Trying to run 3d benchmarks on my new computer my early bx era UPS blows its circuit breaker, so its time for a new one. (250w 170va rated)

I plan on a 500-650 watt rated unit, but don't know if its worth getting the cheaper version power regulation,and/or sign wave out put. Two line power regulation is out of my price range.

I have a Tagan APF 480watt unit

Any advice would be appreciated

Thanks

I have an APC Back-UPS XS 1000, it's like a consumer version of the RS1000, I think the main diff is iirc the RS1000 can take an extra external battery and the XS can't, but the XS only cost me something like CAN$100 on sale. Works great, my laptop, hub, cable modem, monitor and PC are all on it, only draws ~250W total (two hds, p4 2.4 at 100%, x800 in 2d... hard to check the APC util in 3d ). Also remember battery time isn't linear with your load as a proportion of maximum... I didn't realize this UPS would be such overkill, but 250W of stuff on this UPS will run for around 21 mins compared to, say, 6 mins fully loaded, which is great.

Thanks for the response Straker, sounds like a good ups.

My real question is if the voltage regulation of sub $150 US UPS's is useful or safe when you can get a straight stand by UPS with the same rating for 1/2 the price.

AC regulation is good where I live, but you never know about the future.

Ive googled this but I can't find the trees for the forest. If anyone knows a good site that explains this stuff it would be appreciated.

We'll start with this one. Never ever EVER get a UPS who rates the Watts higher than the VAs. VA = PF * Watts. Power Factor at the theoretical best is 1.00. So at BEST your VAs will be the same as your Watts, but at worst, it'll be a lot higher (as much as 2 times), so it's not unreasonable to get a UPS that is capable of 300VA or more (but if you have a PSU with Active PFC, then you can get by with a lot less).

I've used this link to help me better understand UPSes in the past, but there may be better and more up to date literature out there now.

Thanks, sthayashi

I reversed the watts and va, thanks for the link!

well, normal price of the XS 1000VA looks to be around $130US, so nowhere near as cheap (that is, bad) as i made it out to sound.
Hard to tell how "good" its voltage regulation is, but I live downtown in a fairly large city so it wasn't something I really cared about. Mine still switches to battery once every week or two for overvoltage and once every few months for undervoltage, when left at the strictest settings, so it seems to at least be doing its job considering an offline UPS would do nothing. Did its thing this year during a 5-10 min blackout and for a bit after a lightning strike too, but well duh.
Can't really comment on any other brands though, considered Belkin for a bit since they make a ton of different fairly decent-quality consumer thingies, their entry-level UPSes are less expensive than APC's but the one I wanted from them (equiv to my current one) retailed for like $200.