It's downright negligent to ignore the power needs of your high-end hardware. While many power users go to the trouble of tracking down solid PSUs, we recommend going a step further and investing in battery backup. We round up four enthusiast units.
Few events are more upsetting than getting to the toughest part of a game and having your PC go down. Less traumatic (but still troublesome) are situations like losing a video only seconds before you’re done re-encoding it. Even losing a carefully-written email before it can be sent is enough to push some Tom's Hardware editors past the edge of sanity (Ed.: *raises hand*).
Enthusiasts often rely on little more than a surge protector to keep their hardware safe. But these devices can’t prevent brownouts from resetting a computer, nor can they prevent blackouts from stopping the computer in its tracks completely. The inevitable result is lost work, even when that “work” is an entertainment-oriented task.
While mainstream users have long been able to buy low-cost uninterruptable power supplies, the unique demands of enthusiast-class hardware have often put this type of protection out of reach.
A quick look at the specifications recommended by four top UPS manufacturers for our enthusiast build could help to explain the enormous price disparity.
| Enthusiast UPS Features | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| APC Smart-UPS SMT1500 | CyberPower CP1500PFCLCD | Opti-UPS Durable DS1500B | Tripp Lite SmartPro SMART1500SLT | |
| Topology | Line-Interactive | Line-Interactive | Double-Conversion | Line-Interactive |
| Wave Form | Pure Sine | Adaptive Sine | Pure Sine | Pure Sine |
| Wattage | 980 W | 900 W | 1050 W | 900 W |
| VA Rating | 1440 VA | 1500 VA | 1500 VA | 1500 VA |
| UPS Outlets | Eight | Five | Six | Eight |
| Surge Only | None | Five | None | None |
| Power Groups | Two (4+4 Jacks) | One | Two (4+2 Jacks) | One |
| Dimensions | 17.3" x6.7" x8.6" | 14.4" x4.0" x10.5" | 17.0" x6.0" x9.4" | 13.3" x6.7" x10.2" |
| Weight | 52.5 Pounds | 24.8 Pounds | 38.4 Pounds | 44.5 Pounds |
| Web Price | $442 | $191 | $548 | $338 |
Notice that all of the units in today’s review produce something that approximates a true sine wave, something that costs far more to produce than the stepped square waves of lower-cost parts. We’ll explain why this is so important on our next page, before going into the individual characteristics that make each model special. LINK
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