battery back-up system

Hello All.

Anybody have any endorsements for a good battery back-up system rated around 750-900 (or whatever you think would be sufficient) for use with a G5 Quad w/ 4GB RAM and the new Final Cut Pro?

Thanks so much.

Jon

We have an APC smart ups 2200 It keeps three G5's a raid and some other small things working for about 20 minutes. Long enough to save and shutdown properly.

I take it you are in the Whilshire area that got nocked out this morning. We are too!

APC is the leading mfr. We've got dozens of their units in various sizes. You MUST calculate the service load carefully when buying UPS. Most users tend to under-power their systems, trying to save some money buying insufficient capacity. and if you upgrade your computer or display, you will probably need a new UPS.

Let's say you've got a G5 with two large displays and a couple of FW drives on it. What do you need to have protected on the UPS? How long does the battery need to last? Where will the package sit so it can breathe? Is it in a closet or under the desk? Do you understand how UPS fits into your studio? That is, you don't want to plug conditioners into another conditioner. But you probably need to make a power strip available so temporary gear like a guest's Powerbook or drives can be powered up.

UPS is a bit more complicated than you want it to be. Lots of folks buy the wrong tool.

bogiesan

I have a Tripplite on my older G4 and an APC on my G5. The APC supposedly has auto shutdown software compatible with macs and the Tripplite does not.
APC has a site where you can calculate wattage, but allow for future add ons.

Warning: when you buy check the serial no. to determine how long the unit may have been sitting on the store shelf - I wouldn't want a battery that's been sitting there for more than 6 months. Other than buying direct from the manufacture, you alway risk getting something that's been around for awhile.

Count the outlets on the unit - my APC has 4 battery, 3 surge. Tripplite has 3 each. Some have input for dial-up phone line connection, some don't.

I like the much louder alarm sound on the Tripplite which I can hear from another room with door closed - necessary because I have to then come into the room and manually shut down. Not a good choice if you want to be totally way from your premises and want an auto shutdown.

The APC has a worthless wimpy alarm which i can barely hear when in the same room. This "may" not be a problem if I can trust the software to automatically shut down in case of power failure. Don't know how well the sofware would carry out the auto shutdown - and I just haven't wanted to test it by taking the risk of pulling the plug to see what would happen.

Someday I'll have to re-calculate if my 800 APC will cover it when I start using an eSATA RAID-5 - that could require 300 watts max by itself over what I currently am running.

So far my 6 year old Tripplite battery is still good. My one year old APC "probably" is fine. It recently strangely sounded the alarm and said "battery" low & flashed the red warning light. But absolutely nothing was even running or turned on that was hooked into it. After I turned the APC unit off and back on again, the light came on green and indicates good battery. Unsolved mystery.

I just bought this Tripplite 1000VA UPS System at Costco for $99:

[www.tripplite.com]

[www.tripplite.com]

Can't beat it for the price....4 Battery / 4 Surge outlets / IO Cable outlets / phone outlets with up to 1 Hour battery Backup! I think it's fiine for my Quad w/2 17" monitors and a G-RAID to save & quit. Lifetime $200,000 Equipment Surge Protection - even from a direct lightning strike (I lost 5 pieces of gear last summer when my house was struck by lightning in Florida).

...and Tripplite DOES includes a Firewire connection to the unit and PowerAlert software that automatically saves open files & shuts down your machine...but not for Macs

All a good deal anyway for $99.

- Joey



Post Edited (01-23-06 16:54)

When life gives you dilemmas...make dilemmanade.

just curious, when you were hit with that outtage, did your apc fully auto shutdown on it's own - i mean shutting down your computer, not just apps running. wondering if i can trust my software to work how i think it's supposed to on my mac.

the outage actually did not hit my area. I was asking about batteries because I just got a G5 and wanted your thoughts on some good battery systems to back it up. sorry i can't be of more help.

Jon