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UPS Recommendations?

flehman

flehman

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Feb 21, 2015
352
195
I'm looking for advice on purchasing a UPS backup for my cMP. It is a 4,1->5,1 with 6-core 3.46 gHz CPUs and a 980. What specs should I be looking for to ensure that the UPS I buy is capable of providing enough power to run a Mac Pro. I am most concerned with making sure that the UPS I buy has the throughput to actually power a cMP, not necessarily a long-term capacity. I would only need it to be able to power the computer and monitor (an older Cinema HD Display) through a brief power blink (which happens around here about once a week and always causes the computer to restart) or for 5 minutes if there is a longer outage, long enough for me to save my work.

Thank you for anyone who can advise!
 
You have a lot of options here. Note there are several types of UPS units.

The cheap ones are standby, which means the battery doesn’t kick in unless the power dips (or exceeds) a certain threshold. If you want to be sure, get a Kill-A-Watt and see how much your system is pulling in Watts, and then get a UPS with bigger capacity. Note many are rated in VA, which is not the same.

The next level up are line-interactive UPS units. They can do some level of filtering as well as boost/buck under or over volt situations - if your power goes from say 120v to 115v they will compensate. However, the total amount of watts supported also goes down if it is boosting voltage. Nonetheless if you slightly oversize you will be fine.

The last level are double conversion UPS units, which is what I use when I can. They take any sort of voltage in (within reason), and convert to DC, and then use an inverter to convert to pure, clean 120V AC. They are expensive, and use power to do the double conversion (and generate heat) so aren’t as efficient. My personal preference for years has to buy old Liebert GXT 2 units on eBay, change out the fans to quiet Noctua fans and then change the batteries if needed. What sold for $800+ 10 years ago can be had for a fraction of the price. I also like them as they sit vertically without much depth so they fit behind desks, etc. I’ve run them on dirty generator power without complaint.

Those power blips, even if short, are hard on appliances and power supplies. That’s why I like double conversion pure sine wave units - my systems get the cleanest power possible.
 
I am running a CyberPower 1500 VA UPS (CP1500PFCLCD) and it has been great! Provides my Mac Pro 4,1->5,1 dual 2.4 with 3 monitors about 8-9 minutes of backup power.
 
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flehman said:
I'm looking for advice on purchasing a UPS backup for my cMP. It is a 4,1->5,1 with 6-core 3.46 gHz CPUs and a 980. What specs should I be looking for to ensure that the UPS I buy is capable of providing enough power to run a Mac Pro. I am most concerned with making sure that the UPS I buy has the throughput to actually power a cMP, not necessarily a long-term capacity. I would only need it to be able to power the computer and monitor (an older Cinema HD Display) through a brief power blink (which happens around here about once a week and always causes the computer to restart) or for 5 minutes if there is a longer outage, long enough for me to save my work.

Thank you for anyone who can advise!
Click to expand...
I go with APC, and have for a long time.

Be sure to add up the power draw for all of your devices - you'll need to power the monitor, external drives, network (if NAS drives).

The sweet spot for me is the 1500VA (900 to 1000 watt) units - but note that there are battery size considerations

The APC BX1500M is $170 at Newegg (https://www.neweggbusiness.com/product/product.aspx?item=9b-42-301-561)
Battery Run Time At full load: 2.8 minutes At half load: 10.9 minutes

The APC SMT1500C is $490, but has a bigger battery and longer run time. https://www.neweggbusiness.com/product/product.aspx?item=9b-42-301-690
Battery Run Time At Full load: 7 Minutes At Half load: 23 Minutes

The longer run time is useful if you're not sitting at the system when the power glitches. The http://www.apc.com/ has a number of tools for calculating runtime

While it's best to get a WattsUp? or Kill-a-watt power meter, if you add up the rated power draw of each device you'll overestimate actual draw. Few devices have a steady load that's even close to the rating. If you buy a unit that meets the sum, you'll have a nice cushion.

Also note that the battery life is typically 3-5 years (less if you drain it a few times). APC has a nice recycling program, if you buy an APC battery it comes with a prepaid label to ship it back for recycling.

I second the point about sine wave.
 
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AidenShaw said:
The APC BX1500M is $170 at Newegg (https://www.neweggbusiness.com/product/product.aspx?item=9b-42-301-561)
Battery Run Time At full load: 2.8 minutes At half load: 10.9 minutes
Click to expand...

