So, if you have Panther, you don't necessarily have to buy a UPS that comes with shutdown software -- you can configure Panther to do an automatic shutdown if the power goes out?

Or in my case, just don't install the software that comes with the unit... I haven't yet had an outage to see what happens though...

Hello All,

With the Dual 2.5 GHz arriving tomorrow (or Tuesday depending on FedEx), I am replacing several devices.

Does anyone know the total load that would determine the size of the UPS for my new system?

NEW SYSTEM/LOAD:
Dual 2.5 GHz G5 w/ 2 SATA drives & 2.5 GB RAM
23" HD Cinema Displays x 2
external Firewire 400 drives x 2

*Separate Audio Rig* NEED SEPARATE UPS
MOTU 1296 I/O
Digidesign 192 I/O
MOTU MTP A/V
Roland JD990
Oberheim Matrix 1000
Nord Lead 2
Roland Juno 106
Roland JD800
Emu Emax



I want to be safe with this upgrade. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks in advance your your wisdom...

The G5 uses 650 watts alone at max power. You will have to find out what the other devices use and add them up.

We have 4 Macs, 3 for business and 1 for personal use. All are on APC UPS's. Never have had problems with any APC units since we first used them in 1998.

After numerous power outages, surges and brownouts on our 8500 we finally got our first UPS in 1998. Luckily that computer didn't suffer any damage because of those horrible power conditions. We live in an area where surges and brownouts are quite common. As well during the winter we have at least one outage a season.

Now that we use them on all our computers and our phones we wouldn't ever go without.

My G5 system is on an older APC 900 unit which we purchased from an auction in perfect running order. Great price!

Might have to upgrade that with all the stuff I keep adding to my G5.

Let's see now:

The G5 draws 6.5A max. at 120V = 780 Watts, plus maybe 20W for the 2nd hard drive = 800W.

23" Display, 90WX2 = 180W.

Total without external drives, ~980W.

A 1500VA UPS will give about 1040W, representing a bare minimum, at best.

Guess what? Just after I wrote this I found out my APC 900 UPS wasn't adequate just as you wrote.

In the middle of cloning my stock HDD to the Raptor I heard this loud alarm. I had no idea what it was. Dumb me thought it was my new HDD blowing up. I am very new to the high end Mac computers like this.

Anyway to make a long story short, I just purchased the 1500VA unit on the APC web site. I also bought their extended battery pack unit which attaches to the UPS. It gives up to 64 minutes time with both parts together.

Well I could be wrong.. but the way I see it the G5 DP draws a max 650 Watts and the monitor an additional 90 Watts for a 23" . So a 750W APC should jsut cover it . I know mine does I will go with a 1500 extended run someday.
Don

Depends on how you plan to expand your system. I've got the 900VA right now and it doesn't cut it for my system. And I plan to add to mine in the near future.

I ordered a 2200VA Smart-UPS from APC. With my current configuration I will use about 19% of its power.

Update on my purchase of my UPS. Its finally here and its huge! Twice as tall as my 900VA. Weighing in at 112 pounds! It can handle 1980 Watts maximum. I think that ought to hold me for a long time to come. I have three available outlets, four without my iBook plugged in it.

Backup time with half load, 990 Watts, is 24.1 minutes.
Backup time with full load, 1980 Watts, is 6.7 minutes.

The 900VA was running at 50% with everything connected. I can't imagine what would have happened when I added the other peripherals I plan to get.

Glad I got something powerful enough!

I live in an area which has frequent brownouts and surges. Can't be protected enough!