08/1997
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.reviews From: barrett@cs.umass.edu (Daniel Barrett) Subject: REVIEW: American Power Conversion Smart-UPS 400 Message-ID: <1992Sep2.175448.15156@menudo.uh.edu> Followup-To: comp.sys.amiga.hardware Keywords: hardware, UPS, commercial Sender: amiga-reviews@math.uh.edu (comp.sys.amiga.reviews moderator) Reply-To: barrett@cs.umass.edu Organization: The Amiga Online Review Column - ed. Daniel J. Barrett Date: Wed, 2 Sep 1992 17:54:48 GMT PRODUCT NAME Smart-UPS 400 BRIEF DESCRIPTION The Smart-UPS 400 is an uninterruptable power supply (UPS) which protects my Amiga against power outages, dropouts, and power surges. AUTHOR/COMPANY INFORMATION Name: American Power Conversion Address: 132 Fairgrounds Road PO Box 278 West Kingston, RI 02892 Telephone: (401) 789-5735 LIST PRICE Unknown, but typical street price is $320-450 (US dollars). SPECIAL HARDWARE AND SOFTWARE REQUIREMENTS None, except that the total power and current rating of your computer system should be within the specifications of the UPS. (Even so, my system is rated "higher" than the specs, but everything still works. See below.) REVIEW The electrical service in my neighborhood is very flakey. We have power outages maybe every 3 months, and power dropouts once a month, where the electricity shuts off or dips for about 1-2 seconds. Of course, all this activity is dangerous for my Amiga, so I bought an Uninterruptable Power Supply (UPS), and life has been wonderful ever since. The APC Smart-UPS 400 is a "desktop" model, which means it sits underneath the computer and/or monitor. It is made of sturdy metal and supports my 56-pound (26 kg) monitor with no difficulty. The unit is dead silent, having no internal fan. (Actually, if you listen very, very carefully with the computer and monitor turned off, you can detect a tiny, high-pitched whine. It is completely unnoticable when the computer is on.) There are 4 three-prong electrical outlets built in. One of them is a special MASTER outlet. If you desire, you can turn on the entire UPS by turning on the device plugged into the MASTER outlet. For example, if you plug your computer into the MASTER outlet, then your computer's own on/off switch will turn the whole UPS on and off! I don't use this feature; I just use the UPS's on/off switch because it's more accessible than my Amiga's. There is also a computer interface to the UPS so you can automate shutdowns. To my knowledge, there is no Amiga software that supports this, though. PERFORMANCE The Smart-UPS 400 has worked perfectly since I bought it 4 months ago. It has protected my Amiga 3000T (280 watt power supply), 17" color monitor, and SupraFAXmodem completely from these power outages and dropouts. You can literally pull the UPS's electrical cord out of the wall outlet, and everything keeps running without a glitch. Before I got the UPS, my monitor image used to "jump" when I used an electric pencil sharpener in the same room. Now, I can sharpen pencils, run a vacuum cleaner, do soldering, etc., without disturbing the computer. When the power goes out in my home, the UPS has enough backup power to keep my setup running for about 7 minutes. This amount of time will vary greatly depending on how much power your particular setup draws. According to the test diagnostics, my system uses approximately 70% of the UPS's capacity. The UPS will beep once every 30 seconds while power is out (this gets annoying sometimes), and then once per second during its last 2 minutes of life (so you know to shut things down now). The documentation explicitly states that this UPS must NOT be used with a laser printer. "Laser printers require too much power and will trip the UPS circuit breaker," it says. SPECIFICATIONS Output power for the 120VAC model: Nominal voltage: 117 VAC Output current: 3.3 Amps AC max Maximum power: 400 VA computer @ p.f. = 0.63 or 250 Watts resistive load Waveform: Sinewave, max distortion 5% @ full load Frequency: 50/60 Hz +- 1 Hz Transfer time: 2 ms typical, 3.5 ms max Battery type: maintenance-free sealed lead calcium, spillproof Recharge time: 5 hours from total discharge Protection: Input: circuit breaker, 5 Amp at 125 VAC Surge: 270 Joule, 6500 Amp, zero clamping response time; tested to IEEE 587, Categories A and B, and IEC 664; Classes I, II, III, and IV. Noise: Full-time EMI/RFI filter Output: electronic overcurrent protection (inverter operating). Dimensions: 15.5" long x 11.9" wide x 2.25" high (39.4 cm x 30.2 cm x 5.7 cm) Weight: 17 pounds (7.7 kg) Color: platinum (similar to Amiga beige) SPECIFICATIONS vs. REALITY Observant people will notice that my computer has a power supply rated higher (280 watts) than the Smart-UPS 400 is (250 watts). In addition, my system's amperage is rated about 6.5 amps, which is higher than the 3.3 amps of the UPS. Even so, the UPS works fine, operating at only 70% of its capacity! I called APC's customer support (800) number to ask about this. They said that the amp rating on the computer is most likely very conservative -- it won't use 6.5 amps except maybe at the instant you power it on. (This is called "in-rush current.") In addition, just because a computer's power supply is rated at 280 watts doesn't mean that the full 280 watts is being *used*. In other words, the UPS is fine for my system. LIKES AND DISLIKES The Smart-UPS 400 is extremely quiet (no fan) and works perfectly. I have no complaints. COMPARISON TO OTHER SIMILAR PRODUCTS I bought this particular UPS for several reasons: (1) Our computer science department uses this brand for its workstations, and one of the systems administrators recommended them as reliable. (2) It uses sine wave, not square wave, power. I don't know the techincal details, but sine wave is supposed to be better (and usually more expensive). According to one knowledgable Net friend, "...some of the products on the market are junk, providing square wave output and very poor regulation and inadequate and unsynchronized switchover. With UPS systems, you DO get what you pay for. Be [careful] of the $200 units." (My friend recommended Safe Power Systems as a good UPS manufacturer.) (3) My local dealer carried it. I like to support local dealers when possible. (And when they deserve it. :-)) (4) All I need is enough power to prevent unexpected shutdowns. That is, if power goes out, I need a minute or two to turn things off myself. If I needed 30-60 minutes of backup power, this unit would not be sufficient. SUPPORT I contacted the company once to ask what some of the specifications mean. The technical support person was extremely friendly, courteous, and professional. He answered all my questions patiently. They have a toll-free (800) number for customer service. WARRANTEE 2 years, covering defects in materials and workmanship. The warrantee applies only to the original purchaser. CONCLUSIONS What can I say -- it works!! It was trivial to set up, worked the first time, and has worked without a problem for 4 months. I recommend this UPS without hesitation. COPYRIGHT NOTICE This review is Copyright 1992 Daniel J. Barrett. All rights reserved. It may be freely distributed according to the terms of the comp.sys.amiga.reviews Charter. --- Dan Barrett, Moderator, comp.sys.amiga.reviews Send reviews to: amiga-reviews-submissions@math.uh.edu Request information: amiga-reviews-requests@math.uh.edu General discussion: amiga-reviews@math.uh.edu