How to choose the right uninterruptible power supply (UPS) for your PC?
In the summer than at other times since the risk of blackouts is much higher due to the higher energy consumption due to air conditioning and overheating of electrical installations.
To protect themselves from this kind of problem, in recent years, on the shelves of computer stores have appeared UPS, more commonly known by the name of the UPS.
This kind of device is able to eliminate voltage spikes, surges and especially to feed the device connected to it (computers, printers, monitors, etc..) In the event of accidental interruption of electrical current, avoiding the loss of unsaved data up to that moment.
How to choose a Watt UPS
One of the main discriminating in the choice of the UPS is the choice of watts needed to power all the devices connected in the absence of current.
To define the exact number of watts you need to add the values of watts under full load of all the connected devices simultaneously.
It is good to base the purchase of a UPS on the type of computer you have and the energy required to power it. Needless to purchase a UPS 600Watt at home if you have a PC that consumes 100, while the opposite would not allow the group to operate as expected. A home PC consumes on average from 100 to 200Watt (during use FullLoad. 100%), but can safely get to consume over 500Watt. Nowadays the main factor is the video card that you have provided. A video card for gamers easily surpasses 200Watt consumption at full capacity, if we also consider a possible configuration to multiple video cards here that the values double and reach very high figures. It 'good to know, however, that a PC for home use with a Core2Duo CPU band mainstream market (and not top of the range), 2/4GB of RAM and video card integrated on the motherboard, it can consume even less than 100Watt during an intense use obviously also less than half during daily use (surfing the internet, writing with GoogleDocs, are operations that do not require the use of large resources). To facilitate the calculation, consider 30 to 50Watt consumption for the motherboard, between 40 and 130Watt for the CPU, about 10 Watts each harddisk (usually it mounts one) and the same for the DVDRW (in the process of writing, of course ), a latest generation of LCD monitors from 22 "consumes about 40-50Watt. Everything depends on the type of components that make up your PC; increasing performance increase power consumption.
Consider that most of the producers of the power ups expressed in volt-amperes instead of watts, so you need after calculating the sum of watts do the conversion. The formula is: VAx0.6.
For example, if the package is shown a power of 1,000 VA means that can deliver up to a maximum of 600 Watts (the formula is: VAx0.6 -> 1.000X0, 6 = 600 Watt).
The value of the output power is then possible to calculate the dwell time, which is typically of a few minutes (5 at full load considering a 1000VA UPS). The higher the output power and proportionally increase the time of backup time at full and half load.
Other features
Other important aspects in choosing to purchase a ups: noise, cooling and indicators. The first two characteristics are similar, since the noise is often linked to the number of fans that are used to cool the ups while the indicators, which may be audible and visual, have the function to warn of possible malfunctions.
Connection
In the package ups, in addition to the UPS are present one or more power supply cables. According to the model and the manufacturer, the connection between the ups and computing devices can occur in various ways, via USB cable, the most popular, ethernet, for the more expensive models or serial port. Typically, the manufacturer provides - via CDs or downloaded from the official website - a management software system directly from a computer.
Some tips
Finally, some maintenance tips:
1) Do not connect loads that exceed the maximum power, you may risk irreversible damage to the UPS;
2) Do not block the vents, to put the UPS near sources of heat;
3) Carry out at least once a year, check the battery;
4) Disconnect the UPS when not in use for long periods.
10/09/2012
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Translated via software
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Source:
Italian version of ReteArchitetti.it