Cyberpower CP1500AVRLCD UPS - LCD Display 1500VA/900W AVR 8-Outlet RJ11/RJ45/Coax Tower USB
by Cyber Power
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List Price: Our Price: $142.60 You Save: $87.35 (38%) Availability: Usually ships in 3-4 business days Category: CE See more product details |
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Customers in the UK,
Buy this product at amazon.co.uk
for British Pounds
Digital Cameras Photo Reviews of Cyberpower CP1500AVRLCD UPS - LCD Display 1500VA/900W AVR 8-Outlet RJ11/RJ45/Coax Tower USB
Customer Review: CyberPower CP1500
Summary: 5 Stars
ONE: After much researching... you can't plug one UPS into another UPS to extend power. You can damage both.
You can get two, one for the PC, one for the monitor.
TWO: The newer UPS models check your 120V wiring. If this unit finds a wiring fault (little light on the back) the UPS WILL NOT BE RECOGNIZED by your PC. Nothing much about this is stated on their web site nor manual ! ! Trying to install the software will shut your PC down as the software shuts down if it can't find the UPS. Yes, for a few seconds there is a cancel screen !
So I buy this unit for my Vista Business 32bit PC. It says it's Vista 64bit and Win7 compliant, not many are and everyone is moving to the faster 64 bit Win 7. I would first download the newer PowerPanel version.
As stated above this and other newer UPS models, will check and NOT WORK with bad wiring (reverse hot, no ground). So if you are getting a newer model UPS get a wall mount outlet checker for $4 at your local discount store. They plug into whatever wall outlet/extension cord you are going to use for the UPS. They have three lights, two amber and red. If just the two amber light up... no problem. I had a bad extension cord and the UPS started but would not be recognized after loading the software, then it would shut down the PC. I found the "fault light" on the back and switched the extension cord. That fixed the fault light but the UPS would still not be recognized. Reinstall, upgrade to the newer version PowerPanel, nothing would keep the software from shutting down the PC except the "cancel" on the shutdown reminder.
I find, by accident, that if the UPS finds a "fault" the UPS will stay in "fault" until the UPS is shutdown. I just changed my bad ext. cord and never turned it off the PC1500. Once everything was turned off and restarted the driver was loaded, UPS found and I wrote to the company to suggest they put this on their FAQ.
First: Check the "fault wiring" light. Second: if it went into fault, you must shut down the UPS and fix the problem.
Doesn't everyone have their PC right next to a wall outlet ! ! If you are going to try this with a two wire ext. cord , or broke off the ground tip to fit it in your two wire wall outlet(no ground), or you filed the cord end to make it fit the plug (reverse ground), this unit will power up.. just not be recognized by the software. Even the web site is not accurate for all models as the "fault light" on this model will either be on (bad) or off. The web site says it should blink on/off, but not with this model. Wouldn't that O.K. blinking light waste power? Oh, and by the way, the nice demo image shows a "blue LCD screen". That only stays on for 15 seconds or so. It goes off as an energy saver (.0001 watt ?) and to "save the LCD from burnout". So to see what's on the UPS LCD, you must press the button below the LCD. It does have 5 different screens with lots of tech info about the outlet power and stuff. Gee, everyone puts a UPS were you can easily reach it. None of these LCD items are on the PowerPanel pop-up screen. So buy a short stick too !
Customer Review: It works fine
Summary: 5 Stars
About a week and a half ago a lightning storm blew my power out about 3 times in a half hour period. I work from home doing software development and having my development system blow away is not good.
I decided I was long overdue for power backup so I could at least shut down gracefully. I did the usual look up of UPS reviews on line, decided on a unit, and went to Amazon to buy one.
I read the Amazon reviews for the unit I wanted and decided against it. Instead I bought the Cyberpower CP1500AVRLCD. It had more bang for the buck and only 4 out of scads of reviews were negative. One was about the industrial smell when it was unpacked and how it was sent back without even turning it on. I could live with industrial smell for a few days in exchange for peace of mind. I dropped the negatives to 3.
(When I received the unit, the smell wasn't bad at all. The poor lady must have received her unit from a different Chinese factory than mine...)
I ordered the unit and used the 5 - 7 day free shipping option. I received it on the 3rd day.
I have hooked up my computer, the monitor, my wireless mouse, and a 2 terabyte backup USB drive to the UPS. Yesterday it paid off. Another lightning storm and my house was really slammed with short power outages. My system didn't even notice. I barely did. I did have WiFi drop, but I was busy writing code, so I didn't miss it. No worries about two hours of work in the bit bucket. No corrupted files. Since the outages were of short duration, I didn't even have to stop working. And the software estimated I had 43 minutes of power left when the power company came back to stay. It was great. I no longer flinch when I hear thunder in the distance.
The Cyberpower sits next to my computer tower and quietly does its job. The hardware works as advertised.
Another nice feature of the UPS is the software that accompanies the machine. I'm running Windows 7 Professional and the software works. It puts my system to sleep and wakes it up on schedule. It will turn off the machine if it's running off of the UPS and the batteries are about drained.
It also displays the power utilization of the items plugged into it. I find that my computer, 23 inch monitor, mouse, and USB disk drive only use 100 watts of power. That's one light bulb. I no longer worry about power consumption while running disk compressions or other unattended tasks tasks over night. With the UPS, the computer will stay up and it doesn't really cost that much. (At pennies per kilowatt hour, 100 watts 24/7 isn't even noticeable on my electric bill. Now if I could only do something about Texas and air conditioning requirements...)
I can't believe that I waited so long to buy a UPS. In three months I'll spend more on ink than I did on this machine. As far as I'm concerned, it paid for itself yesterday.
I like it.
