UPS / Battery Backup - Do You Need One? - How much do you need?

hello and welcome to tech deals uninterruptible power supplies what are they why you should buy one and why the the cheapest insurance you can buy for your computer bar none in today's video we're gonna take a look at two different UPS's at two different price points I will take these out of the box and show them to you later in the video but this is mostly a discussion of the value of UPS's how to use them how long they last why I use them and why I think every computer should have one attached first up what is a UPS UPS stands for uninterruptible power supply it's basically a big battery for your computer now laptops sort of have a UPS built into them even if you're plugged into the wall with the charge battery if the power goes out your laptop just switches to the battery and it keeps right on working but your desktop doesn't have such a thing now they come in all shapes and sizes and price ranges but they all basically do the same general function when the power fails from the wall they switch over to their internal battery and you can keep using your computer at least for a little while please note all the UPS is I'm gonna cover and most UPS is in general are not designed for sustained operation on battery they're designed to give you enough time to finish your work save your work and safely shut down your computer most UPS's will give you between five and fifteen minutes of power at full load and will give you between fifteen minutes and forty-five minutes of power at twenty-five to fifty percent load so the closer to full power you're drawing by far the less time you're gonna get out of the UPS they're just meant to safely shut down your machine not interrupt your work and possibly not damage your hardware due to a sudden and unexpected power outage they also serve the benefit of surge protection if you were already planning on spending ten twenty thirty dollars on a quality surge protector and frankly quality surge protectors generally do start out at about twenty dollars the ten dollar ones are more power strips than power than real surge protectors then they also provide that benefit as well because they have those built in they also have equipment warranties that are included with them as well so if your computer is damaged due to a lightning strike or surge your connected equipment is protected as well there is honestly a bunch of paperwork and stuff you have to go through to get them to honor that agreement but at least it's there and if it's important to you it's something to consider basic UPS started about $40 but those are for inexpensive basic computers they only provide 200 to 250 watts of total power and this is an important issue to talk about which is sizing you have to buy a UPS with a battery that is large enough to even provide the wattage that your computer will use now this doesn't mean that if you have an 800 watt power supply you have to buy a UPS that can provide 800 watts because after all you're not pulling all hundred Watts from the wall with that power supply but if your computer actually uses 300 to 400 watts of power you need a UPS that's capable of providing that much power and you actually want to go over that because UPS is at full load don't last very long on battery where their battery's out faster and are generally less reliable than if you sized a UPS to use no more than 50 to 75 percent of its total power load went on battery power starting at the $40 price point you'll get a UPS with about a 425 VA rating and a 225 wattage rating that would be sufficient for a very basic I three or Rison three machine that would be sufficient for perhaps a Pentium dual-core machine it is not sufficient for much more beyond that because you have to account as I said for the monitor as well as for the computer itself now $40 does provide you with about a $20 surge protector so it's not a huge price premium but it's not a powerful Union most people should start with something like this now everything I'm discussing will be linked down in the video description below to both Amazon and Newegg and I will also list down there which basic CPUs in graphics card I recommend at each level so that you don't have to scroll through the video and find it all but this unit here is a 550 V a 330 watt unit it's actually the older model the one that will be linked below is a 600 VA unit but it's still 330 Watts they kind of basically increased the VA number without actually making the unit more powerful marketing yeh in any case so 550 or 600 either way it's a 330 watt unit and it will provide enough power for lock by fives a mid range risin 5 perhaps a gtx 1060 or an RX 580 and that's about it it'll provide power for maybe one 1080p monitor up to 27 inches in size it's not meant for multiple monitors it's not meant for overclocked dice and frankly if you try to connect such machines you're really gonna be pushing up into that 330 watt power limit you want a bigger unit not to worry 850 VA will provide you with plenty of power for an overclocked i7 or a risin 7 machine was probably up to a gtx 1080 maybe a 1080 TI it just depends on how big your monitor is and what other devices you also want to connect to it now those units are about $90 so they're about 30 dollars more expensive than this so close 40 60 90 consider this if you have a nice high-end overclocked i7 machine or arisin 7 1700 or 1700 X you've got a 4 5 plus $100 graphics card you get a couple of nice several hundred dollar monitors attached to it you may very well have 1,500 to 2,000 dollars worth of computer equipment is a $90 UPS really that expensive well let's talk about that the 850 VA unit as I said is $90 replacement batteries for it run about 30 dollars and yes you do have to replace the batteries every so often they recommend every three to five years we'll go with the middle number of four years if you keep it for a dozen years which I'm comfortable doing before I will replace the whole unit just due to the power protection devices slowly wearing out