Intro
I live in Florida, which means brownouts and power outages are common. Since I’m soon to be upgrading my workstation I want to make sure the power feeding into the PC is clean. Currently I have the CP1500PFCLCD (CyberPower 900w with AVR and PFC) It seems to work fine and I haven’t noticed any issues for its 1 yr of use.
My Questions:
Should I buy a 1300w inline AVR or spend the extra money and get a 1300w Double conversion On-Line UPS? Will the extra buy price, maintenance, and energy use be worth it?
Upgrade System:
I’m building a render workstation with 2x RTX 3090s Founders…
Total system draw should be around 1000 watts at full load.
I have no recommendation on which UPS to choose, but make sure you choose one which supports external batteries. Many UPS’ only run for a few minutes at a full-load scenario due to having small batteries.
I’m a fan of online when I’m spending taxpayer dollars (for the enterprise) lots of weird power anomalies in a heavy duty commerical electric service that sneak by so called interactive units.
Check out Emerson SolaHD … Modular Online ups systems with easy to use external battery options.
If frequently losing power, I recommend a generator and transfer switch. 2-5 minutes of UPS is all you need, and then a 100 gallon propane bottle hooked up to a Cummins or Kohler unit.
There are some non-rack mounted UPS units albiet not many (ex. APC 2200), but for the most part yeah you’re right, likely will need a rackmount UPS that will be able to supply 1300w (which will probably be around 1600VA).
@VFX_Joe , seems like you already know this, but keep in mind that double inverted UPS’ will require more frequent battery changes due to increased battery wear, as well as use more power (due to power inefficiencies related to their design) so keep that in mind for the operating costs.
Here’s a link comparing a Line Interactive and Double Conversion UPS. Keep in mind that there is bias within the article, related to them selling UPS’ themselves, but nonetheless, it will help you make a more educated decision.
I have a Tripp Lite SmartOnline 3000VA sitting under my desk at the office. Only downside is the noisy fan always running full blast. It’s a free standing unit, rather than rack mount. I believe there’s an extended run upgrade available for it.
I had a look at a few of the SolaHD units and they seem nice. I have a few questions about them:
I would buy a base unit for around $1k and then buy the amount of batteries needed for my wattage needs? I like the flexibility, but the price is pretty high.
Knowing that an interactive unit lets some anomalies sneak by, is it enough protection for a PC to last 5 years or more with few to little problems? Like maybe a crash here or there, but no component damages.
I was looking at that unit earlier. It seems to be a higher end Line Interactive unit and from the article I guess I should be fine with one. Also, it seems most people with home PCs use Line Interactive and since I haven’t heard of any horror stories with their use on home PCs, maybe they’re fine to use…?
I think APC now makes them with Li-Poly or LiFE batteries now. Down side is that under full load, you will only get about 15 minutes max and they are heavy because of lead acid batteries. Also lead acid will net you have capacity usage of what the batteries are rated for because, chemistry.