CyberPower CP1000AVRLCD 9-Outlet Intelligent LCD UPS (1000VA/600W)
by Cyber Power
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List Price: Our Price: $89.92 You Save: $48.03 (35%) Availability: Usually ships in 3-4 business days Category: CE See more product details |
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Digital Cameras Photo Reviews of CyberPower CP1000AVRLCD 9-Outlet Intelligent LCD UPS (1000VA/600W)
Customer Review: Small flaws, but overall great UPS
Summary: 5 Stars
I live in an area where having a UPS is essential. Frequent power outages and power sags due to very tall trees literally right next to the power lines. This is my 2nd UPS (the first one is a Tripp Lite 1000VA that was over 4 years old and died recently).
The things I need battery backup for are less than 150 watts. You might be wondering why I went with this UPS when I have such low power requirements. The reason why I didn't go with a smaller and cheaper UPS is because most UPS devices under $90 do not have Automatic Voltage Regulation (AVR). I didn't realize this until I looked very closely at the spec sheets on APC, CyberPower and Tripp Lite's web sites.
The good news is that not everyone needs AVR. I need it in my area though, because of how easy it is for us to have power sags in low wind. Many years ago before I bought my first UPS, a sudden drop in power (not a complete power failure) during a wind storm ruined one of my computers that was turned on, so I don't take the risk anymore.
Anyway, when I received this UPS, I was pleased with the appearance. Maybe it's just me, but in the photos the plastic looks cheap. In person, the quality looks and feels good. My old UPS didn't have an LCD screen so this is a nice change.
I just wish the power button wasn't so big. How many times are you going to press it? I don't plan to press it very often. Also, in the photos, it gives the impression that the power button is grey with a blue outline. However, my power button is completely clear so it's like having a large and bright blue light on the front. It lights up a lot of my bedroom and can be distracting when I'm trying to sleep. I just try and put my computer chair in front of it to block the light before bed time.
The 2nd and only other design complaint I have is that the power outlets aren't quite spaced out enough. On the CyberPower web site for this product it says, "Transformer-Spaced Outlets - Widely-spaced outlets accommodate large transformer-based plugs without compromising the utility of other outlets."
I have not found this to be true. I plugged in a large transformer-based plug into one of the outlets on the edge and there isn't enough room to insert a normal size plug next to it. Oh well. To be fair, I guess they can't space it out anymore without making the unit bigger.
What I have plugged into the battery backup outlets on my UPS:
*HP EX495 MediaSmart Server
*2TB Western Digital Elements external hard drive
*Linksys Wireless Router
Runtime is 70 to 80 minutes for what I have connected.
I wish I could plug in my cable modem as well (it only uses 10 watts), but like I mentioned above, it won't fit since the bigger plugs on the wireless router and external hard drive take up two slots. Nonetheless, I'm still very pleased with my purchase.
Pro
-Completely silent on utility power. Very quiet on battery power
-It has AVR (cheap UPS units don't have it)
-LCD Screen
-Long runtime (for me)
-3 year warranty
-Includes software for automatic shutdown when you're away
Cons
-Large bright blue power button on the front
-I wish the outlets were spaced out more.
Customer Review: Functional and stylish, very nice bells & whistles
Summary: 4 Stars
I'm not quite ready to nominate it for MoMA's permanent collection, but the CyberPower CP1000AVRLCD does look a lot better than your average geekbox. In fact, it's the first UPS (uninterruptable power supply) I've ever owned that I can easily tolerate having on a corner of my desk, where it has now quietly buddied up with a stack of external LaCie drives (the drives and the UPS all have round blue power-on indicators).
The CyberPower features a three-inch front-panel readout, backlit in (what else?) blue, that, with each consecutive push of the oversized display button, tells you in big digits what the current load is, the voltage it receives from the wall outlet, the estimated run time, the total load capacity, the battery capacity, even how many minutes remain after a blackout occurs and the battery is running down. The display turns itself off after 20 or 30 seconds, so it's not too distracting (actually, the user should have the option of keeping the display on, but I suppose you can't have everything).
When a blackout strikes, the CyberPower unit intermittently beeps to signal that the battery has kicked in -- but unlike other UPS's I've used, you can switch off the annoying beep in acknowledgment.
I deduct points for the nine outlets being so closely spaced together that any device powered by a wallwart will take up two or even three spaces.
Cyberpower also shortchanges Mac users by not giving them full-featured power management software. You can control the behavior of the battery backup through the Energy Saver control panel in OSX, which recognizes the brand and model of the UPS and lets you decide how you want to safely power down the computer and the other plugged-in devices in case of a blackout. So far so good. But the native Mac software won't let you instruct other applications to autosave and quit. That means unsaved documents will prevent applications from shutting down unless you're there to manage the process; and when the Cyberpower's battery depletes itself, the result will be the same as if you had no UPS to begin with -- the computer eventually shuts off as if you'd literally pulled the plug, and unsaved changes will be lost.
Still, that's not a dealbreaker for me; long ago I've gotten into the habit of hitting command-S every couple of minutes when I'm working on a document.
FWIW, the estimated battery run time of my configuration -- a 24-inch iMac with a 2.4Ghz Intel Core 2 Duo chip, plus three external drives -- is about 16 minutes.
Oh yeah: the unit has a swappable battery and three-year warranty. Not too shabby.