over time 12 years of use will entail two battery replacements one that's four year mark one at the eight year mark 90 plus 30 plus 30 is a total of 150 dollars total ownership cost over 12 years you aren't going to keep your computer for 12 years you're probably going to go through a couple of upgrades let's say that you upgrade every four years you'll go through two more full pcs so you may have a $1,500 computer today but four years from now you'll get another one and then four years from that you'll get another one so you're looking for a hundred and fifty dollar investment protecting a total of four thousand five hundred dollars worth of computer stuff over the next 12 years bear in mind this comes with a seventy-five thousand dollar insurance policy that protects against connected equipment so long as you keep the unit up to date replace the batteries every couple of years and make sure that all of your computer parts are plugged into it then if something should happen to your computers you can apply for the insurance policy through a PC a dollar a month two thousands of dollars worth of computer parts for more than a decade that's a deal everything I just said scales up to the larger units if you're wondering what this big huge thing on the desk is this is a fifteen hundred VA or eight hundred and sixty-five watt back UPS now this has the benefit of providing far more power to larger powerful computers or more connected devices it has a larger warranty and a hot swappable battery which these do not have you don't have to shut it down shut your computer down to swap out the batteries now of course as I said most people don't need something like this but let me explain why I have it my two thousand dollar Cadillac build the i7 8700 K that I recently built is downstairs and that's what this is going on but I also have two 32 inch 4k monitors down there those are not cheap monitors at 750 dollars apiece they are also not low-power drol monitors at close to a hundred watts each add to that the additional items that I put in the machine there's 32 gigs I ran there's a couple more SSDs and the sound card and I'm looking at four plus thousand dollars worth of equipment for my live streaming PC a hundred and seventy dollars for this is nothing to protect that much computer against power surges power failures or worst case scenario a lightning strike that destroys it and the insurance coverage will then replace it for me the lifetime cost of this is about two dollars a month 170 for the unit $60 for each replacement battery 290 dollars over 12 years works out to about twenty four dollars per year or two dollars per month two dollars per month to protect $4,000 worth of equipment with an insurance policy and a high end surge protector and hot-swappable batteries that's a deal so the backups line from APC covers $40 to a hundred and seventy dollars with a bunch of options in between as I said before all these will be linked down in the description below along with my suggestions of what type of computer should be attached to them but you have to make adjustments for how big your monitor is how many monitors you have what other devices you may be connecting to it I wouldn't connect printers to them per se but most of the things that your desk probably should run through the ups now there's several other different brands on the market trip light is a very common one CyberPower is a common one as well I wouldn't buy either one I have in the past as I said I have professionally used UPS's for more than 20 years I've had problems with those other units I have not had problem with a PC at this point in time I will not buy or use anything but a PC now there's also higher-end units from a PC the smart UPS line that is gonna be the topic of a different video I do own a smart UPS and I have another one coming from my other high-end build they are more expensive they are not for the average person but they are line-interactive versus the standby power which I'll discuss in that video most people watching this video don't need a smart UPS a back UPS is fine for most people I'm putting that very nice streaming machine on a back UPS it's really fine it's really skylake X thread Ripper servers that sort of thing that deserve a smart UPS versus a backup also they have benefits of network management some other features that you can't get on these units I'm now gonna take these units out of the box show you everything that comes in the box take a quick look at all the features of them but before we do that like this video if you liked it share it with your friends if you love to remember to subscribe to my channel with the big huge red button directly below questions and comments in the comment section and as I said links in the description those are affiliate links they do support the channel if you can use those when shopping I'd be greatly appreciative and now on with the unboxing first things first we're gonna unbox the small one here now as I mentioned before this is the older model the new one says 600 V a same 330 watts it's linked down below I will cover the new one when I get one I just don't have the new design its vertical and shaped a little bit differently but I will cover that and do an unboxing at some point in the future first things first open it up they sure tighten this plastic around this really well first things first this is not a warranty this is the equipment protection policy it doesn't actually say insurance on here because insurance is licensed and complicated but essentially it's the insurance policy that protects you this comes with a $75,000 connected equipment policy if you care about that read through this to make sure that you've complied with all the terms because if you have a power surge that fries your computer fries this and fries that they're gonna want this sent back to them and they'll test it they're gonna want pictures and a list of your equipment so make sure you comply with that and they will at their sole discretion replace or pay for your damaged equipment likewise if you care