Oliver Walter United Kingdom Local time: 12:01 Member (2005) German to English + ...
Another reason to have a UPS, simple telephones, Watts
Nov 3, 2010
I have a laptop and use it as a backup to my desktop PC but that didn't help me the way a UPS would have done a few weeks ago. The mains power failed just before I was intending to send a completed translation back to the agency. The necessary files were on the laptop but the broadband router needs mains power, so I was unable to access the Internet. A UPS would have enabled me to use the router.
BTW, the possibility of a power failure is a reason why you should ensure you have a telephone that does not depend on mains power. I have a "clever" telephone with an answering machine et al., but if the mains fails it doesn't work, so I also have a very simple phone that needs no external power supply. I used it to ring the agency to explain why my job would be late - the power cut lasted for nearly 5 hours (in a small area of north-west greater London - this only happens once every few years).
While writing this, it occurred to me that I might have been able to use the modem in the laptop and use dial-up to access the internet. The feasibility of that would have depended on the size of the data I was sending as dial-up only sends at about 4 kB/s and the laptop batteries only last for 1 hour (perhaps less when the modem is active).
Power consumption: As Anton pointed out, the rating of the PC's Power Supply Unit does not equal the consumption of the PC - the rating is the maximum available from the supply. I have a plug-in wattmeter and found that my desktop PC consumes about 100 W, although the PSU is rated at about 300 or 400 W.
Oliver
[Edited at 2010-11-04 00:02 GMT]
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about power failures, they are very common even where I live, i.e. near a big city!
and, power failures aren't the ONLY reason to have an UPS: overvoltages, surges and spikes, lightning overvoltages and voltage transients, are all issues that can deadly damage a PC
this month, for example, I had 8 little black-outs, from few milliseconds to some minute, and 6 voltage transients and this summer, I remember 2 or 3 lightning overvoltages
anyway, having had 3 UPS (one Innovatec and 2 APC) since I started this job, I think that some things are important, a part of runtime (28 minutes at 180 Watts with my current APC):
1 - the presence of filtered and powered sockets, as a scanner is not a core unit, so you can simply filter it to spare battery power
2 - the number of both filtered and powered sockets (current unit has 4 powered and 2 filtered)
3 - the option to have phone lines filtered too (current unit has Modem/Fax/DSL/Ethernet protection)
4 - the option to change the battery without switching off the unit
my 2 cents
Claudio
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Gianni Pastore Italy Local time: 13:01 Member (2007) English to Italian
TOPIC STARTER
Yes, but...
Nov 4, 2010
Oliver Walter wrote:
A UPS would have enabled me to use the router.
Most of the UPS I am checking (100-150 EUR range) only have 2 mains out (monitor + CPU). The router cannot be backed up, AFAIK.
Claudio Porcellana wrote:
...
Claudio, APC are the best, although a bit out of budget. I'll see how far I can stretch!
[Edited at 2010-11-04 12:29 GMT]
[Edited at 2010-11-04 12:29 GMT]
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