I live in an area where the power grid is relatively unstable. We experience frequent fluctuations in voltage and occasional outages. Whenever an outage occurs, even if it only lasts a fraction of a second, my PC would restart, but my wife’s PC, which has a very similar configuration, would not. The biggest difference between the two PC’s is the power supply. We used to both have EVGA 850 G2 units. The problem started a while back when I decided to put four graphics cards (I know, it was stupid) in my system and “upgraded” my PSU to a Thermaltake Toughpower Grand RGB 1200W. I have since gone back to a single GPU configuration, and we recently connected both PC’s to an APC Back-UPS XS 1500M. I expected the UPS to alleviate the restarting problem, but it has actually made it worse, since it switches to battery power every time there is a fluctuation in voltage from the wall, and for some reason my PC loses power momentarily whenever the UPS switches to battery or back to AC power.
What should I do? I was thinking about getting a better PSU to try and fix the issue, but I’m not sure what to go with. I expected the 1200W Platinum unit to be better than the 850W Gold one, but it seems to be the source of this issue. I’ve mainly been looking at Titanium units in the 750-1000W range and I think I like the Seasonic Prime Titanium 850, but I don’t know if that will fix the issue. Should I just go back to the 850 G2? I feel confident that would fix the issue, but I would hate to go backwards in efficiency. Should I try to get a different UPS? If so, what kind? What do you guys think?
Wait, BOTH PC’s are on that 1 unit? What are the system specs? What are you both doing when it tanks? Also chances are you aren’t close to needing that 1200 watt PS.
If you want a UPS that filters out all dips then you have to go for a “True-online” UPS. Those are constantly filtering, line-interactive UPS’s only kicks in when the power goes out and they have a transfer time where no power is delivered. Some of them do some voltage adjustment without being true-online but that still doesn’t solve your problem.
From APC website for that UPS:
Topology - Line Interactive
This type of UPS removes all power dips because it constantly recreates AC so no transfer time and no dips:
That said - most good PSU’s should be able to absorb a small dip without the PC restarting, you could just try another PSU. See if you swap your PSU and your wife’s if the same happens in her pc.
I put wife’s PC on separate UPS and have never had a problem since. She’s using the EVGA 850 watt (Gold) and I’m using a Corsair 1000 watt (platinum). At Seasonic prices you’d be better off getting another UPS Imo. Also, since you live in an area that is susceptible to power surges and spikes etc. (like I do) I advise keeping each UPS on a separate breaker. I’m not positive that this (isolating the breakers) made a difference with me but I haven’t had any problems since I did this.
Sounds like the capacitors in the PSU, in your system, will drain in seconds just due to the amount of power it uses with those GPUS. Where as the better halfs wont drain as fast as its only sipping the power.
Either way this isnt healthy for the PSU or system on both machines.
As for UPS, I cant help there. But you have some good suggestions.
Are you sure its not you causing the power outage in your area
I was thinking the same thing myself but I’m glad you said it first. I never could relate much to the whole SLI/CROSSFIRE thing. Seems like such a waste, really. But, hey… If it floats your boat why not?
The unit has a 900W output on battery. The restarts don’t correlate with high power draw scenarios. The problem is the grid in my area. Both systems are high end gaming PC’s. I know I don’t need the 1200W anymore. I used to when I had 4 GPU’s, long before I got the UPS. Now we each have 1 1080Ti and a 6-core x99 CPU.
But you have TWO high powered PC’s connected to 1 high end UPS. That’s going to be problematic. With all that you have spent on those two boxes they really need to connected to their own UPS.
The unit actually has a 900W output. I haven’t tried moving her system off of it, but I doubt that resolve the problem. We just recently got the UPS and I had random restarts before I got it. The problem is the grid in my area, with frequent wild fluctuations in voltage causing the UPS to switch to battery which apparently trips a protection IC in my PSU, causing my system to momentarily lose power.
As far as the battery life of the UPS goes, I’m not sure how long it would last at maximum output, but when neither of us are doing anything particularly strenuous with our PC’s, just web browsing and homework, the reported power usage from the UPS hovers around 200-250W. The estimated battery life at that output is around 25 minutes. You might be able to extrapolate from that what battery life would be at max output, but I’m not sure if the relationship between those factors is strictly linear.
Put your pc on a different circuit thats more secluded, not as populated. You could just be pushing the rail alot as it is, especially with 4 gpu’s at one point, and during a storm or a bad day I’m sure the line ripple gets crazy. Her pc might handle it fine for whatever reason, but something in your pc is freaking out from the wall, or any change in the active line. Could be a mobo to psu safety check, unsure tho.
Do you hear the internal switch of the UPS going off when there’s a power flicker?
There are many possible reasons to this issue. It could be that the UPS is not enough for two PCs.
But my theory is that the UPS is not able to generate fast enough a decent wave so it trips the APFC in the PSU causing the system to restart.
To test if that’s the issue try disconnecting from the power the UPS while the PC is on and see what happens (maybe sit at the BIOS screen to avoid issues). If the PC resets there’s something going on between the UPS and the PSU (it’s not the flicker that makes the system breaks but the issue is most likely in the UPS).
My advice is to invest into a quality pure sine wave UPS when you’re dealing with PSUs with APFC. That’s the best shot at having a good experience with your PC when power goes out. I switched many UPSs and had issues with all units, until I switched to the pure sine wave. They cost a bit more, not gonna lie, but it’s totally worth in my opinion.
If you still got the 850W G2 unit,
i would put that one back in your system and just test it out.
I mean a X99 system with 6 core and a 1080Ti does not need that much power atall.
A decent 650W unit would be plenty.
As far as ratings are concerned platinum vs gold vs silver, bronze etc,
that generally does not really say that much.
It’s only an efficiency number at a certain power load.
But its not really more then that.
The reason the wifes PC maybe fairing better is because of this and heres the hidden thing that occurs. When the PSU is at its peak efficiency with load… the power factor correction aka aPFC (active power factor correction) can actually cope with the brown out … I would say that its likely he is running at the power supplies lowest efficiency point or the aPFC is not very good in the unit (QC reasons not brand)…
the thing with ups’s is that they are designed to provide power to your system long enough for the machine to shut down properly. hence the software they are shipped with.
(your higher quality ups systems when the software is configured properly will run the shutdown sequence automatically ( saving any active files before it shuts down)
they are not designed to run the systems for an indefinable length of time
(our production management depended on them running the system computers for the I.S. machines as long as possible instead of their proper use and ended up eating batteries with every power blip that happened)
most consumer ups systems will keep a computer going for a couple of minutes to 5 minutes depending on the size and are not intended for unsupervised systems.
back to the original post there is an issue with the power supply possibly damaged caps but its hard to tell without seeing the inside of the psu.
Is your UPS simulated Sine wave or pure sine wave? Some power supplies have a hard time with simulated sine wave.
Additionally the hold up time (amount of current in the capacitors in the PSU) is probably less for the Thermaltake PSU over the EVGA. I would say your best bet is to get a pure sine wave battery back up.
Agreed. My XFinity kept my system up for about 20 minutes during a severe thunderstorm but it really taxed the batteries. I was curious to see how long it would run on backup power. I don’t recommend doing this.
I never could relate much to the whole SLI/CROSSFIRE thing. Seems like such a waste, really. But, hey… If it floats your boat why not?