I've been running the APC BG1500G for a few years now. Been working fine. The batteries went out three months ago, and I replaced them with batteries from:

https://www.replaceupsbattery.com

They make two grades of batteries for my UPS, one rated the same as the APC battery and an HD one. I got the HD ones (2 batteries) for $38.70 shipped. Much much cheaper than the ones from APC. The UPS needed to be reset, but they have been working great for me.

Lou
 
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I've used APC Back-UPS ES550 for a long while, and it has saved my computers (mainly now nMP) couple of times from outages. Only downside is that it is located in relatively warm location with some other hardware, so the batteries last only 2-3 years each. Now on 2nd replacement battery so I guess the unit is at 5-6 years old.
 
The cheap UPSs use approximated/simulated/stepped sine wave - really a square wave - and some power supplies don't work well with them.

I initially had an APC Back-ups and it worked but my cMP's power supply made noises when running on backup. I moved to Smart-UPS with sine wave and no more noise.
 
flehman said:
I'm looking for advice on purchasing a UPS backup for my cMP. It is a 4,1->5,1 with 6-core 3.46 gHz CPUs and a 980. What specs should I be looking for to ensure that the UPS I buy is capable of providing enough power to run a Mac Pro. I am most concerned with making sure that the UPS I buy has the throughput to actually power a cMP, not necessarily a long-term capacity. I would only need it to be able to power the computer and monitor (an older Cinema HD Display) through a brief power blink (which happens around here about once a week and always causes the computer to restart) or for 5 minutes if there is a longer outage, long enough for me to save my work.

Thank you for anyone who can advise!
Click to expand...

I like APC pure sinewave units with online backup. With an online UPS the transformers are much better because they have to be rated to run continuously 24/7 for years, not just the few minutes on occasion like an offline backup UPS would do. But that makes the unit much bigger, noticeably heavier, and more expensive.

Mine in particular is a discontinued model (APC S10), which is 1000VA and worked fine with a cMP 6-core, GTX980, 34" monitor, and other misc networking devices. It protected from blips and would run for 20+ minutes on battery with a moderate workload. Connect via USB port and the computer can be set to shut down properly. Windows and OS X have native support with no additional software needed. It includes rackmount ears for standard 19" rack, which also makes it the right size and shape for home theater component stacking. It is also a line conditioner and filters noise between its banks of outlets.

The batteries are 7 years old and now still work. I don't really understand how or why, but I've confirmed that they still perform by unplugging the unit to test and watching the battery capacity drain over several minutes. Every now and then I think about preemptively installing fresh batteries but then I think, "don't fix what ain't broke".

In the last few years Cyberpower has made units that are not pure sinewave but work perfectly fine with high efficiency power supplies. These cost less, weigh less, and are far smaller. That is probably a better choice for most people. I think APC has done the same, but not sure. If true, you don't really need pure sine wave any more. No matter what when you get a UPS you should test it out by unplugging it and ensuring that all of your equipment continues to run off of the battery.
 
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I have a few older APC SUA 1500 pure sine wave models. I decided to go with this model as I trust the company and this older unit is pure sine wave which is what I read Mac Pros "like".

Run time is pretty short but I do have lots of gear on it. Modem, Router, Switch, two desktops. I should replace the two batteries on one of the units soon. We do get stable power except for spring rainy season.

I'm a strong believer of UPS.
 
ActionableMango said:
I like APC pure sinewave units with online backup. With an online UPS the transformers are much better because they have to be rated to run continuously 24/7 for years, not just the few minutes on occasion like an offline backup UPS would do. But that makes the unit much bigger, noticeably heavier, and more expensive.

Mine in particular is a discontinued model (APC S10), which is 1000VA and worked fine with a cMP 6-core, GTX980, 34" monitor, and other misc networking devices. It protected from blips and would run for 20+ minutes on battery with a moderate workload. Connect via USB port and the computer can be set to shut down properly. Windows and OS X have native support with no additional software needed. It includes rackmount ears for standard 19" rack, which also makes it the right size and shape for home theater component stacking. It is also a line conditioner and filters noise between its banks of outlets.

The batteries are 7 years old and now still work. I don't really understand how or why, but I've confirmed that they still perform by unplugging the unit to test and watching the battery capacity drain over several minutes. Every now and then I think about preemptively installing fresh batteries but then I think, "don't fix what ain't broke".

