ES 550 APC is Just Right for Me!
Written: Dec 09 '07 (Updated May 01 '08)
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Not overly big, provides adequate battery life to prevent unsafe/unexpected shutdowns. Excellent surge protection.
Cons: It'd be nice if the battery lasted longer; for the $$, hard to expect this.
The Bottom Line: This is certainly worth the investment if you have any frustration when your computer shuts down when the power goes out.
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| mongomad1's Full Review: APC ES 550 (BE550R) UPS System |
I found myself in need of an Uninterrupted Power Supply (UPS) in my home for a couple reasons, the least of which they are cool to say you have, though they are. First off, my phone company is via cable and so is my Internet connection. Like with Vonage, no power = no phone. My lovely wife and I do have cell phones, but you never know when Ed McMahon might be a calling with a million dollars for me, though I guess I would have to enter to win, but you get the point: you might miss a VERY important call. This is especially true if you work from home.
Since there has been such an increase of companies that will allow it, many of us may have a day or two a week we can work from home or otherwise use our PC’s in an important way that a sudden shutdown could mean hours of re-work. Sure, we all take measures such as auto-save on programs that offer this feature, but many websites, like epinions.com, do not. I just had an event where auto-save did not work and I am rewriting my entire review that was near completion. I had the body, representing most of the work, in Word so that: 1) I could have a better spell checker, 2) occasionally epinions will lose your work as you go to save it (likely user-error on my part), and 3) I would have auto-save.
Well, auto-save, though set for 10 minutes, now dropped down so that it saves every 2 mins, went back to the original I started an hour before. One sentence remained of my document. So, if you are wondering if a UPS is a great thing to have and not just overkill, the answer is a resounding, “YES it is wonderful!” How did I lose the data if I had a UPS? I hit the power on/off button on the device while checking the features. Ain’t no saving you then.
Now that you are convinced it is more a necessity than a frivolity, let us look at this particular model’s good points and areas for improvement.
Out of the Box:
This is a great experience based on the steps, or lack thereof, that you need to take to be up and running. You simply place the battery in the underneath compartment, plug it in so that the battery charges and then position the device so that it is accessible to the cord lengths of the equipment you want to either receive back-up and surge protection OR just surge protection. There are four outlets of each type. Unfortunately, I needed 6 battery back-up plugs. Probably against the manufacturer’s advice, I used a surge protector in one of the ports for back-up. To date, after over 6 months of use, this has not proven to cause any harm at all or degraded functionality.
Other than that, you run a CD on your PC for added functionality.
You need to plan what will go where, the six I had to have battery support for were: 1) high speed cable box with phone, 2) a Linksys Wireless Router, 3) a Dell Dimension 4700 PC with many power draining upgrades, 4) a 20” Dell Monitor Widescreen, 5) a 300GB Maxtor External Storage/Backup Drive and 6) a 4 Port USB Hub – not yet reviewed.
Looks/Functionality:
Well, it is just a heavy black box at first sight, until it saves your behind a time or two. It then morphs into a gorgeous contraption on par with the supermodel of your choosing and as ingenious as Thomas Alva Edison was. It is about 11” deep, 7” across and nearly 3.5” tall. It is a very sturdy device, weighing in at around 13 pounds.
The black does lend itself to being inconspicuous, depending on your decor and placement, but it does make it difficult to see the female connections should you have it in a dimly lit spot as I do. It is on the bottom shelf of my PC armoire. This is not that big an issue as long as you can pull it out into the light without turning it off like I did moments ago or straining the cords so that something comes unplugged.
If the plates around the connections were white or some other light color, this would not be an issue since the plug holes would be much more visible. This is a minor inconvenience for some, not any problem for others that place it where there is decent lighting.
In addition to the 8 plug-ins, you also have a phone plug (RJ-11 / RJ-14) in and out to prevent the phone company from zapping your fax line. It will do the same if you are running a cable wire to your PC to a TV Tuner or an internal cable modem. There is also an RJ-45 connector from the UPS. This plugs into your router or a hub, to make the full use of the software that comes with the device. Why would you need software? Well it has three sections and each is easy to understand, navigate and adjust.
Included Software Functions
1) Monitor System
Performance: The software allows you to adjust settings on it as well as see history of when it was utilized based on an electrical issue. This breaks it down to Blackout, under voltage, over voltage and electrical noise for up to the past 24 weeks.
Current Status: This allows you to see the power type used (AC or DC, for those about to rock), remaining battery charge, current state of battery, last transfer to battery cause, result of self-test and input voltage.
