2024 UPS Recommendations
Posted by F1nest_@reddit | buildapc | View on Reddit | 6 comments
Hi all,
I am looking for a UPS for my PC and monitors.
Pc has a Ryzen 9 7900x, 4090 powered by a Dark Power Pro 12 1500w (overkill for my machine but I got pissed with the constantly upping my PSUs)
Monitors are qdoled Alienware and Predator x27
I’m sure all of you know that our PC’s are very personal to us and it was a journey to get to this level. Time to protect it because I suffer from occasional power outages now.
I’ve been reading past threads about APC, Cyberpower, and Tripplite but information from 2-3 years ago isn’t the same as today. Reading like how APC used to be good before Schneider. Then how older Cyberpower units used some sort of glue and now they don’t. How Tripplite was bought by Eaton, etc.
Also reading how there is no real buy it for life solution which drives me nuts but I’m hearing battery replacements are possible. I would great appreciate honest input for a UPS solution. Any solution over $300 I would love to hear the value proposition such as cheap battery replacements etc. I’m really dreading this purchase because I never had a need for one but I need the protection.
Emerald_Flame@reddit
APCs consumer grade products really haven't changed. It's their enterprise products and trying to shove companies into expensive subscriptions that's caused most of their bad rap. Those are not the products you'd be looking at.
Everything I've seen on this has been entirely speculation, without any real failure analysis testing done.
Eaton is by far probably the most respected brand within the space, and this isn't really recent, happened back in 2021.
No battery you ever own for any device will last your lifetime. The chemicals in rechargeable batteries that generate voltage degrade over time and eventually need replaced. Doesn't matter if it's your UPS, car, phone, laptop, etc. The battery will never last forever.
Surge Protectors also don't last forever. Their entire point is to make sure they take the load of a surge and break before the stuff plugged in downstream does.
They are. Most UPS batteries cost ~$50 each, and most consumer UPS systems will take either 1 or 2 of those. If you venture into some of the bigger enterprise grade units, some of those will have 4-8 batteries in them, or more.
If all your worried about is your physical hardware a surge protector will be a much cheaper solution and give you that protection.
The only thing additional a UPS gives you is time to save your documents and gracefully shut down. If that's important to you, great. But if it's not because you have backups of your documents, don't mind spending 20 mins reinstalling Windows on the very rare situation it would become corrupted from a power down, then there is no need to overspend for something you don't actually want/need.
As for recommendations, I'm going to leave the normal macro I have saved with more detail below:
Macro: First off, you want to look at the specs and make sure the UPS is capable of delivering the wattage your computer requires. Second, you generally want something pure sinewave for modern PSUs, because any PSU that has Active PFC (which is literally anything with an 80+ rating) can have issues where they won't work on simulated sinewave UPSes.
Finally, you need to think about how long you want the computer to run off the battery. If your computer only pulls 300w full load, and you get a small UPS that can only handle 300-400w, you may only get 4-5 minutes. But if you oversize and get something that can do 900w+, you may get 15-20+. Most manufacturers post this curve on their websites for you to consult.
Additionally, realize that just like a car battery, the batteries inside the UPS don't last forever either and need occasional replacement. You may want to look up what replacement batteries cost for your unit and budget to get replacement batteries for your UPS every 4-5 years.
For computers, I generally recommend either of these units (or their lower wattage siblings where appropriate):
davoinmanuel@reddit
Muchas gracias por la explicación e información!!
Guitarshot@reddit
Hey, with new gen gpus and 4k 240hz oleds consuming a lot, i've got a requirement of 900-1000 watt, with 20% headroom for optimal usage i need at least 1200 watt draw... are there any ups with that wattage you can recommend? Can a normal home electricity grid handle them?
Emerald_Flame@reddit
There really isn't anything on the consumer market that goes that high, at least not for the US.
The stuff that goes that high tend to be targeted towards corporate IT and generally have a large price tag to match. They also tend to be not super compatible with most normal home wiring because if they're 120V they typically require a 20A socket or they're 240V.
You might be able to find something used that a company is selling because they're replacing it on eBay, Facebook marketplace, r/homelabsales, etc. But in a lot of cases, those need the batteries replaced so even if you get the unit cheap, the replacement batteries can add up quick.
So unfortunately there I don't really have a go-to recommendation there.
You could get 2 smaller units, and split your devices between them. But if you go this route, you might also want to have them split between 2 different circuits, as you could potentially see them trip a breaker if they both try to charge at the same time.
4thphantom@reddit
Hey homie, appreciate your write up here. You rock for all the details!!
F1nest_@reddit (OP)
THANK YOU FOR THIS! So I honestly don’t need to save anything. I use it primarily for gaming so I just deal with being in the middle of a gunfight and gg. So if a surge works then I’m okay with that. I’m going to look at my circuit breaker too because it really is due to power just randomly tripping. Those are the two that brought me here 😂 but so much back and forth. I think the number 1 complaint I will say is due to ppl not swapping their batteries every 2 years. APC has been the brand I’ve seen the most. Since I don’t know this product space, I wanted to make sure something like this is worth it. Thank you again for the feedback!