Recommend me a UPS

PSUs: The source of DC power for all components in the PC & often a big noise source.

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Luke M
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Recommend me a UPS

Post by Luke M » Tue Nov 14, 2017 7:52 pm

Looking for an inexpensive, totally silent UPS. Doesn't need to be high capacity.

Any advice would be appreciated.

NeilBlanchard
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Re: Recommend me a UPS

Post by NeilBlanchard » Wed Nov 15, 2017 6:15 am

I have had good experiences with APC.

BillyBuerger
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Re: Recommend me a UPS

Post by BillyBuerger » Wed Nov 15, 2017 8:06 am

I have a CyberPower at home that's been working fine for years now. We use APC at our office. I've been very happy with the more expensive APC ones we have here. Some might be as old as 15 years and still kicking. Just battery replacements from time to time. But I've had issues with the cheaper ones. We have a couple of APC Backup-UPS Pros that have flaked out. In at least one case, it would randomly turn off even when there wasn't a power outage. Considering we have relatively few power issues, this UPS was causing more issues then it was protecting from. A UPS is unfortunately another point of failure in a system.

I also tried a really cheap DirectUPS once. It doesn't have any monitoring features and the construction was definitely cheap, but it did work. I'm not using it right now but the last time I did it was working. I mention it just to say you can get lucky with a cheap one or get screwed by a more expensive one. Either way it's a bit of a crap shoot.

As for silent, are you talking about silent during normal operations? I don't generally have UPSs near me in a quiet room to notice if there is any coil noise or anything. When there is a power outage there will always be noise from the conversion but that's the least of my worries at that point in time.

Luke M
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Re: Recommend me a UPS

Post by Luke M » Wed Nov 15, 2017 12:36 pm

BillyBuerger wrote: As for silent, are you talking about silent during normal operations? I don't generally have UPSs near me in a quiet room to notice if there is any coil noise or anything. When there is a power outage there will always be noise from the conversion but that's the least of my worries at that point in time.
Yes, silent during standby.

If I had reliable power I wouldn't bother with a UPS, but I'm fed up with frequent (1 or 2 a month) <1 minute power outages.

CA_Steve
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Re: Recommend me a UPS

Post by CA_Steve » Wed Nov 15, 2017 2:27 pm

I have two APC Back-UPS...the consumer grade BE750G's...fanless. They've been great. I see APC has updated the consumer end with a different form factor...more of a vertical profile like the ones higher up in their product stack...sadly, it looks like my favorite feature (master/slave switched outlets) has been removed. Also, could not tell from the website or manual whther or not it's fanned.

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