2) Configuration
Options: Enable or disable sound notification, have a splash screen at start up and allows you to choose if you want APC to get info from your device for future product development.
Runtime: Allows you to either shutdown the PC after 1 min and up to 5 mins in 1 minute increments or shutdown when there is only 5-8 mins left of battery charge, again adjustable in one minute increments.
Notification: You can enable the loud beep, disable it completely or disable it with a start and end time, like your sleeping hours.
Sensitivity: For electrical noise, you can set it to low, medium or high as far as when battery back-up will take over.
Voltage: Here you set your tolerance as far as when the battery/surge protection will intervene based on high or low voltage in 1 volt increments, the highest being 139 volts and the lowest being 87.
3) Help and Support
Help: just like your basic Windows help with contents, index and search functionality.
Technical Data: mainly for use if you need to contact support.
Contact APC: gives you the ability to open a ticket with them or make suggestions.
About: Allows you to download the most recent software and firmware as well as register your product.
At the very bottom of the software’s menu options, it informs you the amount of time you have for battery life in the event of an outage. This is dependent on what it detects. This is a robust software since it is included in the price of the entire unit.
Based on all that I have plugged into it, I have 8 minutes. This is plenty of time to get my work saved and shutdown all equipment I do not need to remain powered on, so that I have phone service as long as possible.
The manufacturer claims you can get up to 44 minutes. Maybe if you are attaching only a strand of indoor Christmas lights, you get that. BUT, like I said, I do have more than they recommend plugged into it and it still suits MY needs just fine. I could certainly see it running a standard PC and a smaller monitor for half an hour if that is all that is used in its available battery backup ports.
It really has come in handy and you can hear it often controlling the current based on a spike or a drop in the power to your home. These events are all logged for you and do not set off the loud beep that a power outage will. You notice the lights in your house flicker a little brighter or get a little dimmer and you hear a soft "click" that lets you know it is doing its job.
It does have a trip in the event a surge is too powerful for it to moderate and a reset button. I have not had this happen as of yet, despite many surges, so it is not a wimp when it comes to regulating power. Based on all the varying needs one may have that can ill-afford a diesel generator to take over for battery backup, this unit is a fine answer for most. I bought mine for around $70 at my most *favoritest storefront and retail sales site, Circuit City, and have not a single regret.
*Exercising my poetic license, valid through 2010, number is: ID Ten T.
If that does not make sense, write down my number, no spaces and convert the "ten" to "10".
If this review was informative, please feel free to visit my other Computer Hardware reviews:
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ASUS (DRW-1814BL) DVD-RAM Burner - I Rated It: 4 Stars
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Brother P-Touch® PT-2600 Labelmaker with PC Interface - I Rated It: 3 Stars
Corsair Memory 2 x 1 GB PC2-4200 DDR2 RAM - I Rated It: 4 Stars
Dell Dimension 4700 PC Desktop - I Rated It: 4 Stars
Dell Dimension E521 PC Desktop - I Rated It: 4 Stars
Dell UltraSharp 2007WFP 20.1 inch LCD Monitor - I Rated It: 4 Stars
Fellowes Premium 30-Piece PC Tool Kit - I Rated It: 4 Stars
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Hewlett Packard Compaq Presario SR5010NX PC Desktop - I Rated It: 4 Stars
Hewlett Packard Officejet 4215 InkJet Printer - I Rated It: 1 Star
Kenneth Cole Laptop Carrying Case - I Rated It: 4 Stars
Kingston Multimedia Card Reader - USB 2.0 - I Rated It: 4 Stars
Linksys WRT54G Router - I Rated It: 4 Stars
Logitech V200 Laptop Cordless Mouse - I Rated It: 4 Stars
Microsoft Desktop Elite Multimedia Keyboard and Mouse - I Rated It: 4 Stars
RIM BlackBerry® 8703e Smartphone - I Rated It: 4 Stars
Seagate OneTouch III 300 GB USB 2.0 Hard Drive - I Rated It: 3 Stars
PNY Attaché 2GB Thumbdrive - I Rated It: 3 Stars
ViewSonic VA1930WM LCD Monitor 19 Inches - I Rated It: 4 Stars
Recommended:
Yes
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Epinions.com ID:
mongomad1
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Location: Actionville, FL (Jacksonville)
Reviews written: 58
Trusted by: 64 members
About Me:
I would give my right arm to be ambidextrous.
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