[SWLUG] UPS etc

[Peter Joseph]

> I'm not at all keen on APC, I've used a lot of their UPS' in a few of my
> jobs (never my choice to buy APC) and I've never been impressed. If you
> want a decent UPS for home use then Belkin have a superb product, their
> Pro-UPS Gold (I think thats what it's called) has 8 sockets on it. 4 of
> them are battery backed and the other 4 are power surge protected, it
> also has network connection surge support and the software that is
> supplied is quite good and even better the cd has versions for Windows
> and Linux.
>
> Phil.

There is the problem though. The 'home use' branding which most cheap ups
sell tend to be very marginal to power even the most standard 300watt PSU
machine with a 17" monitor. I have seen less than 5 min runtimes for the
small UPS on your 'average' desktop of today.

On the other hand, I have experienced a 48 min runtime with monitor with my
entry level APC ups (all purchased from ebay!!), before automatic shutdown
was initiated. Furthermore i get very detailed information from my APC ups
via a homemade (special wiring) communications cable. Things such as line
dips and spikes are reported....lots of interesting data that can be mrtg'd
:D.
It is intersting just how much over the course of a day the frequency of the
AC power fluctuates.

I suppose it all boils down to personal experience though.

Pete