Battery backup for Mac desktop

[MarcusBrody]

My power is rather unreliable with frequent flickers and short outages so I want to get a battery backup for my desktop computer, a 2011 core i5 iMac.

Has anyone set up something similar? I read good things about APC, but i'm not sure how Mac compatible the automatic shut down software is. The version they created a few years ago seems to get pretty bad reviews.

[saxon]

Do you need automatic shutdown? Particularly if you're near the PC you could just shut it off yourself. I haven't used automatic shutdown software with any brand of small UPS in the last 10 years as it really doesn't matter if my system loses power once the battery is dead. Before we had journalled file systems there was often a seriously long boot-up while the filesystem is checked after an unexpected shutdown, but that's no longer an issue.

[systemoverblow'd]

I use 2 APC's for my edit system. Never used any shutdown software.

[MontuckyFried]

True. My UPS has that capability, but I've never bothered setting it up. It keeps everything ticking for a good half-hour, giving me ample to time to finish what I'm doing, save my files, and shut down. I don't think that instant power-offs do the same damage they used to do, other than the frustration of not saving your work.

I would just buy one with the juice and value to suit your needs, regardless of Mac compatibility. That feature could be kind of nice for times when your computer's working overnight though, like doing video encodes and such...then again, I guess it wouldn't make much difference since the encode would be interrupted either way. Maybe that's why I don't use auto-shutdown. :/

[MarcusBrody]

Some of the stats stuff I do uses pretty big data sets (and fairly inefficient processing). I often set it up to run when I'm about to sleep/leave/etc so I'm not just sitting here waiting on it.

If unexpected shut downs aren't a major threat to the computer, I guess the automatic shutdown software isn't a huge deal as the process would obviously be terminated anyway and I'm not too worried about data corruption as my programs re-setup the data with each use.

Maybe I'll just grab one of the APC systems. Thanks!

[RShea]

Get a model with Automatic Voltage Regulation built in. It basically will boost low power like happens in brown-out times without the unit going onto the battery. APC are one of the leaders in the field and have Power Chute Software, I also from time to time use a company called Cyber Power Systems- they have a Personal Version for Windows but their web site states they support Apples 'Energy Saver' power management software. No knowledge of the Mac software will do what you are asking, but all pretty much have a USB port or some still have old school serial port (not recommended for your needs) for monitoring of the power and shutdown if the battery starts getting low. On the Windows side- you can actually do that right in the OS also- but no monitoring or logging of the power issues like the Windows software from the UPS companies can.

[Arty50]

I've owned a Cyber Power UPS for the past few years. It's been awesome. APC makes great stuff too.

Don't worry about who has the better software. You won't been using their software with your Mac. OS X has really good UPS controls build into the Energy Saver system preference pane. It does everything you'll need.