Recommended "UPS" for a small business?

Whiskey

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I have a client who could desperatley do with a good quality reasonably priced UPS for their business. Can anyone recommend a particular make and model?

Thanks in advance.

Whiskey.
 
I think that depends on what it needs to support, maybe a bit more information will be useful.

For instance: My HP Microserver is running SBS 2011, and I have a APC Back-UPS CS 350 USB/Serial as my UPS. Great little UPS with some good features but it's only meant to support 1 PC.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B00006BBIK/ref=oss_product
 
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I think that depends on what it needs to support

And also your power loss survey. Do you want it all to keep working when the power goes off or are you looking for a safly managed shutdown. Is your client on the end of the leccy string so has surges and dropouts thrughout day? We have a load of APC 1500 smart backups mostly the newer type with usb & lan monitoring for preformance checks. The new air transpotable rack servers are preloaded with racked ups, just plug it all in and off you go.
Remember to reduce point of failure by cross connecting UPS outlets to the redundunant server psus

server 1 psu A > ups1 A, server 2 psu A > to ups 1B , server 1 psu B > ups2A server 2 psuB > ups2B

if that makes sense. Honestly never yet had a server go offline cos ups failed unexpectedely, its usually caused by finger trouble when cancelling that bleeping alarm
 
if you plan to make few UPS installs, get a kill-a-watts , ( $ 25) it will tell you how much watts the pc is using, UPS are rated in watts and VA , they are not the same
 
Hi Guys,

Thanks for getting back to me. My client has one pc and a server in one room and three separate pcs in another. Her particular office seems very prone to power outages. Would she need a separate ups for each machine?
 
This one should work for a while:

oversized_battery.jpg
 
I have had great experience with the APC brand... over 15 years using them.

Costly, yet me personally, I use only APC.
At work though... they sometimes go cheaper.
 
Hi Guys,

Thanks for the comments so far.

I'm still a bit puzzled as to how many pcs you can run of one ups. Is it advisable to go for single units on each pc or can you get units that support three or four pcs which are in close proximity to each other?

Also, do you need anything different for a server because looking on APC's website they seem to cater for both servers and pcs. The server I need to protect is a very old tower type.
 
The question was asked "what do you want the UPS's to do, be able to continue working on when when the power goes out or have them provide enough time you the user/client to shut down the systems properly"?

If these are going to be used to provide just the short period of time scenario, then I suggest that you have one for the server/router/switch and then one for each users system.
APC backup units are not cheap, at least not the ones I use. I have a few APC 1400 's. Non-APC brand replacement batteries cost just under $100 for the SmartUPS 1400 units out of Texas.
You can buy refurbished units at half the price here: http://www.buyupsonline.com/products/smart-ups-1400
The newer (brand new) 1500VA units go for about $500.
 
As former speakers have said, it all depends on the needs.

If power goes out randomly but comes back within a minute or a few, I'd think about getting a few smaller UPS', one per box, just to keep them going for the few minutes the power is out.

If power goes out alot and stays off for a while they might want to look into a small generator with auto-start in combination with small UPS systems.
(Ones I've seen, some Generacs, autostarted within 30 seconds of powerloss)

It's impossible to tell you what brand/model to get without knowing *all* the exact needs for the particular site.
 
I've got 8 or 9 in my home/home business. Here's where they're connected:

  • TV/Stereo
  • Bench machines, all one one APC XS 1500
  • Servers - Geeksquad 1500 (was on clearance)
  • Ip Phone, network devices - 2 smaller APCs
  • Laptops (personal) - smaller APC
  • label printer, small devices - older small APC, purhased used

Plus I have a couple extra Geeksquad UPS's, one mid size, another 1500, which were purchased on clearance and haven't been hooked up yet.
I've found cyberpower units to not last very long during use, as well as having a short battery life cycle. Geeksquad units have buggy software (if you use it). APC's are my most reliable units.

Generally I purchase the ones with digital displays so I can see how much time is left on them w/o getting into a computer. These more expensive units generally have an option to silence the incessant BEEP BEEP warnings as well, which can be quite annoying when more than five are going off in different locations!
 
My rule of thumb is:
APC Smart-ups for any server. at least 750 VA for each server connected.
APC Back-ups for any workstation that requires it. the 350VA ones are usually good enough.
Do not hook a laser printer to any UPS.
If you have networking equipment you can put them on the server UPS or buy a seperate.
APC has a good online tool to figure out what you need.

The kill-a-watts idea is good but you will have to take the server down to use it.
 
They also sell clamp on meters. They clamp over the elec. line, and read voltage data. No unplugging needed.
 
I have a client who could desperatley do with a good quality reasonably priced UPS for their business. Can anyone recommend a particular make and model?

Thanks in advance.

Whiskey.
Another important point is whether the PC/Server requires a pure sine wave from the UPS.
For example, Dell OptiPlex and Vostro's require a UPS that can produce this type of output.
 
I remember I read about 1 year ago, somewhere in the 'nets... this Indian guy.

His power was always fluctuating in his house/shop, so he just hooked together 2 car batteries, connected a pure Sine-wave inverter, and a DC battery charger.
Worked like a charm.


And if power went out, he didn't even notice it.
Of course, inefficiencies abound in such a system... but I must say I liked it!
In fact, might be doing that in my home office...
 
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