention this is basic enough for Mac pro which I was sadly disapointed.

Can i have some samples to maybe get better UPS

 

[Sun Baked]

Heck I don't even think 300W is enough for the Mac Pro ... maybe enough for the LCD display, not both.

If you are using it and the thing isn't squealing about an unbalance load, I'd worry.

 

[CanadaRAM]

Do Not plug a printer into a UPS. Especially a laser printer, they draw way too much amperage.

Think about it -- if the lights are out, are you really concerned about printing, or about having an extra 5 minutes runtime to save your work and shut down.

Only plug into the UPS the items you absolutely have to have to do an orderly shut down; Yes to external hard drives and possibly networking equipment (routers, hubs, NAS) No to scanners, printers, pencil sharpeners, etc.
Server machines should have their own, dedicated UPS with nothing else attached.

 

[trainguy77]

http://www.officedepot.com/ddSKU.do?level=SK&id=281456


Ok what are some examples of AVR (automatic voltage regulation)

since the Office Depot employee on black friday mention this is basic enough for Mac pro which I was sadly disapointed.

Can i have some samples to maybe get better UPS

The mac pro has a 12amp power supply. BUt it doesn't use most of that. http://www.macintouch.com/reviews/macpro/benchmarks.html if you scroll down it shows power consumptions. Looks like it it might just squeeze under the 300 watt mark. But not when turning on or waking from sleep. I would not get anything smaller then a 500 watt for the mac pro.

 

[CanadaRAM]

And keep in mind that "500 VA" != 500 W

Buy more capacity than you need, not less.

The cheap "office store" models are worse than useless - they will cause more crashes than they save.

Also remember - the sealed lead-acid batteries inside these things need replacing every 2 - 4 years. Look for a model with readily available batteries.

 

[Sun Baked]

You'll find the Mac Pro likely is a hog, needing a 1500VA or bigger UPS. And 1200VA at a minimum if it has a decent W output.

300W is good enough for the LCD, the Mac Pro and a display are likely needed in the 750-800W range.

People have complained that the Mac Pro trips 900VA UPSs. So they were looking at the 1500VA range.

 

[trainguy77]

People have complained that the Mac Pro trips 900VA UPSs. So they were looking at the 1500VA range.

Very few people could trip a 900....unless your system is very loaded or many things plugged into it.

 

[synth3tik]

I use a APC 750VA 500W UPS

It's part of their "Pro" line. I use it for the Mac Pro and my RAID. never has failed me. APC is a great company and I have gotten some good help from them. You have to be careful when looking at their more consumer grade UPSs as sometimes they do not provide the right about of power for your load balance. I think it's a good investment to move up to there Pro line. I got this guy for $200 used...