Battery Backup Questions

[SteelCityFan]

I am looking into getting a short term Battery Backup. The 350VA ones seem to be everywhere, and most great "Hot Deals" are on the 350's and generally not on the higher models.

I look at the specs of say the APC 350VA, and see that it can only put out 200W of power (and provide around 375 Joules of protection). I have a P4, 2 Hard drives, etc being powered by a 350W Antec PS.

If I were to plug my Monitor and Computer into this Battery Backup, wouldn't it be way under powered? Only 200W for my PC and Monitor to share. Not to mention wanting to hook up the router and modem.

My current surge protector protects up to something like 1500 Joules, so that would be a big step down too.


Is a 350 really a viable solution?

Thanks

 

[Lord Evermore]

Not if you're plugging the monitor in. At the highest settings, it may use well over a hundred watts all by itself. Your computer may use 300W total at full power draw of all the devices (probably only 200W or less during normal operation).

tigerdirect.com has decent prices for UPSes, and doesn't rape you much on shipping. They have the 1000VA Belkin F6C100-UNV for 100 dollars. We've got two running in our house, they seem to work okay. 890 Joule rating, 550W. I have two 19 inch monitors and my computer and speakers running on mine, they stay on for a while during outages.

UPSes generally don't have as high a Joule rating as power strips, as far as desktop UPSes are concerned.

 

[Smilin]

My $0.02

Don't try to UPS your monitor. Just stick with the PC itself.

Also stay away from APC. They make awesome UPS's no doubt about it but for the average consumer they just charge entirely too much. There are lesser companies that will work just fine for you.

 

[stingray2]

whats the point if you dont ups your monitor. if your using your computer, and the power goes out, the ups is there so the pc stays on so you can close programs down and shut down. if you dont ups your monitor, you cant see, so hard to save data and close down? right?

 

[mboy]

Originally posted by: stingray2
whats the point if you dont ups your monitor. if your using your computer, and the power goes out, the ups is there so the pc stays on so you can close programs down and shut down. if you dont ups your monitor, you cant see, so hard to save data and close down? right?

They come with either serial or ups cables and software that will auto shut down your pc the proper way when it detects an outage.

 

[Lord Evermore]

I memorized the sequences to shut down Windows.

However, if you're running the backup management software, the machine automatically will be shut down after a certain period of time. I think depending on the software, it can save any open application states.

 

[andrey]

On my APC UPS CS500 unit I have the following times:

without monitor : 15 minutes
with CRT monitor: 10 minutes

So I personally would rather loose 5 minutes, but see what I'm doing instead of sitting in the dark and hoping the software will hibernate my PC correctly.

 

[alkemyst]

Here is the deal...ebay

My OptiUPS 650 died and I needed a new one.

Got a APC SmartUPS 1250 (same as a 1400 without hot swaps) for $75...

1 hour + backup.