APC RS 1500 UPS

FJC · Post by **FJC** » Mon Jan 16, 2006 4:45 pm

I'm considering a big APC UPS (the RS 1500 unit) to provide battery backup and conditioning for a bunch of my equipment. I noticed it has a fan on the rear, and the APC site says max noise is 45dba/1meter.

Does anyone have one of these? Does the fan run all the time, intermittently, or just when the battery is recharging?

I certainly don't want to add a lot of fan noise to my mostly-quiet PC's...

FJC · Post by **FJC** » Wed Jan 18, 2006 4:38 am

Updated to include the right APC model number...had the letters wrong...

jfeldt · Post by **jfeldt** » Wed Jan 18, 2006 3:55 pm

I would be wary of APC coil buzz in addition to fan noise. I have a (fanless) 725VA unit that make some electronic noise. See the reviews here:

http://ostg.pricegrabber.com/rating_get ... accba4e348

It is used for a server in the other room, so it doesn't bug me, but it is bad enough to make me angry if it were used on my quiet PC.

Jason

FJC · Post by **FJC** » Wed Jan 18, 2006 4:19 pm

Well, I gave in and bought on today, from a local store (so can return it if needed). I'll hook it up in a day or two and post a quicky review, and watch for the coil noise and such.

So far, just plugging it in and hearing it's self-test, the fan is quite quiet...

oguzokay · Post by **oguzokay** » Thu Jan 19, 2006 1:44 am

My ups, Powercom 1250 only buzzes when using it's battery. It has no fans. It runs completely silent when using electricity...

FJC · Post by **FJC** » Mon Jan 23, 2006 8:19 am

Quick followup - on Friday I hooked two computers to the UPS, as well as my cable modem and router. These are high powered pc's, running high-end video cards (7800GTX in one, ATI AIW9800 in the other).

Running both computers with video cards doing heavy graphics, the Powerchute software tells me I'm drawing 536 watts through the unit.

So far, it has been completely silent during normal operation. If I force a self-test, the unit does make a buzzing sound and the fan is audible, but only during the test - it stops immediately afterward.

If it continues to only make noise during outages, I'm perfectly find with that.

Shining Arcanine · Post by **Shining Arcanine** » Mon Jan 23, 2006 4:44 pm

The fan is probably only there to keep the PSU from frying itself in extremely hot weather conditions under full load.