The eight-outlet CyberPower SL700U has an issue: it’s not precisely fish nor fowl. This well-made, comparatively compact unit can present backup energy of as much as 370 watts/700 volt-amperes (VA), sufficient to supply standby energy for about 9 minutes for a modest laptop, like an iMac or mid-range Dell Inspiron tower with an exterior monitor.
This UPS, nevertheless, provides energy output from its battery that solely simulates the sleek sine wave produced by alternating-current energy that comes from an electrical utility. This simulation lurches via steps as an alternative of sliding easily between adverse and constructive voltage, which is an issue for contemporary laptop energy provides. This isn’t a difficulty with solid-state units similar to Wi-Fi routers or broadband modems—these are the units greatest suited to make use of with it.
This overview is a part of TechHive’s protection of the most effective uninterruptible energy provides, the place you’ll discover opinions of the competitors’s choices, plus a purchaser’s information to the options you must take into account when searching for the sort of product.
Most trendy computer systems characteristic energetic energy issue correction (PFC). This lets the {hardware}’s energy provide extra effectively rework incoming AC into the DC energy used inside a pc. It may additionally work throughout quite a lot of voltages and frequencies equipped by utilities around the globe. However if you mix a simulated sine wave with energetic PFC as an alternative of a pure sine wave produced by more-expensive UPSes, the facility provide might produce a high-pitched whine each time energy comes from the backup machine’s battery. It’s additionally potential that the facility provide can expertise small quantities of injury that may add up over time.
CyberPower ProgramsThe CyberPower SL700 is greatest suited to offering backup energy to networking tools, however you would possibly solely have the ability to match two outsized energy adapters as a result of its shops are shut collectively.
This UPS can be configured as a standby mannequin, in distinction to a extra superior line-interactive UPS. A standby UPS faucets its battery each time voltages sags or surges sufficient that it wants to chop units from energy mains connected to its battery-backed shops and feed electrical energy straight. A line-interactive mannequin passes all its energy via a conditioner, which cleans up small eccentricities and retains the battery in reserve for extra excessive situations, or a full-on energy outage. That preserves the lifetime of the battery with a line-interactive mannequin in areas with routine energy sags, surges, outages, or different issues.
A line-interactive UPS also can leap into motion in about 4 milliseconds (ms) to supply energy from its battery, versus a rated 8ms for the SL700U. That distinction can generally be sufficient to crash a delicate laptop. With line-interactive UPSes costing solely barely extra watt-for-watt as standby, I like to recommend laptop homeowners choose that fashion.
This UPS does have a price benefit for offering battery backup to less-sensitive, however probably extra vital community units in your house—to wit, a broadband modem, a Wi-Fi router or the entry factors in a mesh Wi-Fi community, in addition to an ethernet change if in case you have a profusion of wired units.
Glenn Fleishman / IDGCyberPower’s software program permits you to configure various choices for its UPS, even when the UPS isn’t completely related to your laptop.
That sort of tools has a low energy draw, permitting an extended runtime on an reasonably priced standby UPS just like the SL700U. The rated time for this mannequin would enable maintaining 100W of units operating for about 20 minutes, and 50W for about an hour. With significantly power-efficient gear, you would possibly get so long as two hours out of the battery.
In the event you’re in a location with relative frequent outages, together with ones that final 5 to twenty minutes, you would possibly have the ability to preserve your community going with this UPS, when you use cellular units and laptops that don’t require their very own UPS. (web service suppliers usually have mills and different backups that permit them proceed to supply cellphone, knowledge, and cable providers even whereas there’s a localized and even regional energy outage.)
The eight shops on the SL700U are divided into three which can be protected solely towards surges, as with every standalone surge protector, and 5 which can be related to the battery. The position is a bit tight: the 5 shops have one positioned 2.25 inches away from the following, whereas the opposite 4 are spaced simply 1.125 inches aside. (The identical is true for the surge-protected shops, with one spaced additional than the opposite two.) It additionally has two USB charging ports (5V at as much as 2.4A), which is a pleasant additional.
CyberPower provides downloadable software program for macOS and Home windows that permits you to configure the UPS, even when it’s not completely related to the pc. You’ll be able to disable all audible alarms (an enormous bonus for some folks), and set the UPS to restart itself when energy returns, amongst many different options. In the event you wind up utilizing the UPS with a pc that doesn’t depend on energetic PFC, you may also use the PowerPanel software program to schedule shutdowns and startups, or react routinely when the facility is out. (I’m comfortable to report that an up to date model of the Mac software program launched in August 2020 eliminates issues in set up and utilization that I skilled when reviewing one other CyberPower devicev earlier within the yr.)
The SL700 encompasses a wiring fault gentle—on one brief facet, subsequent to the USB connector for a pc hook-up—which you must examine when first plugging it in. The LED illuminates crimson if there’s any wiring difficulty, similar to a lacking floor, dangerous floor, or reversed wiring. In the event you have been to purchase this unit and see a crimson gentle when plugging this UPS in to energy, disconnect it and name an electrician instantly.
CyberPower features a helpful and in depth handbook within the field, in addition to full guarantee info—not like another producers. The corporate provides three years’ price of safety towards an sudden failure of the UPS and a perpetual $100,000 price of insurance coverage towards repairs or destruction of connected tools. Each the UPS and attached-equipment warranties can be found just for the unique purchaser, who must report a failure inside 10 days of the incident and supply the unique dated buy receipt.
The underside line
The pc world has largely moved past standby UPS fashions, however they nonetheless have a spot: the CyberPower SL700 is the precise value for community stability and continuity within the dwelling.