UPS and Active PFC Power Supply compatibility table.

The electricity which comes to your home, your AC supply is a pure sinusoid wave.

But there are two types of UPS in the market:

1) Pure Sinewave UPS: which produce pure sinusoid AC.

2) Stepped Sinewave UPS or Modified Sinewave UPS: which produce an 'approximate' sinusoid AC.

*s4.postimg.org/x0z6wfdlp/modified-wave-compared-to-pure-sine-wave-inverte.gif

Power Factor correction is a mechanism which you find in good PSUs, that helps in reducing input harmonics if you have a "noisy AC input". PFC can either be implemented by just using a simple filter circuitry (passive PFC) or by using feedback and control (active PFC). The former is cheaper, and the latter is better and expensive for the manufacturer.

Now, the reason why I'm creating this thread is, good PSUs have Active PFC, and few of these PSUs don't tend to play nice with Stepped Sinewave UPSs. Not all, but some.

I'm creating this thread to tabulate, and would be looking for contributions from you guys.

PSU UPS Model and Output Type Comments
Corsair CX430v2 (Active PFC)
APC Back UPS RS600 ( BR600CI-IN ) with stepped sinewave output
Has worked fine for me > 4 years. System = A8-3870K + HD 6950.

PSU
Corsair VS450

UPS Model and Output Type
BPE Switch 625 Line Interactive (Not sure if true or modified sine wave)

Comments
PSU since 2013, UPS since 2008 (Battery change every 2 years)
System - Q6600 @ 3GHz + 2x4GB + HD 5670 (@ 840/1040)

B

ico said:
The electricity which comes to your home, your AC supply is a pure sinusoid wave.

But there are two types of UPS in the market:

1) Pure Sinewave UPS: which produce pure sinusoid AC.

2) Stepped Sinewave UPS or Modified Sinewave UPS: which produce an 'approximate' sinusoid AC.

*s4.postimg.org/x0z6wfdlp/modified-wave-compared-to-pure-sine-wave-inverte.gif

Power Factor correction is a mechanism which you find in good PSUs, that helps in reducing input harmonics if you have a "noisy AC input". PFC can either be implemented by just using a simple filter circuitry (passive PFC) or by using feedback and control (active PFC). The former is cheaper, and the latter is better and expensive for the manufacturer.

Now, the reason why I'm creating this thread is, good PSUs have Active PFC, and few of these PSUs don't tend to play nice with Stepped Sinewave UPSs. Not all, but some.

I'm creating this thread to tabulate, and would be looking for contributions from you guys.

PSU UPS Model and Output Type Comments
Corsair CX430v2 (Active PFC) APC Back UPS RS600 (BR600CI-IN) with stepped sinewave output Has worked fine for me > 4 years. System = A8-3870K + HD 6950. - [MENTION=26711]ico[/MENTION]

Regarding the bold part and keeping physics out of the picture, what are the things that a layman should look for before purchasing psu, ups and inverter?

billubakra said:
Regarding the bold part and keeping physics out of the picture, what are the things that a layman should look for before purchasing psu, ups and inverter?

PSU should be a good one. Read reviews, to know which ones are a good one. The very same company can produce bad models and good models. Things to look for - efficiency, voltage regulation and ripple.

All good PSUs will have Active PFC, and this can cause a few issues with UPSs having stepped sine-wave output. So, google up and buy the combination accordingly.

Inverter, always buy pure sine-wave inverter. They are cheap now.

B

ico said:
PSU should be a good one. Read reviews, to know which ones are a good one. The very same company can produce bad models and good models. Things to look for - efficiency, voltage regulation and ripple.

All good PSUs will have Active PFC, and this can cause a few issues with UPSs having stepped sine-wave output. So, google up and buy the combination accordingly.

Inverter, always buy pure sine-wave inverter. They are cheap now.

In a nutshell, inverter=pure sine wave. UPS=stepped sine wave. PSU=??

billubakra said:
In a nutshell, inverter=pure sine wave. UPS=stepped sine wave. PSU=??

PSU takes in alternate current, and gives out direct current, which is supposed to be a constant.

B

ico said:
PSU takes in alternate current, and gives out direct current, which is supposed to be a constant.

Mere bhai physics hated me in school, whatever you said went above my head. Layman language please.

billubakra said:
Mere bhai physics hated me in school, whatever you said went above my head. Layman language please.

