Recommend UPS?

[opentoe]

Please move to appropriate section. Sorry.

 

 

Well given the fact that my electric company is not doing rolling shut offs because of the heat is running  havoc on me. I need a good UPS. I have drives. I looked up a couple models and each runs at 7 watts. Anyone recommend a good UPS that would give the server ample time to shut down gracefully? I'm trying to look for something other than APC. I've always found their batteries don't last long. Any suggestions out there? I believe I have a 450 watt power supply in it now.

Thanks.

 

[imthekuni]

I got the Cyberpower CP1000PFCLCD. Running at ~60 watts it says I have about 30 minutes of power. Coupled with the UPS settings (built into Unraid?) it has shut my server down gracefully whenever I have a power outage (good old AZ monsoons!)

[Frank1940]

Where are you at in the world?  (US models are often not available world wide!)

 

Are you looking for more run-time then required for an orderly shutdown plus (say) 2 minutes (to see if the outage is only a short one)? 

 

If you are looking for something a bit less expensive, here is another Cyberpower unit:

 

      https://www.amazon.com/CyberPower-CP1000AVRLCD-Intelligent-1000VA-Mini-Tower/dp/B000QZ3UG0/ref=sr_1_1?s=pc&ie=UTF8&qid=1469908423&sr=1-1&keywords=cyberpower+cp1000avrlcd

 

But it does not have pure sine wave output which most PC power supplies can handle for infrequent outages for a short period of time.

[opentoe]

Where are you at in the world?  (US models are often not available world wide!)

 

Are you looking for more run-time then required for an orderly shutdown plus (say) 2 minutes (to see if the outage is only a short one)? 

 

If you are looking for something a bit less expensive, here is another Cyberpower unit:

 

      https://www.amazon.com/CyberPower-CP1000AVRLCD-Intelligent-1000VA-Mini-Tower/dp/B000QZ3UG0/ref=sr_1_1?s=pc&ie=UTF8&qid=1469908423&sr=1-1&keywords=cyberpower+cp1000avrlcd

 

But it does not have pure sine wave output which most PC power supplies can handle for infrequent outages for a short period of time.

 

I did research a little bit and since I planned on adding a couple more devices to this UPS, I got a larger one.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00429N19W/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

 

I believe I did see it recommended before. And it has pure sine wave ( what ever the heck that is! )

 

 

[Frank1940]

I believe I did see it recommended before. And it has pure sine wave ( what ever the heck that is! )

 

The less expensive units has a stepped output wave voltage output that 'approximates' a sine wave.  The pure sine wave is what your power company is supposedly delivering to you and has a a single sine component of 60Hz.  The step-output voltage waveform has a major component at 60Hz and any number of smaller harmonic components that are multiples of 60HZ.  These higher frequency components can cause some power supplies to run hot and become less efficient.  (That is why I made the comment about running time on the UPS.)

[garycase]

... And it has pure sine wave ( what ever the heck that is! )

 

:)    Keep it simple:  Pure sine wave = GOOD 

 

The unit you bought is an excellent unit.

 

[garycase]

If you had an oscilliscope and looked at the waveform going to your computer, it would normally be a sine wave, like the first picture shown below.  A "pure sine wave" UPS will produce an essentially identical waveform.    Lower quality UPS units use square wave generators, which can be added together to produce a approximation of a sine wave usually called a "stepped sine wave" => the other picture below show a pure square wave, and a stepped sine wave.

 

Note that ever "edge" (the corners of the square waves) generate harmonic noise on the electrical line => and without going into the technical details, just note that noise = BAD 

 

As I already noted, the unit you bought is excellent.

 

[opentoe]

... And it has pure sine wave ( what ever the heck that is! )

 

:)    Keep it simple:  Pure sine wave = GOOD 

 

The unit you bought is an excellent unit.

 

Thanks glad to hear this. Besides a 400 watt unraid server, could a couple desktops and some other devices run on this unit?

 

[garycase]

You could certainly power some low-wattage devices like a router, cable modem, or switch.

 

As for whether it's advisable to add a desktop -- it does have enough wattage, as long as you're not talking about a high-performance gaming desktop ... but I'd do the following if you plan on using it for additional systems:

 

(a)  Plug in the "must have" stuff -- the UnRAID server; the "other devices like the router, modem, etc. -- and then see what the UPS shows as a load when the server has all drives spinning.    [This will show on the UPS Settings on the Settings tab in v6]

 

(b)  Now add a desktop to the mix; and -- again with all drives on UnRAID spinning, and the desktop active (perhaps copy something between drives on the desktop or from the desktop to UnRAID), see what the UPS load is now.

 

©  If your desktop is a low wattage unit, you may even be able to add a 2nd desktop -- if so, just try the same thing I just noted and see how high the load gets.

 

I would NOT want the load to exceed about 500 watts ... otherwise you'll have a very low runtime.

 

Finally, if you DO decide to power the additional PC's, you need to get the network versions of APCUPSD for the PC and configure it so the UnRAID version will "talk" to the PC's and tell the control software to shut them down if there's an outage.  I do NOT use this, so I can't comment on the exact configuration -- but there are a few folks on the forum who do, so you may be able to get some help by asking a question about it.

 

[opentoe]

You could certainly power some low-wattage devices like a router, cable modem, or switch.

 

As for whether it's advisable to add a desktop -- it does have enough wattage, as long as you're not talking about a high-performance gaming desktop ... but I'd do the following if you plan on using it for additional systems:

 

(a)  Plug in the "must have" stuff -- the UnRAID server; the "other devices like the router, modem, etc. -- and then see what the UPS shows as a load when the server has all drives spinning.    [This will show on the UPS Settings on the Settings tab in v6]

 

(b)  Now add a desktop to the mix; and -- again with all drives on UnRAID spinning, and the desktop active (perhaps copy something between drives on the desktop or from the desktop to UnRAID), see what the UPS load is now.

 

©  If your desktop is a low wattage unit, you may even be able to add a 2nd desktop -- if so, just try the same thing I just noted and see how high the load gets.

 

I would NOT want the load to exceed about 500 watts ... otherwise you'll have a very low runtime.

 

Finally, if you DO decide to power the additional PC's, you need to get the network versions of APCUPSD for the PC and configure it so the UnRAID version will "talk" to the PC's and tell the control software to shut them down if there's an outage.  I do NOT use this, so I can't comment on the exact configuration -- but there are a few folks on the forum who do, so you may be able to get some help by asking a question about it.

 

Awesome. I do have a killowatt device so before I figure out what I want to hook up I'll see how many watts and and amps. I have a few days off, and this old man still gets excited. It is coming tomorrow.