Kitz Forum
Computers & Hardware => Hardware - Deals & Bargains => Topic started by: tuftedduck on September 08, 2009, 03:03:13 PM
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Having experienced a couple of days with the power fluctuating and failing, TD has decided at long last that an UPS unit is required.
My psu is a 450 volt job, and I would need at least three sockets on a ups.....PC, monitor and router ( the printers and scanner can go hang)
Could a kind soul make a recommendation as to which to buy..........ease of use is the main criterion, plug in and play suits TD ;D, and a budget of around £70/£80 would be my limit.. :(
Oh, and not too big as space is at a premium.
Thank you in advance for any guidance.
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Something like this TD......?
http://www.ebuyer.com/product/65711
which seems to be more for business use,
or for home use
http://www.amazon.co.uk/APC-Back-UPS-700VA-United-Kingdom/dp/B000GQMH9U
Some customer reviews on Amazon as well.
APC seem to be a good company for such a product.On their website you can configure a product to suit your needs.
http://www.apc.com/tools/ups_selector/index.cfm
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Sorry if I'm telling you what you already know TD, but do be aware that a UPS will only give you a very few minutes running after the mains fails. You need to install the software which comes with it, which will shut down the PC safely a short time after the mains interruption. So there may not be much point in powering the router from it, unless you get very short mains failures which are restored within a minute or so. By the same token, the only purpose in powering the monitor from it would be to give you a minute to save any data which you're working on; only useful if you're actually sitting at the PC at the time.
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I have used APC for many years but, as Roseway quite correctly points out, they are really only to enable a graceful shutdown to protect your work-in-progress.
Also, the internal lead-acid battery will need replacing after about 5 years at a cost not too different to that of a new total unit.
We live in an area that suffers brown-outs and short loss of power and I have found mine invaluable when working on a desktop machine. The laptop, of course, has its own UPS, called a battery! :)
Colin
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Thank you all for your comments and advices.
@unkyUb....thanks for the linkys, will have a look at these. The ACP brand does seem to have a good reputation.
@ roseway...Thank you, and I do understand the points you make.
My problem here with regard to power outages is that whilst major, longer term cuts are as rare as anywhere else we do get plagued in certain weather conditions with cuts lasting perhaps two or three seconds........and a ups would be invaluable in that circumstance, as camallison has noted.
@ camallison...thank you for the input...had not realised about the depreciation and demise of the battery ( mind you, at my age I do not anticipate being in a position to buy again in five years time.. ;D)
I must confess that my concern about uncontrolled shutdown is not so much saving work-in-progress as avoiding physical damage to the hard drives.
Can you advise further, please.
Any ups I have is going to have to be placed on, under or about my desk on which lives my wee router (wired to PC).........under normal conditions and with the mains power on and feeding all the components, does the presence of a lead-acid battery in close proximity to a router cause that router any problem ?
Also, would that same battery cause interfereance on my TFT monitor ?
Thank you all again.
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No problems at all - the battery is a sealed type and won't cause any interference - in fact, it smooths out the bumps in the supply. Mine is on the floor under the desk where Maisie keeps it company. A good purchase considering your (agricultural) supply - that's how the supply company describes ours, so that they don't need to guarantee any uptime.
[Reminds me of when I was working in the Irvine area installing the high voltage switching gear to the (then) new Glaxo Smith Kline plant. The electricity supplier (SSEB) was foolish to guarantee them no more than 1 total outage in 5 years since duplicate supplies had been laid over from the Lesmahagow area. Guess what - the first winter we had 15 outages and so we asked SSEB if that meant we wouldn't have any more for the next umpteen years!] :lol:
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The battery itself won't cause any issues to the router or monitor.
If there were to be any issues it would most likely be from the inverter (converts battery DC power to AC power), or the rectifier (converts AC power to DC power to charge the battery), however I doubt you would have any problems in normal operation - only if a fault arises with it.
That APC unit does look like a decent bit of kit.
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First of all I have not looked at any of the links above, but here goes.
Two of the UPS units I use are from Belkin, although pretty expensive when they were new (I purchased them second-hand)
One of which is a 325VA and another is 625VA.
Both of which would give about 15+ minutes to shut down the system in the event of a power-cut.
Another I purchased recently 800VA for £46 manufactured by "Trust", also give about 15 - 20 minutes to shut down the system in the event of a power-cut, but that time depends on the load being drawn from the unit.
Both the 625VA and 800VA units comfortably run my system even when "everything" is switched on.
(2 PC's, 3 Monitors, 2/3 Printers, plus a few other bits and bobs)
The 325VA unit is only powerful enough to run a reasonably basic setup.
