UPS recommendation for home server

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jaymz

1133 posts

Uber Geek

#298780 14-Feb-2010 09:01

dpw: Hi folks, we're looking at getting a UPS unit for our home server. There's quite a range out there, from the very cheap Digitus unit to ... well ... you can spend a lot of money for a UPS unit I imagine.

What's a reasonable unit for home user? I have never looked at UPS before - do they come with a battery? What's the basic requirements for home use?

Cheers,
D.

Your home server, what make/model is it? Or if it is a home built one what is it running inside? (PSU wattage, number of HDDs, number of addon cards and what type of cards are they)

That will help in determining the size of UPS for home. Idealy you want to have no more that 50% load on your UPS. High load means it works harder and gives you server less time to shutdown in a powercut.

APC produce a very nice UPS, but you do pay more for them. Also when buying second hand make sure you confirm with the seller (if they are selling one with a dead battery) that the device has been tested and they can confirm that it is indeed only the battery that is dead. (I have seen some UPS's warn of a dead battery only to find that the whole unit was faulty - I replaced the battery with a working test one)

friedCrumpet

271 posts

Ultimate Geek

#298797 14-Feb-2010 10:21

kyhwana2: I have a 650VA APC UPS that has been pretty good to me. It has USB, so it works fine in windows 7 (I've only had it shutdown my computer once during a power cut) and I just got a dynamix 650VA UPS for my linux server. It only has RS232 (serial) but this works fine in linux with nut. (The UPS monitoring app)

I also have a Dynamix, it's worked fine the several times I've had to switch power off to the house. Don't know about runtime though, I've only got a little Atom based PC attached to it as my home server. So it doesn't draw a lot of power.

I'm interested to know which settings you used for nut? I tried (although not very hard) to set up monitoring but couldn't get it to work. I was going to try using the utitlity that came with the UPS but never got around to it.

markontour

7 posts

Wannabe Geek

#420926 23-Dec-2010 11:36

I'm going to get a UPS and thought I'd get An APC branded one. But the Dynamix ones are quite a bit cheaper. Are APC worth the extra? Anyone had good/bad experience with Synamix?

Thanks!

Mark

aw

286 posts

Ultimate Geek

#420928 23-Dec-2010 11:43

I found the Dynamix 600 and 650VA units to be rather gutless. The basic models (with the three LED display, not the LCD display) tend to cook their batteries after less than three years, and when I say cook, I mean get really, really hot and you can smell it.

I wouldn't even protect an ethernet switch with those models anymore.

MackinNZ

450 posts

Ultimate Geek

Lifetime subscriber

#420935 23-Dec-2010 11:54

I've had exactly the same problem with Dynamix UPS's. One customer called me and said it was so hot she thought she'd leaft a heater on in the room. I've had at least three do that. Rubbish products.

I quite like the Eaton 5110 to protect a single PC. It's a resonable price, has fairly good software and will give you a resonable amount of runtime.

I've installed several of these units and had no problems at all so far.

Chris.

aw

286 posts

Ultimate Geek

#420945 23-Dec-2010 12:08

It's their CS models that have cooked batteries which I'll never touch again. I haven't had their main models do that to me (yet), although I once realised one of their 650VA ones once BACK-FEED power OUT its mains lead - dangerous stuff! I noticed because the power board it was plugged in to, which was switched OFF at the wall, had its own light-up switches still lit.

michaelmurfy

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13243 posts

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#420948 23-Dec-2010 12:13

aw: I found the Dynamix 600 and 650VA units to be rather gutless. The basic models (with the three LED display, not the LCD display) tend to cook their batteries after less than three years, and when I say cook, I mean get really, really hot and you can smell it.

I wouldn't even protect an ethernet switch with those models anymore.

I had one of those explode.

It seems I attract exploding battery's.

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Kraven

729 posts

Ultimate Geek

#420959 23-Dec-2010 12:51

Stay well clear of Dynamix and other similar "Kebo" products. I've seen these things smoke, get too hot to touch or just die for no apparent reason.

For an economic option, if you don't require automatic shutdown (ie. desktops, routers, PABX), I've had pretty good results with the Liebert Powersure III range. Their management software is hopeless but the UPS's seem to work well.

For everything else (servers, expensive stuff) I stick with APC. These are basically an investment. With a service and battery replacement at least every three years they should last a long, long time.

Whatever you decide though, keep the unit ventilated by ensuring there is free space all around it wherever you install it. Any brand will fail if you don't let it breathe!

michaelmurfy

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#420961 23-Dec-2010 12:59

Kraven: Stay well clear of Dynamix and other similar "Kebo" products. I've seen these things smoke, get too hot to touch or just die for no apparent reason.

For an economic option, if you don't require automatic shutdown (ie. desktops, routers, PABX), I've had pretty good results with the Liebert Powersure III range. Their management software is hopeless but the UPS's seem to work well.

For everything else (servers, expensive stuff) I stick with APC. These are basically an investment. With a service and battery replacement at least every three years they should last a long, long time.

Whatever you decide though, keep the unit ventilated by ensuring there is free space all around it wherever you install it. Any brand will fail if you don't let it breathe!

Good post.

I have got a big fat Liebert sitting under my desk at work, powers my office for about a hour if the power ever decides to go out.

jjnz1

1363 posts

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Lifetime subscriber

#420982 23-Dec-2010 13:59

I have:

3x APC CS-500 protecting Server, Voip, Routers, Modems etc.
1x Eaton 5110 serving 50watt PC, and assorted other things(mainly use this one for surge protection only)

I try and load the ups's so that the run time is no less than 12 minutes. Which is 50% load.

I also have 7x Dynamix UPS650HP stored away- not in use- as these are crap. Stay away unless you are poor, in which case why are you buying a UPS?

I have found that the APC CS-500's are very susceptible to random voltages changes, they work fine, but you can hear them change over often... whereas Eaton is silent.

The APC's always go crazy at 1AM and 1PM for about 1 minute. Haven't bothered to investigate.

Both Eaton 5110 and APC CS-500's run on Windows 7 using Eatons LanSafe WebServer so they can be monitored remotely.

IMO, either Eaton or APC will do fine, and both have the auto on feature.(Dynamix does not, so you have to manually turn it back on after prolonged power cut.)

markontour

7 posts

Wannabe Geek

#420991 23-Dec-2010 14:11

Thanks all. Especially comments about Dynamix. I have ordered an APC.

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