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my power supply is 400w, do I need a 400w UPS? my cpu is pentium g620 2.60Ghz,2gb 1333mhz ddr3 ram,160hdd,nvidia gt210 1gb gpu,400w psu samsung 22" LED

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Not necessarily as your system isn't using 400W, that just means your psu could support UP TO 400W. And that's the same case with a UPS. 400W means UP TO 400W. Even though your system is maybe using around 200W, the higher the watts the UPS is rated at, the longer it would be able to run your system without power. So a 400W UPS would generally run your system longer than a 200W UPS. But other than that, you'd just have to read into a specific UPS to see how long it's expected to last @ a certain number of Watts and so on.

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  • Bigger UPS will last longer though
    – pqnet
    Aug 17, 2014 at 18:27
  • Most UPS are rated in VA, not watts. Also, it usually states on the box what you can expect from the UPS.
    – LDC3
    Aug 17, 2014 at 18:32
  • @LDC3: A volt-amp is a synonym for a watt.
    – user193478
    Aug 17, 2014 at 18:42
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    "I" stands for "intensity of an electrical current, or actually the french word for intensity.
    – jAce
    Aug 17, 2014 at 18:56
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    Also, in the world of AC power, VA means the RMS voltage multiplied by the RMS current. When there is a phase-shift between the voltage and the current (which happens when the load is inductive e.g. an electric motor), the RMS power is different from the VA. In fact, in parts of the AC cycle, the power can go negative! Aug 18, 2014 at 5:24

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