UPS Questions ...

[Billped]

No, I don't want to know what Brown can do for me.

 

I am boldly (aka "stupidly") running my unraid naked, nary a hint of protection between me and the raw power brought to me by my local power company.  I have been meaning to get a UPS ... really.

 

Before I head to the local store to get one, I have a few questions:

 

1. How big need it be?  My typical power consumption is well under 200W, initial startup is about 300W, and I can do the watt-to-VA math (or just read the box), but how many minutes of power is it smart to have?  Perhaps more important, what is the downside of underbuying?  If I get a 250W supply and my system needs 300W, does it just flat out not work or does it mean I only get a few minutes of backup?

2. What brand?  APC, Tripplite, CyberPower, and Belkin are the four I see most frequently, but there are many others.

3. Sine-wave vs. stepped?  I am fairly sure the answer is, "motors care, not computers", but I want to confirm

4. Will all brands fit equally well with the eventual UPS support Tom is (hopefully) planning to implement in a future release?

6. Other than the usual places (costco, officemax, officedepot, circuit city, best buy, staples, Fry's, ...) are there good places to get them cheap?  Any current bargains?  I found a Cyberpower 1300VA (~800 watt) for $125 (plus tax) shipped: http://www.buy.com/prod/cyberpower-intelligent-lcd-series-ups-cp1350avrlcd-1350-va-810-watts/q/loc/101/204297449.html

7. Any good "save" or "horror" stories about specific UPS's that folks want to share?

 

Any other help would be appreciated.  I searched for unbiased reviews, including backup time comparisons, and found darn few.

 

 

Cheers,

Bill

 

[NAS]

What i would do is buy a big brand UPS such as APC.

 

Now before you say "too expensive" check out ebay and get one even if it has no battery. Then you can get a brand new proper battery by mail order. What you end up with is essentially a brand new top end UPS for a fraction of the cost.

 

As for how big once you go to a proper brand your no longer have to think about quality problems of protection and merely are calculating the amount of time the system will run without mains.

[cmhardwick]

to add a question, along the same lines (not trying to hijack the thread). Which is better, 1 big UPS for 2 or 3 systems (assuming you can get the monitoring software to work over the network to do a graceful shutdown on them all) or seperate one for each?

[NAS]

Swings and round abouts. I would suggest that one bigger one would be better since there is an economy of scale in UPSs (to a point).

 

The thing is though unless you have some serious systems one UPS to cover 3 of them still wont be that huge or expensive. It all comes down to uptime in the event of a power failure thats where the money disappears.

 

If you want 3 systems to be up for 2 hours after a complete power outage you will spend alot more than if you only need 5 minutes.

 

I would suggest that the main protection people here need is from short black outs but more importantly brown outs (the real kit killer).

 

If unRAID could implement some UPS integration agent then all you would need is 10 minutes of battery coverage to allow for graceful shutdown.

 

One final note pay careful attention to weight. UPS companies have deals with delivery specialists to make delivery cheap.. so you may be unpleasantly surprised how heavy some of these things are.

[cmhardwick]

AMEN on the weight. We have to replace the batteries in ours at work occassionally (APC SUA1000s mostly) and those lead acid batteries are small, but weigh a ton!

[orb]

I have a small APC Back UPS ES 500, which looks like an oversized powerstrip.

It works very well, and the battery still holds its charge quite well after 2 years.

 

My unRAID and Mac Mini are plugged into it, and I have way enough time to shutdown everything if needed, I just would need a script to shutdown unRAID automatically as my Mac does. (The Mini is using so little power that it can stay on for almost an hour)

 

APC is definitely a brand I would advise.

 

[Billped]

I went ahead and purchased one of these.  Hopefully it is enough.

 

http://accessories.us.dell.com/sna/productdetail.aspx?c=us&l=en&s=dhs&cs=19&sku=A0565651

 

 

Bill

[Joe L.]

I went ahead and purchased one of these.  Hopefully it is enough.

 

http://accessories.us.dell.com/sna/productdetail.aspx?c=us&l=en&s=dhs&cs=19&sku=A0565651

 

 

Bill

Its only good for 37.5 minutes of run-time at full load...  You will probably need bigger batteries. 

[Billped]

I went ahead and purchased one of these.  Hopefully it is enough.

 

http://accessories.us.dell.com/sna/productdetail.aspx?c=us&l=en&s=dhs&cs=19&sku=A0565651

 

 

Bill

Its only good for 37.5 minutes of run-time at full load...  You will probably need bigger batteries. 