about warranties and damaged equipment protection register the product at their website it is worth noting you are actually dealing with a battery and electrical appliance that you may have to open up and you will when you change the battery so it might be worth reading through the safety notices thankfully the manual is not too complicated it's just basically a large page that folds out contains information how to replace the battery how to open the back panel you do have to connect the battery it does not come connected for protecting no protection and shipping reasons so there's no sticker on here that says connected and it shows how to do that on here it does come with a nice piece of protective material here and several people have commented on my previous unboxings why don't I show this stuff being peeled off so I'm showing it being peeled off just for you I know it was exciting wasn't it this right here is something that comes to with every APC UPS they do take this up seriously this is a quality assurance and diagnostic test they actually test every one of these that comes out of the factory this here is basically the computer report showing that it passed all of the tests if you end up with a damaged one of these and you have to send it back either under warranty or with the equipment protection policy they're gonna run the test again to make sure that it was in fact power line damaged rather than say user error or maybe you spilled soda on it or something I have now removed the bottom panel you just simply push this in and slide it off no tools are required you can see the battery here make sure again if you care about warranty and protection that you buy genuine APC batteries there are actually third-party batteries you can buy that cost less sometimes half the price of these but if you use a non APC battery then your protection coverage doesn't apply I mentioned this does not come connected you simply have to slide it out a little bit and then actually connect the terminal right in there these batteries do come partially charged their lead acid batteries so they can't ship them discharged or they would go bad so there is power in there don't use your fingers to connect the terminals it will shock you so I've slipped the battery out halfway you don't have to pull it out all the way and all I've done is taking this one white connector and slid it on to the terminal they do have which you can barely see here a protective plastic cover over the other term to try to prevent them from touching so it's not terribly dangerous just you know don't stick your fingers on the both at the same time treat it like a car battery because that's actually what it is once that is done you can then peel this label off and expose the battery backed up power outlets there are eight total outlets on here only four hour battery backed this is for plugging in printers and other things that you don't need to have battery backed up by plugging in all the devices at your desk to this it makes sure that you're covered so this bottom strip down here is what you plug printers and other non-essential devices plug your monitor and computer into the top strip up here for battery protection right here on the front you can see several things first of the network ports it does you no good to protect the AC lines only to have a power surge come in over the network wires so make sure that your network cable from the wall assuming you're running a wired network connects to the UPS and then another cable runs from the UPS to your computer itself you'll also see a USB connector the USB cable does come in the box there is software that you can download from a pcs website and what it does is you run it on your computer and it just sits down down in your task tray if the power goes out you can program it that after three minutes or five minutes or when the battery's starting to run low it will automatically shut your computer down basically start shut down and shut down the computer for you and it will force a shutdown even if you have something open if you're not in front of your machine so this basically connects to a USB port on your computer plugs in here and it also lets windows have that little battery indicator just like laptops have so that you know the charge state and how much power is remaining in the battery and that's pretty much all there is to show with this one on with the Beast and with the smaller unit out of the way now it's time to unbox the Beast this does weigh a lot by the way just be aware of that oh yes it weighs so much the styrofoam in the box was broken but that's its job it's to protect the unit it's fine it just came off when I took it out of the box and there's another piece of styrofoam here that stayed in the box when I turned it upside down and lifted the box that is actually a very easy way to get big heavy things out of the box is simply turn it upside down and lift the Box off rather than trying to pull the item out oh man that Dennis that is heavy especially when it's covered in a plastic bag and I am gonna be picking up very small pieces of styrofoam for days because that broke they are all over the desk and with the styrofoam mess cleaned up mostly we are now gonna peel off the plastic since everybody seems to like that part there we go just like the smaller unit a full test report on this specific unit as tested out of the factory is included taped to it which is nice to have turning the unit on its side you can see the big yellow sticker again just like the other unit this is cautioning you that you have to actually connect the battery which I'm not even gonna try to show you given the size of this thing but basically follow the instructions you have to connect the battery before you can use it the small unit how to fold out pamphlet this actually has a real bound manual there's more to it there's an actual screen on front with some display to it not only is there the standard Ethernet pass-through in the back there's also a coax in the back and while it does still connect via a USB to your