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1. Not all UPS systems come with automatic shut-down software. (The more you pay, the better the UPS)
2. The battery is the same type as used in most burglar alarm systems, for the 625VA unit cost a little over £10 a couple of months ago from my local CCTV and Alarm security people.
3. Some models have normal 13 amp type sockets whilst some have 10 amp (kettle type) sockets.
One little trick is to connect a "Multi-gang" trailing socket to the unit, then just plug all your equipment into that.
4. As far as I know, all UPS systems also have built-in ant-surge protection.
5. Running costs range between 20 and 40 Watts for the above units.
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EDIT
Changed Kva to read VA
Link to Trust.com
http://www.trust.com/search/default.aspx?search=UPS
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Thank you all for your further advices and comments....off to spend some money.. ;D
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My psu is a 450 volt job, and I would need at least three sockets on a ups.....PC, monitor and router ( the printers and scanner can go hang)
450 volt :'( what have you got in your computer Thermionic valves ? that need 450v HT and 6.3v for the heaters. :lol:
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I took it that he really meant 450 Watt, but forgot to mention it earlier.
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:-[
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hi
quote Thermionic valves ? that need 450v HT and 6.3v for the heaters
now that's language I can understand :lol:
Regards Jeff
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:)
When I was growing up my father was always building TV, Radio's, and amps and some of it rubbed off on to me. ;)
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Hi all,
what have you got in your computer Thermionic valves?
Absolutely - A-Open used to do a motherboard with a valve audio amplifier:
(https://forum.kitz.co.uk/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fglobal.aopen.com%2FAOEB-GPS%2FPIC%2FProducts%2Fimages%2FMB%2Fproducts%2Fax4b-533tube-b.jpg&hash=8c25f14c761413166536fa0ac95f00fdacb869b5)
and here:
(https://forum.kitz.co.uk/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fimages.pcworld.com%2Freviews%2Fgraphics%2F106388-2012p088-1b.jpg&hash=6a190318e3ea4c7d077ac447dc74cbd20f4a0595)
Cheers,
Peter
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Hows the UP's going TD,is it connected up yet.
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Absolutely - A-Open used to do a motherboard with a valve audio amplifier:
:lol:
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Hows the UP's going TD,is it connected up yet.
Not yet, unkyUb, too scared of it to try...thanks for asking. :)
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:-X ;D
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Give it a try TD,then you can post your results on the 'Big Bang' theory........... :D
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TD calling....TD calling................moon to earth..moon to earth.... :D
TD takes over role as Forum Wuss.. :-[
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:lol: ....... shall I help you TD ? with all my technical knowledge it will ruin in it in no time :D
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Is it not just plug and
fly play
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Hi all,
what have you got in your computer Thermionic valves?
Absolutely - A-Open used to do a motherboard with a valve audio amplifier:
Cheers,
Peter
I'm just catching up with this thread :-[
I have never seen one of those, how old was that.?.
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Review dated 2002 http://www.firingsquad.com/hardware/ax4b533tube/default.asp (http://www.firingsquad.com/hardware/ax4b533tube/default.asp)
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I wonder where it gets its high voltage supply :lol:
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Done it............ups connected up and (hopefully) properly configured.
TD waits for loud explosion... :'(
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:thumbs:
(Roseway makes sure that the nuclear bunker is available, just in case. ;D )
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Done it............ups connected up and (hopefully) properly configured.
TD waits for loud explosion... :'(
Which one did you get eventually?
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I got the APC CS series battery-backup 650 va.
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Looks a nice unit.
Did you manage to configure the auto-shut-down ok?
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>>>>Did you manage to configure the auto-shut-down ok<<<<
I think so, using the XP built in options as opposed to the unit software...........the next power outage will tell me if I've got it right.... :D
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>> using the XP built in options as opposed to the unit software.
Would be better if you used the unit software TD. I have the exact same unit and it is serving me well.
Colin
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The wee problem is that to use the unit software, the unit needs to be connected by usb........and I have run out of free usb ports. Until I can reconfigure all my usb needs(whether that be via a hub or by dispensing with a currently connected gismo) I'm a bit stuck... :(
The software will not install if there is no usb connection to the unit.
Will sort it out in time... :)
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...........the next power outage will tell me if I've got it right.... :D
Turn it off at the wall.
That will give you power outage.
Better to have it tested and know it's working before actually required.
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Morning OF.
Did that last night when it came to normal shutting down time.......works a treat. ;D
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Morning OF.
Did that last night when it came to normal shutting down time.......works a treat. ;D
:thumbs: Power To The People.
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works a treat
Top man! :thumbs:
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......... and no mushroom cloud in evidence! :lol:
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There's still time.... :flamer:
:D
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......... and no mushroom cloud in evidence! :lol:
I think TD must have diverted the cloud over to me.
