Ultra 700VA UPS vs Ultra 850VA UPS - Ultra UPS Testing and Conclusion

Testing Conclusion:

Testing a UPS is pretty basic, there really aren't a ton of options to test out, basically I wanted to see how long these UPS' lasted, and how the software worked and if there ever was a blackout I wanted to make sure the software would shut down my computer.

Everyone knows that the suggested run time of a UPS is really not how long they are going to run for in real world scenarios, the questions is, how big is the difference?

For all my testing I let the battery charge for 24 hours before testing, both units had been used before and had charged and discharged before the final test occurred. For the testing I simply unplugged the UPS and let it run until the computer attached turned off. For testing I used my bench system with the below specifications:

Intel Core 2 Duo E6600 - Provided by Memory Express
MSI P965 Neo - Provided by Memory Express
XFX 8800 GTX - Provided by Memory Express
2 GB Kit of Crucial Ballistix PC2-8000 - Provided by Crucial
Western Digital 250 gig (16 MB Cache)
Enermax Liberty 500 Watt Power Supply
CoolIT Freezone CPU Cooler - Provided by CoolIT Systems

The wattage of the system being run off the UPS was approximately 240 Watts running idle. This wattage fluctuated by about 10 watts, but was consistently around 240 watts for the entire test.

The monitoring software claimed my test system was running the 700VA at approximately 65% load, and the 850VA at 50% load.

The 700VA Ultra UPS has a runtime of 3:06 seconds and the 850VA Ultra UPS had a runtime of 3:32. Both tests were done with the same computer which was drawing 240 Watts (+/- 5 Watts).

Ultra 700VA and 800VA UPS Final Thoughts:

These UPS' aren't claiming to be able to run your system for hours and hours without power, but are aimed more at a market that needs enough time to save some documents and get shut down if the power goes out, and both units do that without a problem. The real-life tests I ran on these units proved that they aren't going to run for an extended period of time, but I found that in the 3-4 minutes that they ran for, I was easily able to get everything saved and ready to be shut down. Also the majority of times this year that my lights have gone out for more than 10 seconds, is pretty low, both of these units are more than enough to keep you going during a storm where the power goes out for a couple seconds, then comes back on.

I was very happy with how simple it was to install the software, and have it work with no modifications, I simply plugged the UPS in, installed the software, and unplugged the power and without missing a beat the software kicked it and shut my computer down automatically with no problems. I'm always a fan of software that once installed just works, of course there are modifications you can make if you want your computer to run longer than the defaults, but for 95% of users, the defaults are great and work with no problems.

Doing the Pro's and Con's for this review turned out to be a bit more difficult that most other products. Really the only thing that could be considered a "Con" is the run time, but thats why Ultra has other products that offer longer run times, so obviously I can't dock any points for that because the longer run time you need, the more you pay.

Finding the "Pro's" of these UPS' were pretty easy, they both have a great price which is lower than other "Big Name" UPS' on the market. Also its software is simple and very easy to use and does the job perfectly, I had no issues whatsoever with it, and found it to do everything I could ask and more. At the time of publishing I found the 850VA model for $42.97 CDN, which is really a super deal, thats a pretty low price to pay for protection like a UPS offers, heck, you can easily spend more than that on a good surge protector. I would think such a low price might scare some people off thinking they are getting a low quality product, however I have been using mine for about a month and have had no problems whatsoever and can easily recommend either one of the models we reviewed. If both these models are more than you need you can even go with Ultra's 500VA model which is advertised for $24.97 CDN on pricegrabber.ca. With prices like this its pretty hard to use the old "I can't justify spending that much on something thats not going to make my computer better" excuse.

Overall both of these UPS' I reviewed were great, they both worked great and I honestly had no issues with either of them. I think at the end of the day the price of these units is going to be the major selling point, and if you do a little searching around on the internet, you can find both these units at some pretty low prices.

Pro's

- Affordable Price
- Software works Great
- Works Great

Con's

- None

In the end, I can easily give both of these Ultra UPS' our Top Pick award, they are a great product at a great price, and definitely deserving of our Top Pick. I am awarding both of these units (700VA and 850VA) the same score, since they both performed at the same level.

I'd like to thank Ultra for allowing us to review these UPS'. If you have any questions, comments, or general feedback, please leave it at the "Comments" link below.