Google karo. These are basics.

This should give you an idea. Direct current - Wikipedi

PSU
Seasonic M12II 620w

UPS Model and Output Type
APC BR-1000G-IN, Line Interactive (Stepped approximation to sine wave)

Comments
PSU since 2015, UPS since 2015 (Battery change every 2 years)
System - Intel Core i5 6600K @ 3.5GHz + 8GB DDR4 + GTX950+ 480GB SSD

PSU
Corsair RM650x

UPS Model
APC BR1100CI/RS1100 660 Watt - 1100 VA Series

Comments
UPS Since 2012 (Battery Changed last month/Exide)

PSU Since June(Newone) System - Rayzen7 1700@3Ghz + 16GB + RX 580 + 250 ssd

No Backup at all. Poor Customer Service. Very Noisy.Doubt whether it's even charging the batteries.
Service technician couldn't find any problem blames on PSU.Advises buying 1500+ rated device.

Please Suggest Good UPS. Very Urgent.

mercurymonster said:
PSU
Corsair RM650x

UPS Model
APC BR1100CI/RS1100 660 Watt - 1100 VA Series

Comments
UPS Since 2012 (Battery Changed last month/Exide)

PSU Since June(Newone) System - Rayzen7 1700@3Ghz + 16GB + RX 580 + 250 ssd

No Backup at all. Poor Customer Service. Very Noisy.Doubt whether it's even charging the batteries.
Service technician couldn't find any problem blames on PSU.Advises buying 1500+ rated device.

Please Suggest Good UPS. Very Urgent.

UPS, Cyber, Cyberpower, Uninterruptible Power Supply, Power, Back up, Computer, Accessories, High Backup, Skyton Electric, Offline, OFFLINE, Line Interactive, 1 KVA, 1000va, Copper Transformer
UPS Model Info:CyberPower

PSU - Antec VP450P (Active PFC)
UPS - Luminous UPS Sine 875VA
Have been using this combo for about a year now...

PSU : Corsair RM650X
UPS : APC Back UPS BR600CI-IN) with stepped sinewave output ( 2 years old )
Working fine since last 1 month with the PSU - PSU bought last month

BTW, The UPS also worked good with Corsair GS600 and VS450.

Corsair CX500M with APC 800VA in the intel i5 rig. Has run without any glitches so far.
Seasonic S12II 620 with APC BR-1000IN (the one where one can attach an additional battery). Running fine since I upgraded to Ryzen 1600X.

bssunilreddy said:
PSU
Seasonic M12II 620w

UPS Model and Output Type
APC BR-1000G-IN, Line Interactive (Stepped approximation to sine wave)

Comments
PSU since 2015, UPS since 2015 (Battery change every 2 years)
System - Intel Core i5 6600K @ 3.5GHz + 8GB DDR4 + GTX950+ 480GB SSD

i have the same PSU as yours,a search on amazon.in return this UPS,it is the same one you use,correct?
how much backup time do you get with this setup?

Shade97 said:
i have the same PSU as yours,a search on amazon.in return this UPS,it is the same one you use,correct?
how much backup time do you get with this setup?

10mins I think because after that I didn't check.

Sent from my Moto G (5) Plus using Tapatalk

H

PSU: Corsair CX600
UPS: APC BR1100CI-IN

UPS worked for 3 years.

I was using APC BR1100CI-IN for 3 years before it failed. Now, it's out of warranty and can't be repaired according to APC technician. So, looking for a new one of similar capacity. I was thinking of buying APC again but so many 1 star reviews on Amazon is putting me off. I see many of you are also using APC. How's your experience been so far?

W

Don't blindly follow amazon/flipkart reviews as quality matters more than quantity(1 real review is better than 10 incorrect/wrong reviews).e.g.When we are talking about heavy items like UPS,the quality of shipping service also matters a lot.A good example of this is internal hard disk which is a relatively heavy & delicate item & if you read some good detailed reviews you would find that amazon actually packed these internal hdd in a cardbox with not even a bubble wrap so no wonder the reports/reviews of failure would be very high for such hdd.

