UPS

[#1]

Following on from my post  about electricity outages I was wondering whether now might be a good time to invest in a UPS.
I don't particularly need anything too fancy just something that will give enough power to shut down the PC properly.
Is something like this suitable or does anyone have any better, but not too expensive, suggestions?

[#2]

APC are pretty good and use half decent batteries in their systems.
Cheaper UPS's often use noname batteries which fail after a year or so.
Use it as a device to give you time to save your files then shutdown gracefully rather than hoping the power comes back on before the batteries run out. Also give it a chance to charge back up after the power comes back on as you may get a second power cut fairly shortly after the first while the batteries are in a low condition.

[#3]

Some things to bear in mind for that model:
- will run for about 5 minutes at full load (240W) and around 25 minutes at 100W (average for my triple core 3200MHz cpu system)
- it has no data connection for automatic shutdown of the computer/NAS etc, you need the 550 (330W) or 700 (405W) for that - about £13 more (Amazon)
- it is a stepped sine-wave output on battery (good and better systems cost a lot more)
- if I read it correctly it will switch to battery outside 180-266V
Phil

[#4]

I read somewhere that you need get a UPS system that is at least as power full as your PSU otherwise it wont provide enough power when your doing stuff that requires full power draw, soemthign like if your PSU is 550w then you add that to whatever else your planning to power (like a monitor at about 50w and possibly a router at another 25w meaning a minimum of a 650w UPS (allowing for a decent surge margin)  would be required and as DomS mentioned getting one with powerchute would mean your system could save and shut down automatically in the event of power loss when your battery still has at least 20% power in it (so it has enough time).
but those systems are a bit more expensive this would be an example of something that would fit the bill http://www.play.com/PC/PCs/4-/48838424/819982159/-/ListingDetails.html?gclid=CPanl9Pi9L8CFbDKtAodWEE...
of course if your PSU is lower like a 250w then you could get away with a lower grade UPS

here's a list of links with more info about choosing the right UPs for your setup https://www.google.co.uk/?gws_rd=ssl#q=how+to+choose+the+right+UPS

[#5]

The power in my PC is 650W and I also have about 10 external hard drives plus would need to keep at least one of the monitors working to be able to shut down so that would be around 1KW.
If I didn't connect the hard dives to any UPS then could I probably get away with a 700W one?

[#6]

You might also want to consider that a UPS specified power rating is going to be when it has fresh batteries.
Over several years the capacity of the batteries will steadily reduce, long before the battery fail indicator comes on.
Therefore you might want to consider adding another 50% to 100% to the required capacity rating, if you don't want to be regularly fitting new batteries in order to maintain an underrated capacity.

[#7]

Looks like a decent UPS is going to be expensive and something I can't warrant the cost of at the moment
We're still looking for new property so, hopefully, we'll move to somewhere with a more stable electricity supply.

[#8]

I got my four UPSes from eBay,  the trick is to find them located locally so that you can collect them yourself, avoiding very high postage costs, and the for "COLLECTION ONLY" ones it reduces the number of competing bidders down to those within your area.
Alternatively, many eBay sellers remove the batteries from otherwise working UPSes to reduce the shipping charges.  These UPSes are often very cheap, but you then have to source your own NEW batteries - although they often end up cheaper than the amount originally saved in posting the UPS !.
The last UPS I installed for my networking kit, cost me £10 from a local seller, the battery lasted about three years before I bought a new replacement OEM battery for £19,  and is now good as new.  Similarly my 1KW UPS also cost £10 locally, and new batteries for that were £46.

[#9]

a decent lead acid battery one will cost in the region of about £250 for your 700w system need, if you find a model of aps ups you like in the 700w region then google for its model number in the shopping tab it will show you the price of its batteries as well most of htem are in the region of £20 per unit, so changing them every year or two (I cant remember the manufacturers guidelines on that ) it will work out a lot cheaper to get a 700w unit and replace the parts as recommended rather than the £1500 + price of a 1400w rated system that wont last all that much longer .....
its all about price versus convenience, I found for many years using a UPs was less hassle than loosing documents and replacing parts that broke due to power outages, now I don't care that much and in truth I don't have any critical stuff that's online all the time

[#10]

I've been thinking about getting one for a while now, but I find the really frustrating thing is that the APC ones recommended by DomS all have power cables which are about half a metre too short. My PC is about 2.5m from the nearest available wall socket and is plugged into a trailing 4-gang. I've been given to understand that a UPS must be plugged into the wall socket and, as all the APC ones I've looked into have a power cord that's no more than 1.8m long, it would put the confounded thing slap-bang in front of a CH radiator which wouldn't do it any good at all. 

[#11]

there normally supplied off a standard kettle input so just buy a longer lead, also you can get longer interlink cables as well if you need them (mine was supplied with 50cm cables and they didn't even reach to the back of the tower's PSU from the floor ....

[#12]

All the APC ones I've looked at (online) seem to have the mains lead 'plumbed in' through the back-plate rather than having an accessible socket.
Sorry to seem dense, but what do you mean in this context by 'interlink cables'?

[#13]

the ones that plug into the ups and your equipment, its possible to get power cords up to 5 meters long so the length of the supplied ones shouldn't deter you from getting a machine that fits the bill in all other ways