In the last few years Cyberpower has made units that are not pure sinewave but work perfectly fine with high efficiency power supplies. These cost less, weigh less, and are far smaller. That is probably a better choice for most people. I think APC has done the same, but not sure. If true, you don't really need pure sine wave any more. No matter what when you get a UPS you should test it out by unplugging it and ensuring that all of your equipment continues to run off of the battery.
Click to expand...
I looked up the S10, the specs show line interactive but perhaps they are wrong. A really beefy unit.

As to the batteries, they will work until one day they don’t. There may be a shortening of time beforehand, but most of the higher end UPS units also do a periodic battery test itself, or you can do a manual one.
 
I've been pleased by the performance of my Cyperpower units (1500 va). One thing I like about them is that they will turn on even without AC power. Some UPS units I've had wouldn't. The Cyperpower units are quiet and reliable. I've used APC, Exide, one other brand I forget the name of, which I think began with "P", and Clary. The Clary unit was double conversion and very nice but when I was doing an event for the US Army they hooked me up to a 30kw generator of theirs which threw a wicked surge and the Clary gave its life to save the Alphaserver.

In those days (late 90s) it was hard to find a UPS that would run from a generator. The Exide and Clary would; the APC units I had would not; they didn't like the incoming AC.

The 30kw generator had a switch marked "Norm" and "Battle." I asked what happened in Battle position and the soldier told me that all the generator's protective circuits and devices would be switched off, and it would run until it died. I always liked that as a metaphor for being alive: when do I flip my internal switch to Battle?
 
AidenShaw said:
As an aside, today there are many generators available that are called "inverter" generators that produce very clean power. Like http://powerequipment.honda.com/generators/models/eu2000i

They are specifically marketed for electronics and other loads that need clean sine wave power.

http://powerequipment.honda.com/generators/inverter-generator-advantages
Click to expand...

Indeed, my generator/UPS problems disappeared when I switched to those Hondas. The Honda 2000i was about the only piece of equipment that I kept when I shut down my timing business (the Alphaserver DS10 was the other). It's powered me through a bunch of storms out here in the Pacific. I recommend it highly. It's very quiet, too. Also, unlike ordinary generators, if there's no load on it, it throttles back. So it's very fuel-efficient.
 
monokakata said:
Indeed, my generator/UPS problems disappeared when I switched to those Hondas. The Honda 2000i was about the only piece of equipment that I kept when I shut down my timing business (the Alphaserver DS10 was the other). It's powered me through a bunch of storms out here in the Pacific. I recommend it highly. It's very quiet, too. Also, unlike ordinary generators, if there's no load on it, it throttles back. So it's very fuel-efficient.
Click to expand...
I frequently vacation on yachts, and always travel with inline surge protectors and power strips. (And usually a spare power brick for each laptop.)

The power is pretty clean - but they have two generators. One is a 200kw or so for daytime (air conditioning and cooking), the other around 30kw for overnight. The spikes when they switch between them twice a day are killer.
 
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The trick for home generators, if you need higher power than what an inverter generator provides, is to look for one that produces less than 6% THD. The cheap Generacs produce up to 25%, which is bad for electronics. My latest puts out nearly 12kw continuous, powers my HVAC units, etc. and nothing squawked including electronic devices not on a UPS. Honda engine, Mecc-Alte generating head.
 
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I bought a couple of beefy 1500VA rack mount APC units for peanuts on eBay several years ago. New batteries are cheap so can be worth looking for units being sold without batteries.
 
nigelbb said:
I bought a couple of beefy 1500VA rack mount APC units for peanuts on eBay several years ago. New batteries are cheap so can be worth looking for units being sold without batteries.
Click to expand...

Define cheap?
I'm not having good luck finding replacement units for SUA 1500 (tower)
 
nigelbb said:
I bought a couple of beefy 1500VA rack mount APC units for peanuts on eBay several years ago. New batteries are cheap so can be worth looking for units being sold without batteries.
Click to expand...
I recommend buying without batteries, shipping is cheaper and then I get “known new” batteries from a place like RefurbUPS with a warranty.
 
You might want to get a Kill-a-watt or similar power meter to see what your real load is. I'm running a fairly well loaded cMP, BenQ 32 inch monitor, 2013 rMBP, and a 2009 iMac on an APC RS 900 which is a 900 VA / 540 watt (nominal) unit, and it typically runs about 55% load. That's enough for several minutes, more if the iMac is sleeping. A 1500VA unit might be overkill unless you have some other power hogs on it. Most UPS's don't like to be too lightly loaded.

In my experience your cMP will run on the APC line-interactive stepped sine just fine, so feel free to pick APC, Cyberpower, or Tripp Lite; all three have been around for a while and make quality products.
 
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