APC is an established brand so unless it is a mass failure or some technical issue(e.g.latest models too sensitive to Indian voltage fluctuations),it is safe to assume that APC quality has not gone down in a big way.In any case you should not believe a 2-3 line 1 star review without any details.e.g.somebody saying UPS failed within a month mentioning that it happened despite living in an area with almost no voltage fluctuations & no other devices connected to UPS besides an avg PC & not a gaming PC which might overload even a 1kva UPS under full load depending on gfx card,is more credible than a review saying UPS failed within a month with a gaming PC/normal internet usage where user might be living in an area with serious voltage fluctuations & running a GTX1080Ti under heavy load with an overclocked/older generation quad core processor.

B

fakespot.com for spotting fake reviews

H

whitestar_999 said:
Don't blindly follow amazon/flipkart reviews as quality matters more than quantity(1 real review is better than 10 incorrect/wrong reviews).e.g.When we are talking about heavy items like UPS,the quality of shipping service also matters a lot.A good example of this is internal hard disk which is a relatively heavy & delicate item & if you read some good detailed reviews you would find that amazon actually packed these internal hdd in a cardbox with not even a bubble wrap so no wonder the reports/reviews of failure would be very high for such hdd.

APC is an established brand so unless it is a mass failure or some technical issue(e.g.latest models too sensitive to Indian voltage fluctuations),it is safe to assume that APC quality has not gone down in a big way.In any case you should not believe a 2-3 line 1 star review without any details.e.g.somebody saying UPS failed within a month mentioning that it happened despite living in an area with almost no voltage fluctuations & no other devices connected to UPS besides an avg PC & not a gaming PC which might overload even a 1kva UPS under full load depending on gfx card,is more credible than a review saying UPS failed within a month with a gaming PC/normal internet usage where user might be living in an area with serious voltage fluctuations & running a GTX1080Ti under heavy load with an overclocked/older generation quad core processor.

I agree with you but if there are huge number of negative reviews, I usually assume all of them can't be clueless. This, coupled with my own experience with APC, made me apprehensive. Anyways, I decided to go with APC again. Thanks!

billubakra said:
fakespot.com for spotting fake reviews

I don't know how reliable this is but according to this, more than 80% reviews are high quality.

B

heartless said:
I agree with you but if there are huge number of negative reviews, I usually assume all of them can't be clueless. This, coupled with my own experience with APC, made me apprehensive. Anyways, I decided to go with APC again. Thanks!

I don't know how reliable this is but according to this, more than 80% reviews are high quality.

It is very reliable.

i have an apc back ups 650 es and so far i have used the following psus with it:
Cooler master extreme 600w
Corsair Vx 450
Corsair vs 450
Corsair cx 450
Seasonic s12ii 620
plus a few generic ones from brands like frontech/foxin/intex etc.

i haven't run into any problems with either of them(such as system restarts/errors etc)even when the ups was running on battery.Some of the aforesaid PSUs feature active pfc too i think.The ups itself is roughly 11 years old at this point(bought it in 2007).

Update:Tested a corsair TX550m recently and that too seems to work just fine.

quicky008 said:
i have an apc back ups 650 es and so far i have used the following psus with it:
Cooler master extreme 600w
Corsair Vx 450
Corsair vs 450
Corsair cx 450
Seasonic s12ii 620
plus a few generic ones from brands like frontech/foxin/intex etc.

i haven't run into any problems with either of them(such as system restarts/errors etc)even when the ups was running on battery.Some of the aforesaid PSUs feature active pfc too i think.The ups itself is roughly 11 years old at this point(bought it in 2007).

Just curious - how many times did you change the battery ?

^twice till date.1st time was in 2014 i think-i got an original apc replacement battery but that lasted only about 2.5 years(the original factory installed battery had lasted way longer than that)-in early 2017 i replaced it once again with a generic exide battery as apc batteries were either unavailable or were priced too exorbitantly.

PSU
Antec VP450P(2013-2018)
Antec BP300P(2015-) - used as a backup option only
Corsair CX450(2018 -)

UPS Model and Output Type
V-Guard Slender Plus 600 -300W(pseudo sine wave) -(2012-)

Comments
UPS has been running fine with all the 3 PSUs.

S

I was looking at Microtek UPS (Twin Guard Pro+ 1000VA). It says "Modified Sine Wave" in the description.
Will it run on an Invertor (sukam sinewave)?
Will it work with Seasonic s2 520?

