Which UPS for Genuine Mac Pro 1,1?

[rwillett]

Hi,

I still have an older Mac Pro 1,1 from 2006. Its been upgraded to 2 x 4 core Xeons and has 16GB of RAM. Its too slow for my main machine, I have a Z87X with an i7 for day to day use, but its a great ESXI server. It runs around 8-10 VM's and is very reliable.

However I've had a few power outages recently from the mains and need to get a UPS just for the Mac Pro as it runs my mail server and other stuff.

I read somewhere but cannot find where, that the Mac Pro 1,1 needs a special type of UPS as the Apple PSU needs a very clean signal. I have looked for ages to try and find out where I read this but to no avail.

None of the UPS people I contacted can help as they say the machine is so old and is not supported.

Does anybody have any good information about this at all? Are special very clean sine wave UPS's needed for the Mac Pro?

All help and advised welcomed.

Thanks,

Rob.

 

[Shiitaki]

Hi,

I still have an older Mac Pro 1,1 from 2006. Its been upgraded to 2 x 4 core Xeons and has 16GB of RAM. Its too slow for my main machine, I have a Z87X with an i7 for day to day use, but its a great ESXI server. It runs around 8-10 VM's and is very reliable.

However I've had a few power outages recently from the mains and need to get a UPS just for the Mac Pro as it runs my mail server and other stuff.

I read somewhere but cannot find where, that the Mac Pro 1,1 needs a special type of UPS as the Apple PSU needs a very clean signal. I have looked for ages to try and find out where I read this but to no avail.

None of the UPS people I contacted can help as they say the machine is so old and is not supported.

Does anybody have any good information about this at all? Are special very clean sine wave UPS's needed for the Mac Pro?

All help and advised welcomed.

Thanks,

Rob.

I really don't know if there is a design flaw with the Mac Pro or not, but any reputable UPS with AVR should work just fine. The AVR is important because it stands for Automatic Voltage Regulation. This means it basically powers the connected devices from the battery, and then is constantly charging the batter, not having to switch over like less expensive ones.

Another issue is why are you wasting so much power running a Mac Pro 1,1 constantly? My God, your desktop under full load uses less power than that thing does just sitting there! Hook a UPS to your desktop and move the VM's over! Not quite totally serious on that last one, but you really should consider letting go and moving to a modern platform, should pay for itself both in needing a much smaller UPS, and smaller electric and AC bills. A Mac pro is capable of drawing a 1000 Watts, and that's a big UPS if you are going to run that for more than a minute on battery. A good UPS will also add considerably to the power draw of the computer because it will radiate a lot of heat as it produces AC from the DC supply, exacerbating the already excessive power use of the old Mac.

 

[rwillett]

AFAIK there's not a design flaw in the Mac Pro, but I thought that the PSU uses/has/needs a Power Factor Correction type power supply. A PFC UPS supply provides a far cleaner sine wave that I *think* the Mac Pro needs. I think that using a more normal non-PFC type UPS may cause problems.

I use think/understand/believe above as firm information is difficult to come by.

Your point on the power drawer may well be correct. I hadn't realised it drew so much power. After saying that it handles 10 Linux VM's very well indeed as the Xeons are rather good at that sort of thing. The problem is buying a new computer to replace that lot is

£65 Motherboard
£240 CPU
£125 memory
£25 case
= £450 plus the time to port over the VM's.

I might get £350-£400 for the Mac so its touch and go whether to do it.

Food for thought...

Thanks,

Rob