Cyberpower UPS for server or stick with APC?

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pjkenned

[H]ard|Gawd
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Been using APC or IBM/APC re-brand UPS units for years. Thinking of adding a second (or third) UPS. Anyone have thoughts on Cyberpower units? They seem to be a bit less expensive but I would only save the money if they are equivalent to the APC units that I am used to. Specifically looking in the 900-1100w range since I will need lots of disks to shut down and my shutdown times are not great on the storage servers. Any thoughts appreciated.
 
I have both at work and they work fine. I have a half dozen APC 1500VA units purchased in 2001 or 2002 and I believe I got the Cyberpower in 2005. Although the CyberPower is a 2200VA. I think we paid $400 to $450 for that. We also have 10 to 20 PowerComm King Pros for desktops and at least 6 to 10 APC Backup UPS units on desktops as well. With triplite units on the network gear.

With that said I recommend recirtified APC units from ebay. You should be able to get a smart ups 1500 XL with new batteries for under $200 shipped.
 
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I have a Cyberpower 1500AVR that I have been using for the last 4 years and it is wonderful. It powers a 14 drive system and never has let me down. I have no idea how long the battery would last on a charge but it has run the system for 3 1/2 hours during one power outage.
 
i use cyberpower at home and tripplite/apc at work. don't really see much difference between any of them to be honest. it's all about the battery, which are typically made by a handful of people and re-badged.

if you need to cut costs you can always buy a reconditioned/used case and new batteries.
 
it's all about the battery, which are typically made by a handful of people and re-badged.
Click to expand...

For that I don't even bother about the rebagaging. I remove the stickers that are placed over the battery identification and google for a replacement. Most of the time I get a slightly higher capacity battery of the same size. And most of the time I get the batteries from batteryspec.com
 
I always buy APC from refurbUPS.com
they put new batteries in all the units they sell. :)
 
The only difference is probably the name.

I've used both brands extensively and if there is a difference I'm too dumb to recognize it.

I've used both RefurbUPS and UPSforLess for all of my UPS needs and both have come thru with flying colors.
 
Thanks for the opinions! I may give CyberPower a shot. I just want to have more connected batteries at this point as I am a bit below where I would want to be.
 
I'd like to know why CyberPower has much higher surge protection ratings on their UPSes...is that marketing BS or do they really offer more protection?
 
I frankly don't find the surge protection to be absurd. When you take the time to research a whole bunch of UPS brands(warning! this is very tedious and time consuming) you begin to notice a lot of tradeoffs being made at similar price point levels. Neither Cyberpower or APC do everything. They just IMO happen to offer the best features for what could be considered mass market features in the UPS world.
 
@pjkenned: When you say 'I just want to have more connected batteries at this point as I am a bit below where I would want to be', what exactly do you mean by that?

Are you talking about multiple UPS systems on one server as in plug one UPS into another to extend the run time?

If that's what you intend on doing, DON'T! It's a very bad idea and does NOT extend your runtime!

If you are looking for extended runtime, look for a UPS that has the option to have external battery packs connected to it so that you can extend the runtime. Sometiimes going with a higher VA rating will give you longer run times at lower loads, but this is wasteful. It's better to have a UPS that is sized to the load (with an appropriate overhead) and has the ability to extend the runtime via additional batteries...
 
I have 2 of the Ultra 2000va units and I really like them. They're about $200 a pop.
 
That is not normal. I really can not explain that. Here is a link to a CyberPower 2200VA unit. Note the Nema 5-20 plug requirement.

http://www.cyberpowersystems.com/products/ups-systems/smart-app-ups/pp-series/PR2200LCDRT2U.html

Here is a picture of a nema 5-20 plug since CyberPower does not have any pictures..

Insulgrip-Plug-4A255_AS01.JPG


And while we are at CyberPower this is the one I have at work (yes it has the special plug but the work outlets are 20A)

http://www.cyberpowersystems.com/products/ups-systems/smart-app-ups/pp-series/PR2200SWRM2U.html
 
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drescherjm said:
That is not normal. I really can not explain that. Here is a link to a CyberPower 2200VA unit. Note the Nema 5-20 plug requirement.

http://www.cyberpowersystems.com/products/ups-systems/smart-app-ups/pp-series/PR2200LCDRT2U.html

Here is a picture of a nema 5-20 plug since CyberPower does not have any pictures..