Microtek 800va doesn't work with this PSU.

lenin.arya said:
I was looking at Microtek UPS (Twin Guard Pro+ 1000VA). It says "Modified Sine Wave" in the description.
Will it run on an Invertor (sukam sinewave)?
Will it work with Seasonic s2 520?

Microtek 800va doesn't work with this PSU.

Stay clear from brands like Microtek - they ,may be cheaper but that is for a reason which is cheap quality.

G

lenin.arya said:
Will it run on an Invertor (sukam sinewave)?
Will it work with Seasonic s2 520?

It will depend upon your system load , house load and capacity of sinewave inverter ( how much Va?) .. It's not fixed and vary from PSU to PSU and system load

Running PC on sinewave inveter is much more safer than running on back UPS if you have ample capacity like 1500 Va or something.. And house load is not too much

In one of my rigs I use APC 800VA with Corsair CX500M. I recently upgraded my PSU to Corsair RM550x. On the 3rd day of after setting up the new PSU with CPU & MoBo power went off and my PC shut down. There was no back up provided by the UPS but the UPS kept making the noise it makes when it runs on battery. Since the PSU is new I doubt its the PSU which caused the problem. I have ordered the below UPS :
APC BX1100C-IN

Lets see if this one works fine with the RM550x.

I have tested an Antec VP650PM (active PFC) with 2 UPSes
1) CyberPower BU1000E-in
It sort of worked, but couldnt handle shutdown at loads AKA heavy gaming. This could be because the UPS was old stock (2016 month of import). The UPS had top notch build quality.

2) APC BX1000C-in
Very nice product, great build quality and worked perfectly with my Rig. Handled power offs at full load from a 1080 along with monitor plugged in. Also has a non battery surge plug which ive connected the speakers to.

ssb1551 said:
In one of my rigs I use APC 800VA with Corsair CX500M. I recently upgraded my PSU to Corsair RM550x. On the 3rd day of after setting up the new PSU with CPU & MoBo power went off and my PC shut down. There was no back up provided by the UPS but the UPS kept making the noise it makes when it runs on battery. Since the PSU is new I doubt its the PSU which caused the problem. I have ordered the below UPS :
APC BX1100C-IN

Lets see if this one works fine with the RM550x.

Amazon has a no return policy for APC UPSes so be wary my friend.

Oh Crap!!

W

^^Also check the manufacturing date,if it is more than a year old then most likely it will come with degraded batteries.

B

whitestar_999 said:
^^Also check the manufacturing date,if it is more than a year old then most likely it will come with degraded batteries.

Is the 6-7 months old window fine?

W

Should be but I prefer not more than 3-4 months old.

whitestar_999 said:
^^Also check the manufacturing date,if it is more than a year old then most likely it will come with degraded batteries.

I got the UPS today evening. Manufactured date is June 2018. Charged it for couple of hours til the charging led was off. Then switched on the PC and switched off the wall switch. PC was on. Guess that APC 800BE-IND is not compatible with RM550x.

W

ssb1551 said:
I got the UPS today evening. Manufactured date is June 2018. Charged it for couple of hours til the charging led was off. Then switched on the PC and switched off the wall switch. PC was on. Guess that APC 800BE-IND is not compatible with RM550x.

Your earlier posts say psu is CX500M?

Check the 2nd statement in that post. I changed the CM500M to RM550x - thats when the problem arose. Otherwise UPS had no problem with CX500M.

W

I knew I was forgetting something.

I think it is too random & not worth time to go into depth regarding this ups+psu issue after my own experience(iball 600va ups+cx550). I tried everything spending days experimenting ,discussed it over 12 pages in jonnyguru thread & finally in the end the issue somehow resolved on its own without doing anything on my part!

Similar thing had happened with me when I used APVC 600 UPS with Corsair CX500M. I replaced the battery thinking the battery is faulty but it turned out that the UPS was underpowered. I had to buy the 800BE UPS from APC. Now again. Sigh!!

PSU	UPS Model and Output Type	Comments
Corsair CX430v2 (Active PFC)	APC Back UPS RS600 (BR600CI-IN) with stepped sinewave output	Has worked fine for me > 4 years. System = A8-3870K + HD 6950. - [MENTION=26711]ico[/MENTION]