Some basics

No matter what country where you live, AC comes out of the wall socket. Maybe it's at 100 volts or 120 volts or 240 volts, but its AC. Here's a hand drawn picture of what AC looks like on an oscilloscope.

Actually, the quality or smoothness of your AC depends on your supplier. Some countries are well known for their "dirty" power. A DC curve isn't really a curve, just a flat line.

Some engineer, probably with a mathematics background, figured out that if you chop or slice a very small piece of that AC line, and fiddle with it, a rough approximation of DC begins to take shape. As demand for greater current (amperage) increases, it becomes more difficult to grab a small piece of relatively flat AC, so the snippet nabbed becomes even smaller. Sounds like the frequency of chopping the AC, must be increased, which is exactly what happens.

The product

APC has done a great job on their new UPS design. The unit spots a sleek and modern look. The Back-UPS CS 500 base measure a mere 7 inches in height by 4 inches in width and opts a depth of 11 inches, being small in size you can simply install it along your monitor. The product can be purchased in white or black giving you the choice to match it with your current equipment.

The output power capacity is rated at 500VA with a maximal peak of 300 Watts. Depending of what kind of screen and computer you are using, this should be enough to power the system for around 10 minutes.

The front features three status LEDs along the main power button. The first light informs the user that the APC is currently operating, second lights up orange while operating under battery mode, third informs the user of any kind of power overloads and at last the fourth is used as a warning light informing that the battery has to be replaced. If you plan on using the Back-UPS CS on your electronics equipment or on a computer without taking advantage of the included data cable, full audible sound alarms will notify you of any kind of important warnings.

Going to the back, you find the built in phone/fax/modem line (DSL compatible) protection ports along the data port for serial or USB connectivity. A total of three battery backup ports with surge protection are present for connecting the main computer equipment and three secondary ones provide surge protection only for other peripherals such as printers. A reset button is installed in order to take advantage of the resettable circuit breakers in case of conflict or surcharge.

The included APC PowerChute Personal Edition software monitors the performance of the battery and keeps an event log of relevant power events. This application has the ability to protect the operating system and data on the computer by putting your system under hibernate mode or simply shut it down. In addition you get a full configuration panel to provide the maximal protection and preserve the battery power for upcoming outages.

We performed a test on one of our office systems running on a Pentium 4 3.2 GHz HP processor and a SONY GS 400 19” CRT Screen. The PowerChute software calculated a total load of 189 Watts being used. We proceeded to disconnect the unit from the power socket and perform a longevity test on how long the Back-UPS CS 500 could provide power to the system. Our system being rated at almost 200W managed to live for over 8 minutes and 22 seconds, quite a welcome considering that those some 8 minutes would have been more than enough time to save all of the work being done during a power outage.

Summation

The APC Back-UPS CS 500 is quite an interesting product. Not only does it offer strong surge protection but in addition features an Uninterruptible Power Supply system that every body could take advantage during those inauspicious times. While investing 20$ on standard surge protector remains to be a smart but no totally guaranteed move, another 80$ would provide you a full guaranteed power solution.

We are not in 2000 anymore where a UPS was going for around 200$ USD, with a simple search on pricewatch we found the Back-UPS CS 500 for slightly less than 110$ USD/shipping included. If you spent a lot time saving up your money to build your newest computer, we definitely recommend taking a closer look at the APC Back-UPS CS 500! It's going to be one of the smartest purchases and a step closer to fully protecting your investment.

Oleg Mitskaniouk
05.09.12