UPC recomendation

[FlyingPersian]

Hi peeps,

I want to buy a UPC and somebody in the IRC chat (sorry forgot your name) told me to get a sinus wave UPC. I wanted to doublecheck here in the forum for a recommendation. I live in the Netherlands, but come from Germany, so I can use (web)shops from both countries. Most of the devices I was recommended don't exist here, but I don't remember which ones because I don't have IRC logs.
My budget is the less the better. There was a really nice device I fell in love with, but it was 225€ (PR750ELCD, which is too much. Right now I'm looking at the CP900EPFCLCD. What do you guys think? Is there a cheaper alternative? I do like the display which gives me some infos like current power consumption etc. I know that too cheap devices are a waste of money, so I'd appreciate a device that has a good price (~150€ or less) and is not some crappy thing.
I have a 360W PSU, althougn I think I should have more like 400-450W with all the extra wattage, but that's a discussion for another day. So far (2,5 years) the PSU did a great job.
Thanks in advance.


Kind Regards

 

[nightshade00013]

In all likelihood your PSU is a switching based one so a standard battery backup would work fine. In fact on that type of PSU you could run DC power through it and it would work just fine. Plus how often is it actually going to be on the UPS? Maybe five minutes a month on average?

A pure sine backup will allow the systems to be slightly more efficient and would be better for an AC powered electrical motor but for a computer it really will not matter.

The thing you need to worry most about is that it will support the load for enough time for the FreeNAS to shut down properly. Figure at least 5 minutes runtime minimum and 30 would be better. Find out your actual use and look at the charts for the ups in question. The reason for over provisioning is so that if something hangs and the power is off for a couple minutes it will stay up and be fine plus batteries will lose capacity over time.

 

[BigDave]

The feature's name is Sine Wave, you can find more info with Google.
I will recommend the PFCLCD series. I use one with a 1000VA capacity and
it's working very well here in my home. I have no issues with it.

 

[yourmate]

The thing you need to worry most about is that it will support the load for enough time for the FreeNAS to shut down properly.

Wanted to ask how this work? Is there a built-in script in FreeNAS which initiate the shutdown when the power is gone or should you write one yourself?

 

[Bidule0hm]

If only there was a manual who explained everything... Ah: http://doc.freenas.org/9.3/freenas_services.html#ups :)

 

[yourmate]

If only there was a manual who explained everything... Ah: http://doc.freenas.org/9.3/freenas_services.html#ups :)

I wish there was too. It'd be awesome :D
[Find it last night though]

 

[yourmate]

Bought a SC420I today for £20. I know it's kind of small but the battery is brand new so I'll see if it's enough for a proper shutdown. APC UPSs seem to be quite intelligent ones and they're widely available in Europe so OP might consider them.

 

[FlyingPersian]

Thanks guys and sorry for the late response, I've been really busy the last week!
So I should check my power consumption at normal run until shut off and then get a UPC that can handle the load for a minimum of 5 minutes, but better for 30 minutes, right? I don't have a consumption measurement tool (or whatever the correct name is) and as far as I saw it they're quite expensive (for one time use), somewhat around 30€+. Can't I just add up what my specific parts need in watts according to the manufacturer? Or is there even a way to show the power consumption in FreeNAS?
If I understood correctly sine wave isn't necceessary, right?

 

[yourmate]

Can't I just add up what my specific parts need in watts according to the manufacturer?

If you are REALLY lucky then jgreco won't see this post but I would not bet on it ;)

On a more serious note though I would recommend to ask around what people use with roughly the same spec as yours. I'll have everything next week for my build I will try it out on one of the test runs if this 420VA is OK for anything...

 

[FlyingPersian]

Thanks! I just used this PSU calculator site to see what their estimate is. This was the result:

Load Wattage: 196 W
Recommended UPS rating: 500 VA
Recommended PSU Wattage: 246 W

--> http://outervision.com/power-supply-calculator

My specs can be found here. Would you agree with the result? I just don't know how long the UPC would last with 500 VA if the load wattage is actually 196W.

 

[yourmate]

I am the last person whom you'd ask but I think this is just the right time when I should recommend a nice write up ;)

 

[FlyingPersian]

I actually did read this. The guestimate was around 320W I believe plus the 1,25*320W=80W redundancy.

