UPS and Active PFC Power Supply compatibility table.

[skeletor]

The electricity which comes to your home, your AC supply is a pure sinusoid wave.

But there are two types of UPS in the market:

1) Pure Sinewave UPS: which produce pure sinusoid AC.

2) Stepped Sinewave UPS or Modified Sinewave UPS: which produce an 'approximate' sinusoid AC.

*s4.postimg.org/x0z6wfdlp/modified-wave-compared-to-pure-sine-wave-inverte.gif

Power Factor correction is a mechanism which you find in good PSUs, that helps in reducing input harmonics if you have a "noisy AC input". PFC can either be implemented by just using a simple filter circuitry (passive PFC) or by using feedback and control (active PFC). The former is cheaper, and the latter is better and expensive for the manufacturer.

Now, the reason why I'm creating this thread is, good PSUs have Active PFC, and few of these PSUs don't tend to play nice with Stepped Sinewave UPSs. Not all, but some.

I'm creating this thread to tabulate, and would be looking for contributions from you guys.

PSU UPS Model and Output Type Comments
Corsair CX430v2 (Active PFC)
APC Back UPS RS600 ( BR600CI-IN ) with stepped sinewave output
Has worked fine for me > 4 years. System = A8-3870K + HD 6950.

 

[true_lies]

PSU
Corsair VS450

UPS Model and Output Type
BPE Switch 625 Line Interactive (Not sure if true or modified sine wave)

Comments
PSU since 2013, UPS since 2008 (Battery change every 2 years)
System - Q6600 @ 3GHz + 2x4GB + HD 5670 (@ 840/1040)

 

[billubakra]

The electricity which comes to your home, your AC supply is a pure sinusoid wave.

But there are two types of UPS in the market:

1) Pure Sinewave UPS: which produce pure sinusoid AC.

2) Stepped Sinewave UPS or Modified Sinewave UPS: which produce an 'approximate' sinusoid AC.

*s4.postimg.org/x0z6wfdlp/modified-wave-compared-to-pure-sine-wave-inverte.gif

Power Factor correction is a mechanism which you find in good PSUs, that helps in reducing input harmonics if you have a "noisy AC input". PFC can either be implemented by just using a simple filter circuitry (passive PFC) or by using feedback and control (active PFC). The former is cheaper, and the latter is better and expensive for the manufacturer.

Now, the reason why I'm creating this thread is, good PSUs have Active PFC, and few of these PSUs don't tend to play nice with Stepped Sinewave UPSs. Not all, but some.

I'm creating this thread to tabulate, and would be looking for contributions from you guys.

PSU	UPS Model and Output Type	Comments
Corsair CX430v2 (Active PFC)	APC Back UPS RS600 (BR600CI-IN) with stepped sinewave output	Has worked fine for me > 4 years. System = A8-3870K + HD 6950. - [MENTION=26711]ico[/MENTION]

Regarding the bold part and keeping physics out of the picture, what are the things that a layman should look for before purchasing psu, ups and inverter?

 

[skeletor]

Regarding the bold part and keeping physics out of the picture, what are the things that a layman should look for before purchasing psu, ups and inverter?

PSU should be a good one. Read reviews, to know which ones are a good one. The very same company can produce bad models and good models. Things to look for - efficiency, voltage regulation and ripple.

All good PSUs will have Active PFC, and this can cause a few issues with UPSs having stepped sine-wave output. So, google up and buy the combination accordingly.

Inverter, always buy pure sine-wave inverter. They are cheap now.

 

[billubakra]

PSU should be a good one. Read reviews, to know which ones are a good one. The very same company can produce bad models and good models. Things to look for - efficiency, voltage regulation and ripple.

All good PSUs will have Active PFC, and this can cause a few issues with UPSs having stepped sine-wave output. So, google up and buy the combination accordingly.

Inverter, always buy pure sine-wave inverter. They are cheap now.

In a nutshell, inverter=pure sine wave. UPS=stepped sine wave. PSU=??

 

[skeletor]

In a nutshell, inverter=pure sine wave. UPS=stepped sine wave. PSU=??

PSU takes in alternate current, and gives out direct current, which is supposed to be a constant.

 

[billubakra]

PSU takes in alternate current, and gives out direct current, which is supposed to be a constant.

Mere bhai physics hated me in school, whatever you said went above my head. Layman language please.

 

[skeletor]

Mere bhai physics hated me in school, whatever you said went above my head. Layman language please.

Google karo. These are basics.

This should give you an idea. Direct current - Wikipedi

 

[bssunilreddy]

PSU
Seasonic M12II 620w

UPS Model and Output Type
APC BR-1000G-IN, Line Interactive (Stepped approximation to sine wave)

Comments
PSU since 2015, UPS since 2015 (Battery change every 2 years)
System - Intel Core i5 6600K @ 3.5GHz + 8GB DDR4 + GTX950+ 480GB SSD

 

[mercurymonster]

PSU
Corsair RM650x

UPS Model
APC BR1100CI/RS1100 660 Watt - 1100 VA Series

Comments
UPS Since 2012 (Battery Changed last month/Exide)

PSU Since June(Newone) System - Rayzen7 1700@3Ghz + 16GB + RX 580 + 250 ssd

No Backup at all. Poor Customer Service. Very Noisy.Doubt whether it's even charging the batteries.
Service technician couldn't find any problem blames on PSU.Advises buying 1500+ rated device.