Insulgrip-Plug-4A255_AS01.JPG


And while we are at CyberPower this is the one I have at work (yes it has the special plug but the work plugs are 20A)

http://www.cyberpowersystems.com/products/ups-systems/smart-app-ups/pp-series/PR2200SWRM2U.html
Click to expand...


I have the 2000va units, standard 115v plug.
 
The plug difference is why i have 2 seperate 20A circuits running to my rack

I have a cyberpower 500va for the network gear and 2 1500va's for the servers, but atleast i know i can get larger ones in the future.

What's considered standard 115v plug? The 20A plugs are still 115v just a slightly different look to them with the extra notch.
 
KWH said:
I have the 2000va units, standard 115v plug.
Click to expand...

I was going to say that there are at least a couple 2000va units out there which use standard 110/120v wall plugs and are rated for 15 amp circuits. However VA ratings aren't all equal across all manufacturers. Some units actually only output 900 watts while others will output around 950 or even 1000 watts.
 
900-1000w is common for 1400-1500va units, at least those from good brands... are you saying that many 2000va units are no better? My APC 2200VA (SUA2200XL) does 1850w, though it has a 20A plug.
 
@Dan_D: First you talk about VA then about Watts. These are both measures of electric power but have different meanings. VA is the apparent power (Volts * Amps) and Watts is the real power.

For resistive loads (e.g. an incandescent light bulb, electric heater, etc), the VA and Watts will be the same or a power factor (PF) of 1. For computer power supplies or reactive loads the power factor will be lower (e.g. PF=0.55 to <1.0). For computer power supplies that are not based on a power factor design, you can usually assume a PF=0.6. That said, most modern computer supplies, especially the better brands and higher output models are based on a power factor design (basically a two stage design with the first being a PF controller and the second stage being the actual converter that converts the line power into the different DC voltages).
The majority of small UPS systems (e.g. less than 5kVA) usually have a Watts rating of about 60% of the VA rating (e.g. a 1000VA UPS can power a 600W load). Neither one of these ratings should EVER be exceeded on a UPS.
For example: If a user wanted to plug in a 750W heater into the UPS, since the heater is a resistive load the VA and Watts rating would be the same (with a PF=1 the 750W heater has a 750VA rating). However, even though the UPS is rated at 1000VA and the Heater has a 750VA rating, the 750W will exceed the maximum UPS capacity of 600W (remember the UPS has a PF=0.6!).
Another example would be a computer with a 850W power factor corrected power supply (PF~1.0), which means that the VA rating of the computer is also 850VA. Again, the VA rating is within the maximum UPS capacity of 1000VA, however the Watt rating is above the the 600W limit and hence the UPS will be overloaded!

So sizing a UPS according to the load is very important!

Hope this helps.
 
treadstone said:
@pjkenned: When you say 'I just want to have more connected batteries at this point as I am a bit below where I would want to be', what exactly do you mean by that?

Are you talking about multiple UPS systems on one server as in plug one UPS into another to extend the run time?

If that's what you intend on doing, DON'T! It's a very bad idea and does NOT extend your runtime!

If you are looking for extended runtime, look for a UPS that has the option to have external battery packs connected to it so that you can extend the runtime. Sometiimes going with a higher VA rating will give you longer run times at lower loads, but this is wasteful. It's better to have a UPS that is sized to the load (with an appropriate overhead) and has the ability to extend the runtime via additional batteries...
Click to expand...

Sorry for the late reply. I have two examples of two boxes plugged into one UPS. I want to get them to a 1:1 ratio. The two ancillary boxes are things that right now if they go down during minute 7 of a power outage, no big deal, but in the future I want them on their own UPS just to make it marginally easier to manage shutdowns and to make it easier to logically wire everything. This is more of my own personal desire rather than an absolute need.
 
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