Just when you thought there was a gaming version of everything, with shiny flashing LEDs – we’ve seen storage SSDs, M.2 drives, fans, speakers, chairs, keyboards, headsets, mice, even backpacks, there’s still one that you are missing. Enter the Schneider Electric APC Back-UPS Pro Gaming UPS.

A UPS, or Uninterruptable Power Supply, enables whatever is plugged into it to keep functioning during a power outage, as well as help smooth out power delivery in areas that might suffer from fluctuating brown-outs. At the heart of any UPS is a big battery, capable of sustaining a power load for a specified amount of time. Normal UPS devices for PCs deal with basic office machines, however it is the workstation and gaming market that need to survive on systems pulling 500W to 1000W continuously, and as a result the batteries have to be bigger, but also have to supply enough juice.

Normally the goal of the UPS, when it takes over from a power outage, is to give the user enough time to save their work and close down the system. For gaming, this means finishing the match. This Pro Gaming UPS also provides additional connections for routers and hotspots, keeping the external internet connection going (assuming the gaming machine and the router are in the same location).

So what makes a UPS a gaming-related UPS? LEDs, preferably RGB LEDs. This unit has 12 of them, all seemingly in that ring around a mini display. The chassis itself comes in either an Arctic or Midnight color, and the unit's display shows how much of the battery is charged and the expected lifetime when running on battery only mode.

The unit has six battery back-up outlets for devices to keep powered during a power outage, and supports a true sine wave output. A further four outlets are provided as surge protected outlets, similar to a standard 4-way socket extension. Two USB Type-A and a Type-C port are on the front in order to charge smartphones and tablets.


This is the BR1500MS version

The press release provided unfortunately doesn’t go into any detail about the capacity of the UPS. Typically with a UPS one would expect some technical details regarding time and peak power – running a 50W HTPC will clearly last longer than a 1600W gaming machine. Based on the design, it looks like a repackaged BR1500MS, a unit with a total of 10 outlets capable of a peak 900W or 1500VA. The BR1500MS runtime graph shows that:

  • At 100W, 77.7 minutes of power
  • At 500W, 12.0 minutes of power
  • At 900W, 4.1 minutes of power

The unit takes 16 hours to charge. The BR1500MS retails for $220. The Gaming UPS has an extra USB port, and we wonder how much the RGBs might cost too.

As we don’t know any details about this specific gaming UPS (BGM1500 for Arctic, BGM1500B for Midnight), it would be hard to draw conclusions. The device is set for launch in October, but also there is no indication of which markets it will launch in. If we find out more we will update this news piece.

It’s worth noting that a UPS doesn’t save you from a BSOD. But the PR agency involved are probing to see who wants review samples. It would be an interesting unit to test. The question would be how to test.

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  • dwbogardus - Monday, September 28, 2020 - link

    Don't forget that the UPS also needs to power the display. Although I have a new 28" 4K LCD computer monitor, I also have several excellent high resolution CRT monitors, as I expect at least some others have retained as well. Any one of those will add to the required power budget for the UPS.
  • Chaitanya - Monday, September 28, 2020 - link

    Depends on size of displays 32in 4k, 34in ultrawides(75/60hz) and 27in 144hz add around 50W of power while non gaming monitors especially 27in dont add more than 20 W to total power.
  • FreckledTrout - Monday, September 28, 2020 - link

    Well I think its meant for consoles.
  • yetanotherhuman - Tuesday, September 29, 2020 - link

    VA doesn't tell you shit about how large the battery is, only the load it can deal with.
  • DejayC - Monday, September 28, 2020 - link

    It actually looks nice and not over the top.
  • jvl - Monday, September 28, 2020 - link

    Combine it with stadia and a small screen and you dominate when the world ends
  • willis936 - Monday, September 28, 2020 - link

    How about a competently built consumer UPS that doesn’t shit itself within two years. APC hasn’t delivered that in over a decade.
  • DigitalFreak - Monday, September 28, 2020 - link

    APC UPSes are garbage. I've had over a 90% failure rate between the ones at work and at home. That doesn't include batteries.
  • dwbogardus - Monday, September 28, 2020 - link

    You claim it has over a 90% failure rate, and yet it is what you choose to use in your own home? Why?
  • Dantte - Monday, September 28, 2020 - link

    Dont expect much and hope you dont mind damaging your PC.

    This is a "stand by" UPS, so no power filtration or voltage correction, if you lose power, it has to switch over to battery which takes time. If you have a bad PSU in your PC with little to no hold-up time, its shutting down!

    Also, output of this UPS is "simulated" sine-wave, aka square wave. You ever hear of "dirty power", well it doesnt come any dirtier than this and has the potential to ruin sensitive electronics! .All those VRM phases on your motherboard and going to mean JACK!

    A PC should be on a line-interactive, or online (dual-conversion) UPS with a "pure" or "true" sine-wave output at a bare minimum.

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