Please Suggest Good UPS. Very Urgent.

 

[bssunilreddy]

PSU
Corsair RM650x

UPS Model
APC BR1100CI/RS1100 660 Watt - 1100 VA Series

Comments
UPS Since 2012 (Battery Changed last month/Exide)

PSU Since June(Newone) System - Rayzen7 1700@3Ghz + 16GB + RX 580 + 250 ssd

No Backup at all. Poor Customer Service. Very Noisy.Doubt whether it's even charging the batteries.
Service technician couldn't find any problem blames on PSU.Advises buying 1500+ rated device.

Please Suggest Good UPS. Very Urgent.

UPS, Cyber, Cyberpower, Uninterruptible Power Supply, Power, Back up, Computer, Accessories, High Backup, Skyton Electric, Offline, OFFLINE, Line Interactive, 1 KVA, 1000va, Copper Transformer
UPS Model Info:CyberPower

 

[nac]

PSU - Antec VP450P (Active PFC)
UPS - Luminous UPS Sine 875VA
Have been using this combo for about a year now...

 

[topgear]

PSU : Corsair RM650X
UPS : APC Back UPS BR600CI-IN) with stepped sinewave output ( 2 years old )
Working fine since last 1 month with the PSU - PSU bought last month

BTW, The UPS also worked good with Corsair GS600 and VS450.

 

[ssb1551]

Corsair CX500M with APC 800VA in the intel i5 rig. Has run without any glitches so far.
Seasonic S12II 620 with APC BR-1000IN (the one where one can attach an additional battery). Running fine since I upgraded to Ryzen 1600X.

 

[Shade97]

PSU
Seasonic M12II 620w

UPS Model and Output Type
APC BR-1000G-IN, Line Interactive (Stepped approximation to sine wave)

Comments
PSU since 2015, UPS since 2015 (Battery change every 2 years)
System - Intel Core i5 6600K @ 3.5GHz + 8GB DDR4 + GTX950+ 480GB SSD

i have the same PSU as yours,a search on amazon.in return this UPS,it is the same one you use,correct?
how much backup time do you get with this setup?

 

[bssunilreddy]

i have the same PSU as yours,a search on amazon.in return this UPS,it is the same one you use,correct?
how much backup time do you get with this setup?

10mins I think because after that I didn't check.

Sent from my Moto G (5) Plus using Tapatalk

 

[heartless]

PSU: Corsair CX600
UPS: APC BR1100CI-IN

UPS worked for 3 years.

I was using APC BR1100CI-IN for 3 years before it failed. Now, it's out of warranty and can't be repaired according to APC technician. So, looking for a new one of similar capacity. I was thinking of buying APC again but so many 1 star reviews on Amazon is putting me off. I see many of you are also using APC. How's your experience been so far?

 

[whitestar_999]

Don't blindly follow amazon/flipkart reviews as quality matters more than quantity(1 real review is better than 10 incorrect/wrong reviews).e.g.When we are talking about heavy items like UPS,the quality of shipping service also matters a lot.A good example of this is internal hard disk which is a relatively heavy & delicate item & if you read some good detailed reviews you would find that amazon actually packed these internal hdd in a cardbox with not even a bubble wrap so no wonder the reports/reviews of failure would be very high for such hdd.

APC is an established brand so unless it is a mass failure or some technical issue(e.g.latest models too sensitive to Indian voltage fluctuations),it is safe to assume that APC quality has not gone down in a big way.In any case you should not believe a 2-3 line 1 star review without any details.e.g.somebody saying UPS failed within a month mentioning that it happened despite living in an area with almost no voltage fluctuations & no other devices connected to UPS besides an avg PC & not a gaming PC which might overload even a 1kva UPS under full load depending on gfx card,is more credible than a review saying UPS failed within a month with a gaming PC/normal internet usage where user might be living in an area with serious voltage fluctuations & running a GTX1080Ti under heavy load with an overclocked/older generation quad core processor.

 

[billubakra]

fakespot.com for spotting fake reviews

 

[heartless]

Don't blindly follow amazon/flipkart reviews as quality matters more than quantity(1 real review is better than 10 incorrect/wrong reviews).e.g.When we are talking about heavy items like UPS,the quality of shipping service also matters a lot.A good example of this is internal hard disk which is a relatively heavy & delicate item & if you read some good detailed reviews you would find that amazon actually packed these internal hdd in a cardbox with not even a bubble wrap so no wonder the reports/reviews of failure would be very high for such hdd.

APC is an established brand so unless it is a mass failure or some technical issue(e.g.latest models too sensitive to Indian voltage fluctuations),it is safe to assume that APC quality has not gone down in a big way.In any case you should not believe a 2-3 line 1 star review without any details.e.g.somebody saying UPS failed within a month mentioning that it happened despite living in an area with almost no voltage fluctuations & no other devices connected to UPS besides an avg PC & not a gaming PC which might overload even a 1kva UPS under full load depending on gfx card,is more credible than a review saying UPS failed within a month with a gaming PC/normal internet usage where user might be living in an area with serious voltage fluctuations & running a GTX1080Ti under heavy load with an overclocked/older generation quad core processor.

I agree with you but if there are huge number of negative reviews, I usually assume all of them can't be clueless. This, coupled with my own experience with APC, made me apprehensive. Anyways, I decided to go with APC again. Thanks!

fakespot.com for spotting fake reviews

I don't know how reliable this is but according to this, more than 80% reviews are high quality.