Re: Now I'm Buying my first i5. :) -- MIDRANGE-L

Brad,

OK Several answers here to some points raised.

First, I like Tripp-Lite. Their stuff has worked flawlessly for all the stuff at Frankeni.com Not only are they an official sponsor of Frankeni.com they are also a System i user.

Second: Amps isn't the important number, KVA is. Since all the smaller i5s (basically up though the 4 way systems) can run on pretty much anything from 100 volts up to 240 volts, the amps will vary depending on the input voltage. Ohms law however tells us that the KVA will be the same no matter what the voltage. Also be careful of the temptation to go straight to watts because that doesn't take into account Power Factor.

Second. the thing about surge protection and such is important ut it depends on the type of UPS. The true on-line variety automatically includes surge protection because it takess the AC to DC and back to AC constantly. Not surprisingly this type of UPS also handles drops and surges the best of any type. A third attribute of this type of UPS is that they are almost universally generator friendly.

Very small UPSs are typically 'stand-by' meaning that they pass the line voltage through to the load 99.97% of the time and only provide power from battery when the utlity fails. These low end units are almost NEVER generator friendly and trying it will almost certainly fail.

Units between the true on-line type and the stand by type may have the ability to 'boost' voltage when there are sags (brown outs) and block surges with surge suppression. They may or may not be able to run on a generator, check with the manufacturer.

Fourth. What happens when yo have no UPS and your development system drops like a stone in a power outage. Usually nothing. Your disk cache is battery backed up and the database will recover back tot he previous transaction. OK If you are editing with SEU (shame on you) you MAY lose your changes but probably not. So it's not a huge risk really but it does save that IPL time...

- Larry

Bradley V. Stone wrote:

In the process of finalizing my purchase of a 515 through the development
lease program. I decided on purchasing outright instead of leasing.

In talking with a collegue, he's mentioning I should have a UPS with a power
conditioner.

Now, not wanting to spend another couple grand on something like that, what
specs should I be looking for in a UPS? Lets say the power goes out at
night and I don't wake up. Battery on UPS dies and I don't do a "nice
shutdown" anyhow. I can see it being useful for power flickers which
happens during t-storms here often.. or ice storms.

As far as the power conditioner, is that necessary? Never used one before
on any of my PCs.

Just looking for advice on what I need to look for in a UPS, and a good
place to get one. Sams? Best Buy? Office MAx? Online? NewEgg?

Thanks!

Bradley V. Stone
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