APC BE750G Power Saving Battery Back-UPS by APC
|
List Price: Our Price: $89.99 You Save: $20.00 (18%) Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours Buy Used: from $63.99 (click here) Category: CE See more digital camera details and other models |
|---|
Digital camera reviews of APC BE750G Power Saving Battery Back-UPS
Digital camera Review: A good UPS for home use.
Summary: 5 Stars
This is a good UPS for home use. We recently had a power outage at 3:00 am. The UPS beeped loud enough to waken me and gave me plenty of time to shut down my system. It does supply software that will automatically do that, however I opted to bypass that feature. The size and number of plug in slots is extremely convenient.Digital camera Review: A good UPS, but a UPS needs to be great...
Summary: 4 Stars
Very brief review here, just to recap my experience on my new (late 2009) 27" iMac.
Set-up was very easy. Plug everything in, and connect the USB cable to the iMac to have the UPS options appear. I love not having to install UPS software on the Macs like you do with Windows, and all the functionality you'd need is available in the OS X control panel.
After the battery in the UPS was fully charged, I tested its usefulness by pulling the UPS power plug out of the wall outlet. Immediately there was a click and buzz from the UPS, and the battery kicked in. Yay! The APC BE750G had no trouble powering my iMac i7 27" and the attached 24" Apple Cinema Display, and several hard drives etc. I had set the computer to shut down after 1 minute of battery power, which it did with no issue.
So, what concerns me, and why the 4-star review? Well, I've only had the UPS a month, after, up to this point, not having had any power issues/surges/outages. In that month, the UPS has clicked on TWICE for about 10 seconds, and then clicked off. My Mac detected this and reported to me that it will shut down in 1 minute, which it didn't, of course, since the "power came back." This is interesting to me since I have other devices not hooked into the UPS in the same room that are still functioning with NO power loss, like my TV and receiver, which are plugged into a different UPS. That UPS reports no such power issues.
So, perhaps there's something funky with my particular UPS, but I can't wholeheartedly recommend it because of these oddities, which are perhaps firmware related. But, as stated, for when there's a power outage, you can be sure the APC WILL save the day.
4/5
Digital camera Review: A must for every home-electronics setup
Summary: 4 Stars
The number of home electronics devices seems to be proliferating and every year there seems to be a new device that is added to your collection. Most of these devices are expensive and relatively sensitive, and it is important to keep them safe and protected from all eventualities. One of the most common accidents that affects home electronic devices is the damage that they withstand due to power surges. It is however very easy to protect your electronics from those, and a surge protector like APC BE750G is versatile enough to cover almost anyone's needs. The ten outlet setup provides enough plugs to cover most devices in a small home office or at a home entertainment center. The battery backup is big enough to supply electricity for up to three devices for limited time until the power comes back or until you are able to save all of your work on a computer and able to safely shut it down. In practice this would for instance mean that your computer, monitor and modem can keep functioning for a little while even when there is no outside power.
One problem that I have with this surge protector/ power supply is that t doesn't seem to be able to completely handle some more power-hungry devices at their peak power performance. For instance, when I print something on the laser printer the power supply starts to beep indicating that it's operating dangerously close to its maximum capacity.
Another problem that I've had was with the surge protection for my cable modem. After a while the modem stopped working, and I was forced to bypass the cable protection and connect the modem directly to the outside cable. The surge protection for cable is a good idea, but it doesn't seem to be working in practice.
APC comes with included software on a CD ROM that is intended to shut down your computer safely on its own in a case of power failure. This is a good idea, but I haven't really been eager to use it. When my home computer is on I am usually around so in the case of power failure I would be perfectly capable of shutting it down myself, and the additional software when running in the background would only slow down my computer during the regular use. On the other hand, I do have a Windows home server and it would be very useful to have this software running on it, but unfortunately there doesn't seem to be any easy way of installing it on the server. I hope APC comes up with something like that soon.
Overall, this is a very surge-protector/power supply and in the six months that I have been using it it has performed admirably well. I would recommend it for most everyday situations.
Digital camera Review: A must have
Summary: 5 Stars
This product is essential if you have a home office. Unless you have all your power, cable and telephone coming to your computer on the same ground path you are asking for damage when the spike hits. Read:
[...]
The BE650G has 2 fewer jacks, less battery capacity for about the same sale price as the BE750G which makes the latter a real bargain. The BE550G is smaller again and cost a little less but lacks the coax jacks to protect your cable modem.
This model is the best value for the money and essential if you are connected to the internet IMHO.
Pros:
- longest battery life in this form factor
- telephone jacks to protect your modem/ethernet interface
- coax jacks to protect your broadband connection
- reasonably priced replacement batteries
- TEN (count 'em - ten) spots to plug in
- 4 of them spaced for bulky transformers and plugs
- master/slave grouping to power down 3 slave devices for extra power savings
- Mac OS X Energy Saver recognized this unit automatically via included USB cable (no Powerchute req'd)
Cons:
- poor documentation in box (the box and docs are way out of date)
- battery charging slow
- annoying beep when power goes out
When the power is on, your equipment is powered directly from the wall. When there is a failure it will switch to the UPS in an instant. I don't quite understand all the electrical engineering intricacies of pure sine-wave power from this stepped approximation sine-wave but for the average computer system, I've used these reliable backup devices for years without issue. Pure wave UPS devices are very expensive.
I firmly believe that brown outs are very damaging to motherboards and hard drives and you can extend their life by having a UPS power them. Data corruption or even drive failure is unacceptable to me so my airport extreme, time machine drive and cable modem are UPS powered so when the power goes out my laptop doesn't blink an eye.
Got a PVR with external hard drive? You'll need a UPS for backup and why not protect the rest of your expensive TV equipment with the extra surge jacks?
I don't have whole house surge protection but I probably should have it installed because it's the best way to send spikes to ground. In the meantime I'll continue rely on this unit to protect my equipment but the UPS is the main reason I use these devices.
Digital camera Review: APC BACK-UPS ES (Saving my Computer)
Summary: 5 Stars
We were given a new computer by our sons, as a gift. The computer we formerly had was ruined by a power surge. I followed the instructions hooking up our new computer, copier and telephone to the APC BACK-UPS ES and feel safe with the product. We had surge protector plug-ins formerly, but they were not effective. So a warning to those using protector plug-ins they lose their effectiveness after a couple of years. Luckily we have not experienced any surges or outages as of yet to test the product but feel confident that is will serve us well.