UPS Question

[3DGeology]

Hi All,

I have been scratching my head over UPS system selection since I ordered my XPS Gen 3 and was hoping someone may be able to help with my questions... I live in an old house (ancient wiring, the lights dim when you turn on the vacuum cleaner!--okay, I admit, vacuuming only happens rarely!!) in Denver (we have some great summer thunderstorms, brief power outages in the winter...). I have found from the information Dell makes available on line that the XPS Gen 3 power supply is rated at 460 watts (output, or maximum input??). I also configured the system with a couple of 20" LCDs (75 watts per...), and will have a few peripherals (external HD, scanner, inkjet), too. I want to make sure that the UPS has enough capacity to handle the current drawn by my new system. My concern is that a few of my peripherals have fried over the years, and I suspect the poor house wiring, perhaps compounded by poor power supplied by the utility company are culprits...

Sooo... Anyone have suggestions for UPS systems, minimum specs? Brands? Places to purchase??

BTW, I am a geologist building 3 dimensional models of the earth's crust.... I really appreciate all that you gamers have done in promoting the development of new hardware!!! 20 years ago I was using a MiniVax and it didn't have the capabilities of my laptop!!! Looking forward to my XPS Gen3!!!

Cheers!!!!

[devnull]

Hey man, I hope you enjoy your Gen3. I am totally rockin' out with this thing. And about the gaming community, it has been our pleasure to be entertained so well over the years that PC games have been around. If that means the benefits of such entertainment (like more powerful hardware) helps others, all the better!

Now, to your question. The thing I ask is this, do you really need all those items backed up if the power goes out? It seems to me like you need a surge protector for some of the items and a UPS for the ext. hard drive and computer.

The way surge protectors are made today, they can regulate (sometimes the term 'clean' is used) power to your items rather well. Also, they can absorb an indirect blast from a lightning strike or power surge. This should be more than enough for your monitors, scanner and inkjet printer, as they don't hold 'mission critical' data or anything.

Now for the hard drive and computer, your going to want a good, solid UPS. Because you have such a nice computer, I wouldn't skimp out on this department, go with a name brand UPS provider (APC or the like, just google it) and make sure it has a power rating approximately at the wattage of your computer and hard drive. Now, I KNOW for a fact that unless you have 4 hard drives, 2 cd-roms and every single PCI/PCI-E slot used up, your not using all 460 watts of your power supply, but if you can spare the money, the higher the wattage on the UPS, the better. By getting one with extra claimed wattage, you are actually buying a larger battery, and thus more time to backup your data while the power is out.

Another thing to remember is to always keep a backup of your really important data. You know those guarentees on the front of surge protectors (like '$50,000 dollars of protection!'). Well, the reason they have those is because no surge protector can withstand a direct hit from lightening. Frankly, it doesn't come close. Those joule ratings are entirely insignificant in comparison with the energy a single bolt can put into it. Therefore, I can't stress enough that you burn your data onto a CD or DVD-RW on a regular basis.

I hope I have been of some help, and good luck on your geology work, sounds like tons of fun =)!

[3DGeology]

Hey Devnull,

Thanks much for the great advice!

I know that a primary function of a UPS is to provide battery backup in the event of a power outage so you have the time to safely close open files before shutting down. Another UPS function that I have found while surfing the web has been to "clean up" the incoming power, as you noted. I have had a lot of electronic components (3 CD players, a stereo receiver, a scanner and an external HD) die over the years living in this old house, and they were all connected through surge suppressors (well, except for my wife's first CD player....)

I didn't say what my new system's components were (can't wait!!) because I have found the postings about people's systems ("mine has a faster processor, more POWER than yours!!") amusing. My new system will come with the P4 560 (the 570 was announced the DAY after I ordered!!--somebody much have been watching!!), 2 GB RAM, the ATI 800X 256 PCIE, two 160 GB HDDs (RAID 0), and the 48 x CD-RW + 16X DVD-RW. I suspect that the P4 and the graphics card draw most of the current, but how much of the 460 watts?

I have found basic UPS systems (Tripp Lite OMNIVS 1000 with max output of 500 watts, $95 at Costco) to more elaborate systems (Tripp Lite SU1000XL with 800 watts of clean, pure sine waveform output , $375 at Page Computer). I know it is kind of a dumb question, but I don't have an unlimited budget and the black boxes appear so similar... I guess I just wanted to start my new baby out on an appropriate diet!!

Your advice on back ups is also excellent and can't be overemphasized. I frequently back critical data up on BOTH CDs or DVDs and my new external HD--particularly after the first HD crashed!!!

Thanks again for your great advice and help!

Cheers!!!!

P.S. If my wife asks, my new machine is STRICTLY for doing geologic work! NO games allowed!

[devnull]

Well, I am not entirely sure what your power draw will be, but I dont expect it to be anything over 350watts. Most UPSs come with software to automattically save and shutdown your computer if the battery is engaged, so thats why I say you just get a nice surge protector and the put your computer and ext. hard drive on the UPS to give it as much time as possible to save and shutdown.

Still, with that beastly of a computer, you shouldn't have any problem saving and shutting down in time.

[Gecko]

Tripplite over APC...why? Because Tripplite will honor your warranty without needing you to fillout a registration card and keep your receipt. APC will not honor that warranty if you don't fill out their registration card and send it in when you get it. Tripplite has some easy software to manage the UPS, and their software will also manage other brands of UPS as well.

[3DGeology]

Hey Devnull and Gecko,

Thanks for the additional info. I took some informal polls among my IT friends and the general concensus was to go for the more expensive Tripp Lite SU1000XL. This UPS will provide the best isolation from the power provided by the utility company, and have enough capacity to allow use of the Gen 3 plus all forseen peripherals. Somewhere in my surfing I ran across a comment that suggested perfect sine wave output (which is what the SU1000XL supplies) also contributed to cooler PC power supply running... I may try and set up the Gen 3 to monitor temperature if the BIOS mod isn't too difficult.

I decided on the Tripp Lite because of Gecko's comments and my previous poor experiences with APC's customer support.

Received word from Dell that the Gen 3 shipped two days ago, so I am anxiously waiting! Come on UPS!! (The United Parcel Service variety this time!!!)

Hope all had a great Thanksgiving and a great long weekend!

Cheers!

[bujingyi201]

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