My graphics card decided to blow-up last night ???
But at least it now explains why it's been playing-up the last few days with automatically restarting, or not even starting.
Also explains the electrical "crack" I heard a couple of weeks ago, although it did not sound as if it came from this PC.
The main problem was I was not even getting a BSOD so could not figure out what was wrong.
(this particular PC already has a long-term problem, which I can just about live with, but without changing the MB to rule that out, I can't find the problem)
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TD
Glad to hear you took the plunge and tested it. >:D
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Oh dear...fried graphics card :(
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>> fried graphics card
It goes very nicely with silicon chips. ;D
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>> fried graphics card
It goes very nicely with silicon chips. ;D
Well at least no-ones rubbing salt into the fried bits. :lol:
If I had the energy I would try to laugh, but am just too drained to try.
The shortened saga:
I fitted the new card and had soooo much trouble with the PC falling over (freezing, not starting or re-starting) after 18 hours of continuing trouble shooting, decided to take it to the shop, as you can guess, "it worked fine first time" even after a constant hour and half of 100% of CPU running test it never failed once. (it's not possible to fix something that's not broke)
However, although it's now working, I'm not 100% happy so in the very near future it looks like it's going to have to be a fresh install, as the problem may be with old graphics drivers lying around the system, as it was not possible to remove the driver first because the PC went belly-up.
Honest you do not want the full saga version.
**********************************
This week to-date I have sorted 5 laptops and 2 desktops for other people.
"Physician Heal Thy Self" :angel:
That's ..........................................
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You have my sympathy OF. Fixing broken computers can be very frustrating (particularly if they belong to someone else). :(
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You have my sympathy OF. Fixing broken computers can be very frustrating (particularly if they belong to someone else). :(
No, I love fixing other people's, just hate having to fix my own. :comp:
Just a shame I don't get paid for it, or I would be a wealthyier person. :lol:
Yes friend and neighbours I am referring to you because I know you come here sometimes, so start coughing-up.
(At times I am able to type faster than the print shows up on the screen, so that tells me there is still something not quite right)
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Just thought I would update you on my Pooorly PC :sick:
First of all it started out being a faulty graphics card that caused my original problem (it blew up) although it did not fail immediately.
However even after changing the card, formatting the HDD and reinstalling XP, it still would not run properly, although it did seem to settle down "for a short while" (couple of hours)
After suspecting a faulty power supply, which was replaced made no difference, the other option was possibly the main board (which has had a slight problem for the last few years) had finally given up.
Although I changed the PSU it did not make that much difference to the way it "sometimes" starts up. (So probably not that)
But most of the time can't get past the BSOD or it freezes on either the Windows boot screen or Windows startup screen.
Regardless of any of the STOP ERROR messages, windows sometime does boot-up after several hard boots.
I ran a full HDD test with the setting to "Automatically Repair" any bad sectors etc.
Which found one error. (Windows replaced bad clusters in file 3009 of name \windows\system32\config\secEvent.Evt.)
First thought was the error probably occurred from one of the many "hard boots" the PC has suffered over the last few days since the original problem.
But to cut a long story short.
What seemed to have happened was, when the system originally went belly-up it damaged one of the sectors on the HDD (although it was not the OS HDD)
Even after CHKDSK repaired the bad segment it made no difference.
But if you recall I also said earlier that I had also re-installed XP so as to have a nice fresh install with the new graphics card.
Although after the install I had also lost approx 2GB of space compared with what I normally use (and had not even finished loading all of my programs)
The problem was now 2 fold, possibly a faulty re-install, plus re-installing onto a PC with a faulty HDD, that was due to the earlier crash.
So.
Faulty graphics card caused a crash which damaged a HDD.
Faulty XP re-install due to damaged HDD.
Chkdsk resolved the faulty segment with no further damage to the HDD.
But before I actually decided to throw the damn thing out of the window, as I had now spent over a week (10+ hours a day)
I first decided to re-ghost it back from when it "was" actually running properly, (nothing ventured, nothing lost) and yes, you probably guessed it, "IT NOW WORKS FINE" :dance:
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Not to be out done by TD,UB's new power back up arrived this morning :D
(https://forum.kitz.co.uk/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi246.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fgg87%2FUncleUB%2FP1030152.jpg&hash=4436d5f3b23dee2abf8d3cd3c65dece32ad06acd)
Routine maintainence to sub station apparently
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:lol:
That'll give you about three months backup power.....just enough time to shut down properly. :D
Judging by the sign on the side, I presume it is a prezzie from Kitz ? :D
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:lol:
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Blue got very excited when he saw it,he thought it was the sausage sandwich van. :D
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:lol: