[Martian]

Getting back to the purchase recommendation, (“which is the best UPS for the Intel iMac”), I repeat my actual experience — not theory or “smart” marketing hype — is that my Belkin F6C1100-UNV switches over flawlessly while running ALL of these at the same time:
* Mac Pro with two internal drives and Radeon HD 2600 graphics
* PowerMac G4 with two internal drives and upgraded graphics card.
* Two monitors…20” & 15”
* Two routers…one is WiFi
* Two modems…cable & DSL
* Cordless phone base station
* Cell phone charger

Responds perfectly to Leopard’s built-in Energy Saver.
All this for list price $159.99.



I seem to remember runtime of over 20minutes with just the PowerMac, one monitor, two routers and two modems. I can't make a valid test now because the battery is old.



I bought it 4-5 years ago at a big box stationary store.
catalog.belkin.com/IWCatSectionView.process?Section_Id=76

[duality]

Dan Frakes said:

>... (There was a nifty utility for OS 9 and earlier called Okey Dokey that would automatically accept, after a user-determined period of time, the default button in any such dialogs. Unfortunately, I haven't yet found an OS X equivalent.)
Well, if you can't find one Dan, then I suppose it doesn't exist! :(

[duality]

Martian said:

Getting back to the purchase recommendation, (“which is the best UPS for the Intel iMac”), I repeat my actual experience — not theory or “smart” marketing hype — is that my Belkin F6C1100-UNV switches over flawlessly while running ALL of these at the same time:
* Mac Pro with two internal drives and Radeon HD 2600 graphics
* PowerMac G4 with two internal drives and upgraded graphics card.
* Two monitors…20” & 15”
* Two routers…one is WiFi
* Two modems…cable & DSL
* Cordless phone base station
* Cell phone charger


Responds perfectly to Leopard’s built-in Energy Saver.

All this for list price $159.99.





I seem to remember runtime of over 20minutes with just the PowerMac, one monitor, two routers and two modems. I can't make a valid test now because the battery is old.





I bought it 4-5 years ago at a big box stationary store.
catalog.belkin.com/IWCatSectionView.process?Section_Id=76

Well, you have a 660 watt unit, so it certainly seems more than adequate in terms of power. I just returned my 330 watt APC unit, based on what the APC tech told bud (that the 24" iMac?which, like bud, is what I have?needs to be protected by a UPS with a capacity of at least 350 watts). I then bought the 450 watt APC unit (I was going to go for the less-expensive 390 watt unit, but decided to opt for a bit more "insurance").

So, unless the "switching" issue really is a factor?and I'm hoping that it's not (the APC tech seemed to be less sure about its contribution to bud's problem)?then I should be fine. Given your experience, I expect that I will be. (Of course, it could turn out that the Mac's "too-fast" switching is a problem under certain power-fluctuation situations, but I'm hoping that they're the rare exception, rather than the rule.)

[smax013]

duality said:

So, unless the "switching" issue really is a factor—and I'm hoping that it's not (the APC tech seemed to be less sure about its contribution to bud's problem)—then I should be fine. Given your experience, I expect that I will be. (Of course, it could turn out that the Mac's "too-fast" switching is a problem under certain power-fluctuation situations, but I'm hoping that they're the rare exception, rather than the rule.)

You can always test it...hook everything up and make sure the battery is charged with the UPS turned on and the computer booted up...and then unplug the UPS (same basic effect as losing power). If the UPS switches over, then it would appear the tech might be "full of it" (was never completely sure I totally bought that line). And if you want, you can then time how long it is before the battery runs down (to be on the safe side, I would set the auto shutdown functionality in the Mac OS to auto shutdown the computer at some percentage of the power...from there, you can "calculate" the total time based upon how long it ran until the shutdown and what percentage point you had it shutdown...I will note as well that when you plug in the USB cord from the UPS to the Mac (which you must do to use ANY auto shutdown function or software), you can have a battery indicator show up in the menu bar to give to approimate time remaining or percentage of battery left (this is basically the same system that is used by the OS to give you status of batteries for laptops).

[duality]

[quote name='smax013']

>

duality said:

>
> So, unless the "switching" issue really is a factor—and I'm hoping that it's not (the APC tech seemed to be less sure about its contribution to bud's problem)—then I should be fine. Given your experience, I expect that I will be. (Of course, it could turn out that the Mac's "too-fast" switching is a problem under certain power-fluctuation situations, but I'm hoping that they're the rare exception, rather than the rule.)

You can always test it...hook everything up and make sure the battery is charged with the UPS turned on and the computer booted up...and then unplug the UPS (same basic effect as losing power). If the UPS switches over, then it would appear the tech might be "full of it" (was never completely sure I totally bought that line). And if you want, you can then time how long it is before the battery runs down (to be on the safe side, I would set the auto shutdown functionality in the Mac OS to auto shutdown the computer at some percentage of the power...from there, you can "calculate" the total time based upon how long it ran until the shutdown and what percentage point you had it shutdown...I will note as well that when you plug in the USB cord from the UPS to the Mac (which you must do to use ANY auto shutdown function or software), you can have a battery indicator show up in the menu bar to give to approimate time remaining or percentage of battery left (this is basically the same system that is used by the OS to give you status of batteries for laptops).