 

Yeah, I saw that.  I may have to have "The Professor" build me one of those exercise-bicycle generators made out of palm fronds and coconuts.  It's time the kids paid their way through life.

 

 

Bill

[cmhardwick]

be sure to wear a back brace when you set it up, half a ton's no easy lift 

[Billped]

An update ...

 

I decided that I wanted to toss more than the Unraid on the UPS.  The list now includes:

* The Unraid box (< 200W steady-state)

* My wireless router and DSL modem (not sure, maybe 25W)

* My main PC (another ~200W or so)

* My monitor (soon to be replaced with a Dell 24" @ maybe 150W)

 

That adds up to a bit less than 600W of steady state usage, perhaps a bit more when the main PC and monitor kick up from their likely slumber.

 

Based on lots of recommendations from here and elsewhere, I decided on an APC unit and found a 780W unit, the BX1300LCD on sale at circuit city for $130 (plus tax), where I could pick it up locally.  This will give me about 10 minutes of run time - enough to run over and shut everything down gracefully if I am around.  I have two other smaller UPSs that I may use to offload some of the power requirements from the main box (i.e. my monitor) that would give me more time on the Unraid.

 

http://www.circuitcity.com/ccd/Search.do?c=1&context=&keyword=BX1300LCD&searchSection=All

 

 

Bill

[mola]

An update ...

 

I decided that I wanted to toss more than the Unraid on the UPS.  The list now includes:

* The Unraid box (< 200W steady-state)

* My wireless router and DSL modem (not sure, maybe 25W)

* My main PC (another ~200W or so)

* My monitor (soon to be replaced with a Dell 24" @ maybe 150W)

 

That adds up to a bit less than 600W of steady state usage, perhaps a bit more when the main PC and monitor kick up from their likely slumber.

 

Based on lots of recommendations from here and elsewhere, I decided on an APC unit and found a 780W unit, the BX1300LCD on sale at circuit city for $130 (plus tax), where I could pick it up locally.  This will give me about 10 minutes of run time - enough to run over and shut everything down gracefully if I am around.  I have two other smaller UPSs that I may use to offload some of the power requirements from the main box (i.e. my monitor) that would give me more time on the Unraid.

 

http://www.circuitcity.com/ccd/Search.do?c=1&context=&keyword=BX1300LCD&searchSection=All

 

 

Bill

 

 

Hey Bill,

 

I'm glad you got your network gear on the UPS... I have my phones (VoIP/ATA etc) on it to ensure I have dial tone all the time.

 

Also, glad you didn't get a CyberPower or a Belkin.  I purchased a CyberPower off ebay simply it looked nice and it was cheap however the batteries are not the traditional replacement batteries...

As for the Belkin, I had 2 go bad in 2 yrs and think they're a POS compared with APC.  I still long to get Tripp Lite's, maybe slowly replace as they're more durable and musters out more juice, duration from similar specs as APC.

 

 

Only thing I hate about UPS where I live is when it beeps from a brown out in the middle of the night and wakes me.   

I get little sleep as it is.

 

 

 

 

[NAS]

Couldnt agree more APC is worth the money. They are not alot to look at but they will be running years after the others for the reason that they keep making parts alone

[IOI HUMMER IOI]

This might sound silly, but how are the "Geek Squad" units that Best Buy sells?  The seem pretty stout as power, features, looks, but that name....      Not a fan of that department at all!

 

I'll be getting a UPS for my build coming up here soon.  Just thought I'd ask as I have some Best Buy cards to burn, and they don't sell parts that I want. 

 

 

[DCKJR]

Bill -

 

Any feedback on how the APC BX1300LCD is working for you?

Is there any feature you wish it had?

Are you using their PowerChute software to shut your PC down and does it work alright?

 

Thanks

 

Dudley

 

(Had a momentary power glitch last night, hence the interest 

 

[Billped]

Not much feedback thus far.  I have plugged it in, attached the unraid, and the unit seems extremely well built, valuable choices for readouts, no noticeable hum/noise like my older/smaller belkin, and I really liked the QC checklist that was included - nice touch.  Interestingly it seems as if the unit came pre-charged, at least that's what the power bars tell me (no, I didn't read the manual, my Y-chromosome won't permit it).

 

This weekend I hope to hook it up to the rest of the gear, load the software, and do an unplug test.

 

 

Bill