Uninterruptable Power Supply/ UPS

[AAGSmac]

Hello and happy cyber Monday shopping. Has anyone used a reliable UPS in there Mac Pro? I was just talking to Cyber power that I need to go for the powerful rack mounts if I were to use it with the Mac Pro since it has a 980 watts power supply. The UPS needs at least 1000 watts to supply the Mac Pro in the event of power failure. I am just using the Mac Pro as a Server.

Thanks

 

[AidenShaw]

Hello and happy cyber Monday shopping. Has anyone used a reliable UPS in there Mac Pro? I was just talking to Cyber power that I need to go for the powerful rack mounts if I were to use it with the Mac Pro since it has a 980 watts power supply. The UPS needs at least 1000 watts to supply the Mac Pro in the event of power failure. I am just using the Mac Pro as a Server.

Thanks

Use the "Search this forum" option - there are already quite a few threads discussing UPS systems.

My favorite is the APC 1500 sine wave, like https://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod...pc 1500&cm_re=apc_1500-_-42-301-298-_-Product . They have 1500VA units that are cheaper, but have smaller batteries and shorter run times.

 

[TheIguana]

I have been running a CyberPower 1500PFC for the last year on mine and it works great. Yes the Mac Pro power supply is rated to 1000 watts, but it is very unlikely to run at that even under full load.

 

[bjar]

I have been running a CyberPower 1500PFC for the last year on mine and it works great. Yes the Mac Pro power supply is rated to 1000 watts, but it is very unlikely to run at that even under full load.

I have this same one. Mac Pro usually pulls 300-400 watts under full load, with a RX 580 installed. So doesn’t even come close to 1000 watts.

 

[bsbeamer]

Add in another for the CyberPower CP1500PFCLCD. Also have the CyberPower CP1000PFCLCD for non-MacPro backups.

 

[AAGSmac]

Thank you guys. I bought my Mac pro 2012 3.06 12 core because it was dream computer when I was in college. Last week I accidentally unplugged the power cable while it was on. Does anybody know how harmful unplugging the power cable while it's on. What should I check in my Mac pro for any damages. Thank you.

 

[bookemdano]

Thank you guys. I bought my Mac pro 2012 3.06 12 core because it was dream computer when I was in college. Last week I accidentally unplugged the power cable while it was on. Does anybody know how harmful unplugging the power cable while it's on. What should I check in my Mac pro for any damages. Thank you.

If you turned it back on and it appears to operate normally then I wouldn't worry about it--it's not that dangerous to your hardware. Consider examining in more detail any app that was running at the time you unplugged the power cable, as potential data loss in those apps is really the only thing that might warrant a bit of concern (but even then it's unlikely).

 

[AidenShaw]

Hello and happy cyber Monday shopping. Has anyone used a reliable UPS in there Mac Pro? I was just talking to Cyber power that I need to go for the powerful rack mounts if I were to use it with the Mac Pro since it has a 980 watts power supply. The UPS needs at least 1000 watts to supply the Mac Pro in the event of power failure. I am just using the Mac Pro as a Server.

Thanks

Do a web search for "APC CyberPower reliability". It might push you to APC.

Comments like this

https://www.reddit.com/r/sysadmin/comments/72f81u/ups_cyberpower_vs_apc/

APC for critical things, Cyberpower for desktops, non-production environment stuff. Cyberpower isn't terrible, but I've seen large number of failures on larger deployments of their product. It was always addressed quickly, but it's not the same caliber product IMO.

reinforce my preference for APC.

"Cheapest" shouldn't be a big factor in choosing a UPS.

 

[AAGSmac]

Once again thank you

 

[bjar]

I have this same one. Mac Pro usually pulls 300-400 watts under full load, with a RX 580 installed. So doesn’t even come close to 1000 watts.

Please note this does not imply you should get like a 500 watt ups. The Mac Pro still may surge up to 980 watts on startup and wake. Not too sure about this, someone else may know. But just to be safe I would go with the 1500. Also it is a good idea to have your monitor and any external drives also plugged in to the ups so the extra wattage helps.

 

[AidenShaw]

Also it is a good idea to have your monitor and any external drives also plugged in to the ups so the extra wattage helps.

Actually, I consider it essential to have monitors, external drives, USB hubs and anything else on the UPS.

What good is the UPS if you can't log in to shut the system down when the power is out for a while?

 

[bjar]

Actually, I consider it essential to have monitors, external drives, USB hubs and anything else on the UPS.

What good is the UPS if you can't log in to shut the system down when the power is out for a while?

Exactly. And I’m not arguing that cyberpower is better than APC. I have a mix of both. Just stating what I have my Mac Pro connected to. I have had the cyberpower for a year and a half with no problems. And yes it was the cheaper option. I did homework and decided that was the best for my situation. The OPs situation may be different so they should do their own homework and decide.

 

[bsbeamer]

Please note this does not imply you should get like a 500 watt ups. The Mac Pro still may surge up to 980 watts on startup and wake. Not too sure about this, someone else may know. But just to be safe I would go with the 1500. Also it is a good idea to have your monitor and any external drives also plugged in to the ups so the extra wattage helps.

Regardless of spikes or sudden surges of more power draw, the 1500 with a larger battery will let you run longer without power. That means safely being able to shut down and not lose work/data when power goes out for more than a few seconds. As the units age, battery capacity/duration diminishes. Also gives you some headroom if you're not on top of replacing batteries as often as recommended.

ANYTHING is better than nothing. I've had bad luck with the cheaper APC units. Their rack units were phenomenal 5+ years ago. They changed manufacturing awhile back (or just their battery supplier for US models) and there was a batch of units I wouldn't recommend. Their batteries failed after 9-12 months without indication.

 

[AidenShaw]

Please note this does not imply you should get like a 500 watt ups. The Mac Pro still may surge up to 980 watts on startup and wake. Not too sure about this, someone else may know. But just to be safe I would go with the 1500.

+1

To be fair, however, most UPS systems are built to handle power-on surges. (And note that normally the computer is up when the power fails, so power-on surges are irrelevant to the battery-backup circuitry unless you power the computer up when the mains are down.)

A factor to consider is how long that you expect the power to be out - how much runtime do you need? I have an APC 1500 KVA for my 40 watt TiVo - it can run for more than two hours on the battery.

For most systems, I'm only concerned about the more common cuts of a few seconds or minutes - and run them much closer to the rated wattage. I size the UPS for 5 minutes of runtime at typical load.

Over the weekend I upgraded two APC 2200 KVA 120V UPS systems (2U rackmount) to APC 5000 KVA 208V systems (4U rackmount) - and changed the load from a few critical systems to all production systems for one project. The power strips are 30A 208V (four of them).