Question about my UPS

[c0ke543(music)]

I have a 650 VA UPS, which is suppose to put out 390 watts on power backup max. I decided to test it since it's getting pretty old now. About 7 years old ( replaced the battery little over 1 year ago).

http://www.apcc.com/resource/include...se_sku=BE650BB

I wanted to see if it was maintaining an idle computer at proper voltage. I decided a test. A regular 52 watt light bulb with a 55 watts monitor and computer on at idle, which shouldn't use anywhere near power it uses under load. I pulled the plug out the light bulb starts flickering. This tells me the power is unstable (IE the electronics are draw more power then it can put out)

This system here is actually more powerful and uses more then mine, also I only have one video card so you substract 100 watts off the bat. I'm looks at around 210 idle with 55 watt monitor and 52 watt light bulb for roughly 317 watts idle with test light. I'm also over estimating the power consumption to account for some cpu, HDD, USB, and fans w LEDs activity not being 100% idle.

System 3:
Intel Core 2 Extreme QX6850, 4GB Memory, NVIDIA 780i Chipset, NVIDIA GeForce 8800 Ultra SLI, an optical drive, and four hard drives. For our third example, we chose some of the most demanding products for testing. In particular, the 780i Chipset from NVIDIA has the highest power consumption of all chipsets we've tested so far, drawing a constant 69W. (There is of course some variation in power consumption even from chips of the same family, and the features and extra chips on each motherboard differ from manufacturer to manufacturer. Our particular 780i is an EVGA motherboard.) The idle power consumption for this setup is around 310W, and once we place of full load on everything power consumption increases to 544W.
http://www.anandtech.com/printarticle.aspx?i=3413

My setup is
MSI mobo w 650i Nvidia chipset
8800 GT
4gb ram
duo Core 2 2.66 E6750
2 Hard drives
1 optical drive
1floppy
9 fans of varying sizes (5 HS 4 case)
5 USB devices

Do you guys think my UPS is going bad? The battery suppose to last 3-4 years. I want to say it's been around 2 years since I got a new battery. I'm having hard time telling if the idle load is over 390 watts or UPS is bad or battery is dieing early. My UPS software will warn of a dieing battery of age, but I'm not sure how reliable it is.

[The_Rocketmac]

coke, read in your manual on how to condition your UPS battery. Typically it's a full drain, full drain, half drain, full drain and then let it charge to 100%. Typically the APC software is pretty accurate in gauging battery life. The one part you left out is the exact make and model of power supply you have. It has a "max draw" rating that would be really helpful to know. If you are really curious, get one of these and see how much actual draw your PC is pulling.
http://www.amazon.com/P3-Internation.../dp/B00009MDBU

[c0ke543(music)]

I posted the make and model in my first post with this link. The Model number was on the product overview tab though.

http://www.apcc.com/resource/include...se_sku=BE650BB

the model number is on the link too SKU = BE650BB

APC Back-UPS ES USB 650VA w/TEL & COAX 120V

[c0ke543(music)]

I talked with one of my professors who has a phd in electrical engineering. He said it's either a bad battery already or a failing inverter.

[The_Rocketmac]

Originally Posted by c0ke543(music)

I talked with one of my professors who has a phd in electrical engineering. He said it's either a bad battery already or a failing inverter.

My bet would be on the battery as well. It's not rare that the inverters fail, but they 'mostly' outlast a few batteries.


/Not a PhD in EE, but it is one the fields of study in Engineering I have floating around with me.
//Yes, I am an actual Engineer.
///No, I do IT work because it pays better