Buying a UPS

[Greg12]

Has anyone heard anything bad about "Internet Office" UPS Systems. I was reading PC connection and the prices for those systems are much better than AP and u get more for ur money with Internet Office systems.

[gmatov]

It's a Tripplite, and I have one which is less than 6 months old, and the othere night when Isabel was threatening ( I am in Western PA ) my power merely "flickered" and my comp reset every time.

I don't know if they are garbage, or if mine, in particular is garbage, or if they have a slow response time, or what.

I have had 2 Tripplites before that ran for years, finally died, replacement batts cost more tan a new unit, just won't buy an "Internet Office" model sgain.

Cheers,

George

[SLICK RICK]

I have an APC 500VA/300Watts UPS. Although I have not been through a power outage since I purchased it, I have unplugged it from the wall and it kept my system up and running.

SLICK RICK

[The village idiot]

I have a Cyber power and an APC both are small units, not many watts. Both have worked very effectively during power flickering and outages. The Cyber power is more than a year old, the APC about 4 months old.

I bought the cyber power to fix problems that would occur while capturing when appliances turned on and caused a power dip. The power dip would cause dropped frames. The Cyber power fixed that completely! I would say that even a small UPS like those 2 would be a good investment. At least you have time to save what you are doing before you run out of power.

[mrtristan]

I have a Conext that's very under powered, but it works. I think it's rated for a 15" monitor and 300W power supply. I have a 17" monitor and 550W power supply plugged in. It kept beeping, so I unplugged everything into the side that only provides power surge protection and forgot about it. When the one of the bigger ac units in the house would go off, I would drop frames during captures. I got all salty and was ready to throw this thing away and buy a new one. Then I remembered that I had everything plugged into the surge protection outlets. I switched the computer over to the battery backup side and haven't dropped a frame since.

[rallynavvie]

I picked up the APC 1000a/500v unit a couple months back. I've got a 19" monitor, 550v PSU, and my capture devices plugged into it. It hasn't seen any sustained power outage but I get frequent brown-outs here. I have an in-ground diesel generator that came with the house so basically all I wanted from a UPS was time enough for the generator to kick in should any sustained power outage happen (which happens quite often, just not any recently). I took it to a LAN party because my friend's house is old and has literally 2 circuits for the house and we had about 10 PCs there for the night and we tripped the circuit I was on twice but I was able to keep the server up and running for the few minutes until the power was back on. That was pretty hilarious.

[flaninacupboard]

i just have this vision of a load of guys at a lan party, huddled round a ups, trying to decide what's more important, a miniature fridge to keep the soda cool, or the server......

[rallynavvie]

Who said I didn't have the mini-fridge plugged into my UPS as well?