I am confident that the UPS is sufficiently "powerful" to handle the load, which is what I believe your suggestion would test. The "switching speed" issue, however, would still remain a "mystery"?and the APC tech's assessment of that as a contributing factor did seem rather "iffy." Furthermore, even if the tech was correct regarding that, the fact is that bud had no problems?even with his ?undersized? 330 watt BE550?for the first three months he was using it. So, it seems likely that any problems that might have been caused by the incompatible switching speeds came into play only when bud?s utility voltage began to exhibit "unusual" variations. So, unless and until I experience similar power company voltage variations, I would have no way of testing the tech?s ?switching speed hypothesis.?

[smax013]

duality said:

I am confident that the UPS is sufficiently "powerful" to handle the load, which is what I believe your suggestion would test. The "switching speed" issue, however, would still remain a "mystery"—and the APC tech's assessment of that as a contributing factor did seem rather "iffy." Furthermore, even if the tech was correct regarding that, the fact is that bud had no problems—even with his “undersized” 330 watt BE550—for the first three months he was using it. So, it seems likely that any problems that might have been caused by the incompatible switching speeds came into play only when bud’s utility voltage began to exhibit "unusual" variations. So, unless and until I experience similar power company voltage variations, I would have no way of testing the tech’s “switching speed hypothesis.”

Notice that I said "...then it would appear the tech might be 'full of it'". The unplugging only would really test one limited scenario...complete loss of power. The "switch speed" would be no different for a loss of power whether you pull the plug or power is lost. The switch speed refers to how quickly the UPS units can switch its internal circuitry from a externally powered scenario (i.e. plugged in with power) to internally powered scenario (i.e. on battery). The fact that you causing that to happen by unplugging it should not matter.



You are correct in that it will NOT check things like brown outs, drops in power but not full power loss, etc. Thus, it does not fully test to see if the APC tech was completely "full of it" or not.



As the fact that [~7504] used it fine for 3 months could mean nothing...if there was no power incidents during that time until right when he started having problems, then the UPS would essentially working in the same manner as a power strip/surge protector. [~7504] never said one way or the other.

[duality]

[quote name='smax013']

>

duality said:

> I am confident that the UPS is sufficiently "powerful" to handle the load, which is what I believe your suggestion would test. The "switching speed" issue, however, would still remain a "mystery"—and the APC tech's assessment of that as a contributing factor did seem rather "iffy." Furthermore, even if the tech was correct regarding that, the fact is that bud had no problems—even with his “undersized” 330 watt BE550—for the first three months he was using it. So, it seems likely that any problems that might have been caused by the incompatible switching speeds came into play only when bud’s utility voltage began to exhibit "unusual" variations. So, unless and until I experience similar power company voltage variations, I would have no way of testing the tech’s “switching speed hypothesis.”

Notice that I said "...then it would appear the tech might be 'full of it'". The unplugging only would really test one limited scenario...complete loss of power. The "switch speed" would be no different for a loss of power whether you pull the plug or power is lost. The switch speed refers to how quickly the UPS units can switch its internal circuitry from a externally powered scenario (i.e. plugged in with power) to internally powered scenario (i.e. on battery). The fact that you causing that to happen by unplugging it should not matter.





You are correct in that it will NOT check things like brown outs, drops in power but not full power loss, etc. Thus, it does not fully test to see if the APC tech was completely "full of it" or not.





As the fact that [~7504] used it fine for 3 months could mean nothing...if there was no power incidents during that time until right when he started having problems, then the UPS would essentially working in the same manner as a power strip/surge protector. [~7504] never said one way or the other.

Quite frankly, if bud?s iMac was shutting down abruptly when he hadn?t experienced a full power loss, I think it?s reasonable to believe (?assume? ;) ) that it certainly would shut down if he (or the power company) completely yanked the cord. However, suggesting that I unplug the UPS certainly would test whether it was in working condition?perhaps a test worthwhile doing by owners of any new UPS, regardless of manufacturer.

[duality]

Following up my previous post...

I only completed setting up the new UPS and charging the battery the day before yesterday. That night was the first time I connected my iMac to it. I then performed the ?smax013 test? ;) (unplugging the UPS). It performed as expected (I received a small dialog box indicating that the iMac had been connected to the battery, and that I should consider an expeditious shut down).

Because I have the Energy Saver set to shut down the iMac late at night, each night ends with the iMac shut down. However, since plugging the iMac into the UPS, I discovered that after the iMac shuts itself down, the UPS begins to make a ?clicking? sound every 10-15 seconds (as if it were switching on and off). The sound continues to repeat itself until I turn on the iMac.

I?m a bit concerned that this may be part of the ?switching problem? that we?ve been taking about. However, it happens only when the iMac is turned off (but the UPS still is plugged in and receiving utility power), which seems contrary to the condition described by the APC tech. (In other words, the UPS is not being told ?Hey, we?ve lost utility voltage, and the iMac is ?on? and needs power.?) Moreover, the previous unit (BE550) didn?t exhibit this behavior (it was always quiet). So it may instead be a defective unit.