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Available settings offer three options: shut down after a number of minutes on battery, up-time remaining on the UPS battery, or at a specific percentage of battery charge remaining.
In tests, however, all of these controls are frozen at their lowest setting by default (one minute/one percent), with no apparent way to control or change them. Despite being marketed as "PC and Mac compatible," the operation manual makes no mention of Mac OS X. The product CD contains a PDF of the user and installation manuals, but does not provide the Acrobat reader.
We weren't particularly impressed with the Java-based PowerAlert Console software. It froze several times under Windows 7 Professional 32-bit and Windows Server 2008 R2 64-bit, and did not behave consistently when it was operational. For example, it would not recognize the UPS when awaking from Windows sleep or when reconnecting the USB cable, and didn't always display all available features.
But the BC600 has it where it counts. The UPS provided steady AC power for almost 34 minutes (33:42) when running on battery, powering a Dell PowerEdge R415 server that was consuming 104 watts while active and 84 watts when idle. Not bad, considering that the company claims that the unit should provide about 18 minutes of backup power for a system consuming 100 watts. At 31 minutes, the unit beeped a few times, and did so again at 31:30. At 31:40, it let out a long steady beep and its battery indicator flashed red. It finally quit at 33:42.
For resellers seeking a trouble-free solution for devices running Mac OS X, Windows or proprietary operating systems, the CRN Test Center recommends the BC600SINE from Tripp Lite as a solid choice.
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