Customer Review: A worthwhile alternative to APC to consider:
Summary: 5 Stars
I work as a network technician and have used APC equipment for many years. Their high-end units have always done well for us. For many years, I also used their Smart-UPS brand for my home network needs. As they've become old and had problems, it became more economical to replace them, instead of fixing them, especially, since for my desktops, the industry was moving to USB for signaling, and away from serial ports. My rack still has older 1400 VA SU units using SNMP management cards, but I needed a new desktop solution.
For the past three years, I stuck to APC's consumer products and have been very disappointed. They have more problems than the older units I've grown to love, and because they change models so often, it's harder to find a battery replacement. Plus, they just have a sort of cheapness about them.
With my latest computer purchase, a dual quad Mac Pro, my older 800VA APC just couldn't handle it. So, I decided to try this Cyberpower 1500 and have been very pleased with it, using it for about 2 months so far. The signaling and reported time is more reliable than the APC I was using. Although it should be said, any consumer UPS will not guarantee exact runtimes, load measurements, etc. - For what you are paying for this amount of capacity, some sacrifice must be realized. If you do your calculations correctly, and use it as needed (surges, brown-outs and limited black-outs), these units will fulfill your needs. If you need super accurate measurements and reliable AC power generation, then you should consider a high end unit, such as what APC offers for data centers.
The load reading for this unit, when measured with a Kill-A-Watt is pretty accurate. I like the soft blue lighting with auto-off. I connect my two, 24" LCDs to the APC 800VA unit, and the Cyberpower handles the Mac Pro with three, external FireWire drives with no problems. Testing it, by turning off the circuit breaker (shouldn't pull the cord from the wall), reports about 20 minutes of runtime, which seems about right. I've left it on battery power for about 10 minutes, and the readings remained fairly constant. I live out in the country at the end of our power grid, so I get a lot of "dirty" power. Brown-outs are common, and my larger UPS units have the ability to generate statistical logs each day of the power fluctuation. I feel pretty safe with this unit, and wouldn't hesitate to purchase another one.
Lastly, the software both Cyberpower and APC provides for the Mac OS, is really bad! I prefer to just use the Mac's SysPrefs to configure the UPS settings and leave it at that. Both companies desperately need a re-write of their OS X software.
Customer Review: Excellent value! Must-have for people with computers
Summary: 5 Stars
The 1500VA CyberPower UPS worked flawlessly. I was not sure how much load I needed for my PC and network hardware, so I opted to get the biggest unit since it was on sale. It turns out my AMD Phenom II X3 720 w/ HD 4870 GPU PC only used about 250-300W of power during full load. I added the network hardware and the total was well below the 900W estimated load capacity of the unit. The positive aspect of oversizing the UPS is to obtain extra runtime when the line voltage is gone due to a blackout. The pros of using a UPS is better protection against brownouts or intermittent power failures. A surge suppressor (which is also integrated into the CyberPower UPS) contains transient voltage suppressors (TVS) that prevent excessive voltage spikes from damaging your hardware, but it does not protect against brownouts (undervoltage) or intermittent failures. You can damage your computer from frequent hard shutoffs, much like during a power failure.
This unit is not light, it weighs nearly 30 lb but does not take up a lot of room. When the power is cut, the small DC fan will power up and it will sound an audible alarm. The blue backlit LCD screen provides useful information like input/output voltage, frequency, current power demands, and reserve time. The proper way to test its function is by turning off the power to that outlet via your circuit breaker or fuse box. Do not yank the power cord because the UPS requires the ground wire. Also make sure your outlet has a functional ground wire.
This unit does not produce a pure sinusoidal output voltage. It is an approximated sine wave which can cause transformers to hum or make odd noises. My Corsair TX750W PSU in the PC was making a weird humming noise while the PC ran off the UPS power.
Pros: Affordable UPS with lots of reserve time and capacity. It has an informative LCD display.
Cons: Heavy, does not produce a true sine wave output.
Overall: Excellent value, and it is a must-buy for gamers or people who want to keep their PC from being damaged during a brownout or power failure.
Customer Review: works, stable, decent surge protection
Summary: 5 Stars
good product...bought 1, tried it out, and was so satisfied, I bought another for my brother's computer. We have frequent power outages and brown-outs, but it's held up solid (1.5 months so far). Battery time seems to be proportional to power drain and within the limits of what they said it was. Honestly, the surge protection was the reason I purchased it (due to the power fluctuations) and it looks like that's held up too. It DOES come with the charged battery already installed in it, which may be a problem for some folks but wasn't for me. It also tends to either come in just the retail box (if you shop newegg) or packed slightly better with the retail box in another box with very slight packing (if you shop amazon)...I ordered the second from amazon because I didn't like the way newegg shipped it the first time. Compared to the APC battery backups (the real ones, mind you, not the strips), Cyberpower seems to have a smaller battery run time but higher wattage capability for each price point (with cyberpower having superior surge protection). The packing of everything now-a-days seems to have gotten really bad so inspect accordingly. Also, be aware that a lot of power supply companies have installed crappy filters to save themselves 5 bucks on their all-made-in-China products, and then are trying to put the blame on you or your battery back-up saying it needs to be "pure sine-wave". Most people don't want to spend $350+ dollars just so the power supply company can save an extra 5 bucks...so, watch out and read the reviews of your power supply before you buy it! Don't be fooled, that's a power supply issue, not a battery back-up issue (fortunately, I dodged that bullet by reading the reviews). Also, this isn't pure sine-wave, but it doesn't claim to be and is priced accordingly. All-told, I'm very happy with this product, but watch out and read the reviews! Quality for most things has really gone down lately, but, fortunately, this isn't one of them...