Universal power supplies

uninterupted power supplies EDIT

Hi Folks,

Can anyone recommend a good uninterupted power supply.

I just had someone turn off the power to my flat by mistake and I lost a few hours work...aaaarrgh -

I have been looking at the APC Back-UPS ES 700VA 230V but don't know if that too much voltage for my needs - they also do a 400va version too.


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Cheers

Chris.

"Can anyone recommend a good Universal power supply."

The APC Back-UPS ES series you mentioned is very good.

"but don't know if that too much voltage for my needs - they also do a 400va version too."

They all have the same voltage, 230v in the UK. What matters is the va number, which is about the capacity of the battery. The 400va model won't run the computer for as long as the 700va model.

I got the 700va model. It tells me it can operate the system for 37 minutes if there is a mains powercut.

Looking at your specs, it seems we have very similar hardware, except you have two monitors and more hard disks.
If those are LCD monitors, not CRT, I guess a 400va model should be sufficient. It will give you enough time (maybe 15 minutes at a rough guess) to save your work in currently open apps, which is the main thing.

D'oh....of course 230volt :D

Thanks for the information Oldbloke

I'm going to get the 700va as some of my files take around 15 / 20mins to save. It's only £20 more than the 400va.

The 700va is a good idea if you can afford it. It will give you plenty of time in the event of a power cut.

I've used a cheaper brand in the past and find that I prefer using the software you get with an APC UPS.

It connects to the PC via USB (as well as the main power cable). If you are away and a power cut happens, it powers the PC by battery until it senses that its battery has about five minutes worth of juice left in it. Then (if you are running Vista) it tells the OS to go into sleep mode. That saves the current ram contents as a hibernation file. When the mains power resumes you can switch on the PC and it resumes from sleep or hibernation with all your running apps and their open docs still happening. Even your unsaved edits are OK.

Having a UPS makes it much less risky to set your drives into the better performance mode which uses write behind caching.