How about these, which aren't too expensive:

83€: http://www.digitus.info/en/products...e-ups-uninterruptible-power-systems-with-lcd/
120€: http://powerquality.eaton.com/5SC500i.aspx?CX=75&GUID=F6F8DAD0-67A9-4D2A-A7A3-73E6406F3998

The next best thing from APC would be 227€ (I'd get it at a different webshop though):

http://www.apc.com/shop/at/de/products/APC-Smart-UPS-750VA-LCD-230V/P-SMT750I

 

[yourmate]

I would not buy one with a display but it's just me. It's eating power and it's pretty useless - apart from the first week when you check it out every 10 minutes ;)
What's wrong with a used one from ebay? Buy one w/o a battery then buy a battery and you're sorted...

 

[FlyingPersian]

Found this really good article, which explains some interesting things regarding different types of UPCs etc:

http://www.howtogeek.com/161479/how-to-select-a-battery-backup-for-your-computer/

@yourmate: true, I really don't need the display except in the first week haha. And I think FreeNAS allows me to read the current consumption via the UPC daemon.

 

[FlyingPersian]

I really tend to buy the CP900EPFCLCD. It costs around 150€, has an exchangeable battery which is quite cheap (25€) and comes from a good brand. I only know that APC and CyberPower are good, the rest I don't know. I had bad experience with digitus, although I bought something completly different. I don't know Effekta, but their 600VA devices cost 92€. So I either get the CyberPower with a display that gives much information and 900VA for 150€ or the Effekta with 600VA for 92€ :x

Edit: I can't find information on replacing the battery for the Effekta devices.. The web gives little information about their UPCs in general -.-

 

[FlyingPersian]

Sorry for the tripple post, just wanna make sure people who're following this thread don't miss anything. So I've been looking at the CyberPower website and their different products. The site doesn't clarify the exact purpose of the different product lines as they talk about NAS support in the DL, Value SOHO and PFC Sine Wave models. From what I could gather I need a Line Interactive UPS. I find the English site a little unclear, so I'll go according to the German site (which sorts everything per series) and then post the English product page if available, else I'll google a different site:

DL850ELCD: https://www.betadistribution.com/Pr...50ELCD-Line-interactive-UPS-850-VA490-WTower/
VALUE800EILCD, 82€: http://www.cyberpower-eu.com/products/ups_systems/value/value800eilcd.htm
CP900EPFCLCD, 150€: http://www.cyberpower-eu.com/products/ups_systems/pfc-sinewave/cp900epfclcd.htm

The only difference I can tell is that the CP900 is a true sine wave UPS, whilest the others are simulated sine wave. The price difference is significant though.

-Edit-: Actually found out the difference myself:

DL --> Standby, so not Line Interactive
Value SOHO --> Line interactive + AVR
CP --> Line Interactive + AVR + Sine

-Edit2- I'll go with the CP900. The reason can be found here. The short answer: Simulated Sinus (Which the Value SOHO is) can cause a short periode when switching from AC to UPS with no power flowing. Depending on the sensitivity of the PSU (if it has PFC, which most PC PSUs do have), the NAS may or may not shut down --> purpse of UPS lost. So I'll just spend a little more money and go with something that has a less (or non-existing?) chance of not doing it's job correctly.
If anyone has anything to add, please do! I'm open for suggestions, but the CP900 was recommended to me before and any time I google the CPxxx is recommended.

 

[yourmate]

This won't help you much but I've just finished soldering a serial cable for the UPS. Got out and old PC booted up and with apcfix I can read the exact load (104W on this old junk) So when I hook up my FreeNAS next weekend (hopefully) and run the burn-in and thermal tests I will clearly see the max load. Of course you need a UPS for this hence why it won't help you.

 

[FlyingPersian]

I still appreciate this post. Might help other people in the future. Which UPS did you get?

 

[yourmate]

Bought a SC420I today for £20. I know it's kind of small but the battery is brand new so I'll see if it's enough for a proper shutdown. APC UPSs seem to be quite intelligent ones and they're widely available in Europe so OP might consider them.

This ;)

 

[FlyingPersian]

Oh my bad haha. Yeah I think it's a little too small, but I'd have bought it as well for 20 GBP :D It's 140€ here. I can't find used devices here unfortunately :/ At least not the ones I picked out. And APC is generally a little more expensive than CyberPower.