computer the other end of this cable is actually an Ethernet cable and the reason is this will also connect to be a serial cable as well you can get different cables to plug the city into a USB port a serial port and others because it's a more advanced unit there's another point that I didn't mention earlier external battery packs for about a hundred and forty dollars or a little bit less than the cost of one of these you can buy another full unit which contains two more battery packs that triple your runtime if you actually want longer runtime there is a plug in the back here that will let you plug a second unit that has two battery packs this has one that will triple your actual battery time it doesn't triple the wattage doesn't triple the total power draw what it does is increase runtime once an hour to an hour and a half rather than fifteen to thirty minutes spend another 140 dollars get two more battery packs plug it in the back here it'll automatically detect it and you'll get far more runtime out of the unit such as this now I mentioned that in a future video I'm gonna cover the smart UPS line the smart UPS line which has some additional options and it is there more advanced units technically than these backups are I'll talk about that a bit more in those but let me just say that they make units of 5000 VA they make rackmount units designed for servers that's not really the focus of my channel maybe Wendell over at level one text would be more appropriate to talk about some of the rackmount units but they do make them and if you need something more appropriate for a business they've got you covered with some very high-end units I said I wasn't going to show you the battery because it's a hot-swap battery I will you turn the unit over and you pull on these tabs and the whole thing simply slides straight out notice the red side notice the pull tabs this battery is quite heavy for its size if you turn it over you'll see that it's green you'll see that the connection is actually right here in the middle the reason is is this is designed for you to be able to easily ship it with the battery in it if you ever have to ship this back for warranty service or for the equipment protection you need to take the battery out and you need to turn it over read this direction is disconnected green this direction is connected all you have to do is slide the unit in well that dropped heavier than I thought it was going to and drop it into place to disconnect theirs pull tabs on this side simply pull them up and pull the unit right out that is how you connect the battery and it's very easy as I said it's a hot swappable battery with the unit on running your computer of course with the AC on you can simply turn it over pull this out put a new one in and swap a new battery into place without shutting it down a feature that the less expensive units don't have and we simply take the cover and slide it back into place and this is ready to turn on and start charging just like on the less expensive unit the power plugs on this side are battery backup the power plugs on this side are surge protection only things like printers and things that don't need battery protection but still need the surge protection of the unit you can see up here the various network connections either the pass-through for your Gigabit Ethernet or the one for the cable to install the power shoot software they actually do include a CD in this package so you don't have to download it although I still personally would recommend downloading the software you can see the to coax connections in the center and some additional features that aren't on the other one there is a ground screw here do you have an actual ground in your building or a ground wire that you've got plugged in this provides additional protection beyond just what is on the three prong plug from the you also have a building wiring circuit warning light here if the circuit has a problem if the ground on the wall plug has a problem you've got a warning indicator there and then of course the plugs down below I mentioned the external battery connector that's it right here this little plug if you get the second one of these it's not the same unit by the way it's a different part number but it's on the same page link down below you stick it here triples your runtime with two more batteries plug that in do keep in mind that if you buy the external unit you're greatly increasing your cost to get that runtime because four years from now you have to buy three $60 batteries instead of one $60 battery when it comes time to replace them I hope that was interesting informative or perhaps just entertaining for you but either way I do recommend that everybody put a UPS on your computer even if it's just a $40 unit if you have a very very basic machine the protection will provide to you over the next 10 years is invaluable of course I do think it's worth the extra $20 to step up to the 600 VA the newer version of this if you can afford it and then if you have a nice high end machine get the 850 which is going to be about $90 or so or perhaps if you have a really expensive computer as I do this amazing unit is definitely worth the money like this video if you liked it share it with your friends if you loved it remember to comment down below remember to subscribe down below remember to check all the links thank you all so very much for watching I appreciate it I will see you in the next video

Channel: Tech Deals

Views: 221,230

Keywords: APC, Back-UPS, UPS, Uninterruptible Power Supply, 1500VA, 550VA, 600VA, 850VA, 425VA, How big of a UPS do you need?, How much UPS do you need?, How much VA do you need?, What is VA?, What is a UPS?, American Power Conversion, Do you need a UPS?, Should you buy a UPS?, Back-UPS vs Smart-UPS?, Which UPS to buy?, Battery Backup, backup, battery, power, need, uninterruptible power supply (product category), tech deals, surge, surge protector, power supply (organization sector), backup battery

Id: LknH5oePQyA

Length: 21min 22sec (1282 seconds)

Published: Wed Dec 27 2017