Customer Review: Spend a little more money, get a lot more UPS.
Summary: 2 Stars
I have several APC and Belkin UPS units in my house, so this isn't my first whack at buying a UPS. And after reading reviews here and other places, I thought the CyberPower model looked like a decent way for me to save a few bucks.
The first thing I noticed about it was how light it was for a UPS -- especially at 1000VA. For that capacity, I think this may be the lightest UPS I've used. I also liked the LCD display, but was a bit put off by the construction of the unit. The plastic is relatively flimsy (compared to other brands), but on the upside, there are a generous number of outlets.
After charging the unit overnight, I decided to give it a test run. The display showed I had about 18 minutes of runtime, so I pulled the plug. Instantly, 18 minutes became 8... then 6... then 2... then... darkness. Alas, there was no graceful shutdown on my computer (despite it recognizing that the UPS was connected), and it kept my setup alive for all of five minutes, at best.
For reference, the UPS had a last-gen MacPro, cable modem, router, and a 23" LCD connected. According to APC's configuration tool (which should be universal for any UPS), they recommended an APC Back-UPS RS 800VA @ 63% capacity and 13 minutes of runtime. At minimum, the CyberPower UPS should have been able to match that.
In a business environment where I had a generator that automatically kicked on, I wouldn't really care too much, as that's enough time to carry everything over to generator power. But at my house, I either want the computer to shut down when I'm not there, or I want the UPS to give me enough time to go turn on the generator. Unfortunately, neither are possible with this UPS.
When you consider how close in price this is to the 1375VA BackUPS from APC (which also has a similar LCD display), or even closer to the 1000VA Belkin UPS, the few dollars you save isn't worth the risk when your power actually does go out.
I'm sure this is fine if you're overbuying in terms of capacity, or if you're just looking for a voltage regulator and don't care about uptime. But as a UPS, there are several better options available.
Customer Review: All the features I need
Summary: 5 Stars
I purchased this CyberPower UPS to replace the smaller capacity battery UPS unit(APC 450VA Back-UPS (BE450G)) for my main PC (I have 2 of these smaller APC brand UPS units. 1 for the other PC and 1 for my home theater system where they work as intended with much smaller power load needs). The APC unit would only run for about 2 minutes on the main computer, during which time you get a warning siren, then they just stop as the battery runs low. This is OK to just shut down the system if you are sitting at the computer when the power fails. My main computer runs about 10-14 hours a day so this unit gets a real workout. This CyberPower UPS unit has a USB cable that runs to the PC so you can see the current UPS system status(battery charge level etc) as well as review any current/past power interruptions from your PC monitor. The screen show a history of 3 past power conditions: 1-Power outages, 2-Under voltage, 3-Over voltage conditions in 1 of 4 time frames: Last week, 4 weeks, 12 weeks and 24 weeks. From this screen you can set the UPS to put your computer into either 'turn off' or 'hibernate' mode(your choice) when the battery gets low. There is also a functional front panel display. On my system I have a 'custom built' computer with 600w PSU, dual core AMD 7850 CPU, 4 GByte Memory, 2 CD/DVD burners and 4 Hitachi 1Tbyte HDDs, a Samsung SyncMaster 2494 24" widescreen 1080p monitor and eVGA GeForce GT 240 GPU on the Battery UPS side. With this power load I get about 18 minutes of run time. I put my printer, 10 external HD drives and other external products on the non-battery side of the CyberPower which are Surge-only protection outlets. This saves battery power during power failures on devices I don't need to keep running. I also love the real time on-screen capability. I live over 1 mile back in the woods off of a gravel and dirt road in the NE Georgia mountains and we get power problems quite often here mostly from tree limbs falling on the power lines. This unit is great for me because I can usually finish what I'm working on and then close my apps before system shutdown. I will definitely purchase other CyberPower units in the future.Customer Review: More useful than I thought
Summary: 5 Stars
I purchased the CyberPower CP100AVRLCD as a business purchase and an extra security measure for my computer. I have to admit a little buyer's remorse when the package came in. I debated whether it was really that necessary or just a techie extravagance.
My concerns were immediately alleviated when I printed to my laser printer. That printer is a little old and a power sucker. My lights dim whenever I use it, but I thought I had each item on a separate circuit. Apparently not. Immediately the UPS kicked in and modulated the electricity within a safe range for my computer. I have essentially been creating brown-outs whenever I print, putting extra strain on my computer and external hard-drive.
The display is nice. It lets you know when the unit is active and turns off when it is not. The blue-lighted power button stays on as long as the unit is on. The size is very compact, but it is heavy as bricks. The setup is super easy. I have it set to my Mac Pro. There aren't many extended options for the Mac. You basically hook it to the compute via a USB cable and set your Energy Saver system preferences for the UPS. That control panel will allow you to determine how the computer responds when it is relying solely on the UPS and gives the battery level of the UPS.
Other reviewers are correct in that the plugs are closely spaced, which can reduce the amount of equipment you can plug in depending on the plugs. Only some of the plugs are protected by the battery. The others have only surge protection. But you really just need the computer, monitor, and possibly extra hard drives on battery power. The less power drain on the battery will allow it to last longer.
One thing I would be curious to know is whether the UPS computer shutdown will override requests by applications to save files and such. Normally the shut-down command times out if applications hold it up too long. I haven't tested this yet.