CyberPower PR1500LCDRTXL2U UPS Review

PR1500LCD Build Quality and Outlets

When you invest in electronics, be it for the home theater or for the home office, battery backup is something that should not be left out of your budget. In these days, when time equals money, it's unthinkable that a lightning strike, random brownout or other electrical snafu could cost you hours of work or even thousands of dollars in equipment. While many people connect some sort of surge protection to their systems, nothing less than a UPS (Uninterruptible Power Supply) will guarantee your work doesn't get wiped out when someone down at the local power station decides to trip over an extension cord, or a squirrel forgets that running the Nutty 500 race across a wet power line might not be the best decision he's made all week.

Florida, where this reviewer lives, is considered the lightning capital of the U.S. Florida Power & Light stated that there were more than 330,000 lightning strikes in its service territory (which covers about half the state) during 2002. Of course, according to the department of energy, there are over 100 lightning strikes per second across the face of the earth, or 8.5 million per day. Battery backup is starting to look pretty good to me these days. It was with this mindset that I opened up the CyberPower PR1500LCD to take a look at what it could do. The full product model number for this device is PR1500LCDRTXL2U, but I find that almost repulsively too long and will hereby refer to it as the PR1500LCD to keep it simple.

Features & Build Quality

The PR1500LCD series comes in two "flavors". The RTXL2U is the model being reviewed and the RT2U is rated at slightly less power and without the ability to add the expansion battery for extended runtime. This is only the second UPS system we've ever seen with the ability to expand runtime with an external battery pack - a feature we can really appreciate and one we use in a competing brand powering our home theaters. Both models can be used in either a vertical (tower) or horizontal (2U rackmount) configuration. Hardware is included for rack mounting the UPS to a standard equipment rack.

The PR1500LCDRTXL2U is geared towards protecting mission-critical servers, telecom equipment, VOIP and networking hardware. This is a serious device and it outputs both a Pure Sinewave waveform as well as providing full Automatic Voltage Regulation (AVR). For smaller surges and undervoltage situations, the AVR is instantaneous. When the input voltage drops below or rises above the set UPS limits, the PR1500LCD flips the loaded equipment over to clean AC from the battery in less than 4ms. That's quick enough to handle any spike, brownout, or blackout scenario without resetting your system. The UPS not only boosts voltage during low (under) voltage scenarios, it also cuts voltage during spikes or periods of excessive voltage - all without switching to battery mode. This conserves battery life (a big plus) and allows the PR1500LCD to deliver a very stable signal to your connected equipment.

There is a multifunction LCD display that we found extremely useful. It provides constant monitoring of the power and battery condition including Run Time, Load, Temperature, Fault condition, and even whether the unit is operating in silent mode (with the internal speaker off). The PR1500LCDRTXL2U includes three rear ports (which CyberPower refers to as a battery expansion interface) that will handle the addition of a battery pack that increases run time in the event of a power failure.

For those into saving energy, the GreenPower UPS circuitry reduces UPS energy costs by up to 75% by bypassing the transformer when incoming power is coming in at sufficient levels. Since this occurs on average 88% of the time, the benefits are tangible. If you work in a more sophisticated environment, there is an optional SNMP/HTTP Remote Management adapter (RMCARD201) which supports remote management and control of the PR1500LCDRTXL2U through a web browser.

One thing we like to see on UPS systems is UL approval. It turns out that all CyberPower manufacturing facilities are ISO-9001 certified as well as stamped by the FCC, UL (Underwriters Laboratories), and cUL (UL for Canada).

PR1500LCD Software and Conclusion

The PR1500LCD features eight battery and surge protected receptacles (NEMA 5-15R). Of these, four are designed to serve as "fail-safe" options for protecting critical loads. What's cool about this is that the system will actually shut down the other 4 receptacles first in the event of a power interruption, leaving you a precious few minutes on more critical equipment to get it powered down in a worst-case scenario. The UPS has four maintenance-free, user-replaceable 12V/9Ah batteries. Typically, batteries last around 4-5 years, and CyberPower provides a limited warranty for 3 years.

Included Software

The included PowerPanel Business Edition software not only monitors the UPS status, but can be configured to shut down up to two servers* connected via RS-232 - even without user intervention. In this way you can make sure that your servers shut down properly at a certain point of power depletion, rather than allowing the system to exceed its limits and cause a hard shut-off.

*requires that PowerPanel Business Edition be installed on the second server as well.

The software shows the same information as the LCD panel, but in the case of remote use, you can monitor that information without having to go into the equipment room and check the rack. You can also set the thresholds at which point the system will provide voltage regulation and engage the battery system. The software is compatible with all modern flavors of Windows. Linux users can download the PowerPanel Linux software and is not natively Mac compatible at this time. If you are using a Mac, just use the Apple-provided Energy Saver UPS manager which will allow you to configure a number of options for the PR1500LCD.

Conclusion

The PR1500LCDRTXL2U is a mouthful of numbers, but this is one product whose name is actually less complex that the product it represents. We don’t mind complexity as long as it's hidden under the hood. In the case of this product from CyberPower, the PR1500LCD series UPS can be setup as easily as plugging it in and prioritizing your downstream equipment. You don't even have to install the software to make it work. If, however, you want to tweak the settings, then go ahead and install the included PowerPanel Business Edition and play to your heart's content. This is a sophisticated system that is perfect for power users, network administrators and other professionals who want superior power management capabilities in a streamlined package. This may be overkill for home theater use (plus it doesn't address high bandwidth RF protection), but compared to some other "high-end" power protection units we've seen for nearly 4x the price (and more) this product will flatten the competition. Highly recommended.

CyberPower PR1500LCDRTXL2U
MSRP: $736
www.cyberpowersystems.com

About CyberPower Systems, Inc.
CyberPower Systems, Inc. designs, manufactures, and markets state-of-the-art power protection equipment for corporate, business, home, government and educational markets. CyberPower is an industry leader by surpassing customer expectations in the development, design, construction, durability and functionality of uninterruptible power supply (UPS) products for computers, peripherals and connected devices. CyberPower Systems operates in the Asian Pacific, North American, and European markets. To learn more, visit cpsww.com.

The Score Card

The scoring below is based on each piece of equipment doing the duty it is designed for. The numbers are weighed heavily with respect to the individual cost of each unit, thus giving a rating roughly equal to:

Performance × Price Factor/Value = Rating

Audioholics.com note: The ratings indicated below are based on subjective listening and objective testing of the product in question. The rating scale is based on performance/value ratio. If you notice better performing products in future reviews that have lower numbers in certain areas, be aware that the value factor is most likely the culprit. Other Audioholics reviewers may rate products solely based on performance, and each reviewer has his/her own system for ratings.

Audioholics Rating Scale

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Metric	Rating
Performance
Function
Build Quality
Ease of Setup/Programming/Integration
Features
Fit and Finish
Performance
Value