Customer Reviews
APC is a trusted brand 
2008-06-08
I have had this for over 4 years now and have been very happy with it. There is a helpful windows program to shut down your PC in the case of a long term power loss. There is no Linux support (running Ubuntu 8.04). This is not very powerful so could only support a smaller desktop or laptop. I have been using it on my laptop.
Don't order this...they send the wrong model 
2008-04-29
I ordered this because it said it was model BE650G. They sent a repackaged BE650R. I returned it for an exchange specifying I wanted the BE650G and they sent me another repackaged BE650R. This is a previous generation of the product.
Poor quality control - defective unit out of the box 2008-01-10
Out of the box, this battery backup was making a loud buzzing sound constantly, all the time, even after over 36 hours plugged in. Initially I thought it was the sound it makes while charging but it turns out it was defective. It seems like APC has quality control issues, big time.
I am returning my unit to Amazon for a refund. I contacted APC and they wanted to replace it for me however I prefer to buy another product instead since I do not trust APC's workmanship.
It works 2007-12-03
The ups worked as advertized. One day after installation had a power outage and it kept the system up. I shut the system down. The only con is I cannot find out how to bring the computer of hibernation. I would recommend this for anyone with a computer.
Works 
2007-09-08
I have a PC, a 17" and a 19" monitor and a Logitech wireless mouse and keyboard plugged into this unit. It tells me that I have 16 minutes of battery backup, which is fine for saving a document and shutting down the system. It also tells when it kicked in last and why. ("Line noise" is the only reason so far, after a month.) It was easy to set up.
Excellent home/workstation UPS... 2007-08-02
The APC Back-UPS BE650R provides up to 62 minutes of battery backup for home computers in case of power failure. It also protects your connected equipment from damaging surges and spikes that travel over utility, phone/fax, network, and coax lines. And the included PowerChute Personal Edition software saves your open files and gracefully shuts down your system in the event of extended power outages.
Works well 2007-07-08
I have several comments in various categories:
1) Other reviews: If you want more than four backup outlets, for heaven's sake, use a power strip plugged into the UPS. No big deal!
As to the surge protection; the unit certainly CLAIMS to offer surge protection on all 8 outlets (no battery on 4 of them). I have had no experience one way or the other.
I had no problem connecting the battery wire. Maybe they fixed the problem.
2) Software: Be aware that the PC version of PowerChute is considerably more full-featured than the Mac version, and that for an Intel Mac you must download a new version (and make an account with APS to get it, though it is free). I could not get PowerChute to do anything useful on my Mac Mini. However, both Windows XP and OS X 10.4 supports this UPS out of the box.
3) Mac OS X support. The native support should be nice, but it did not work well for me. You can tell it to shutdown after n minutes on battery (or when there are n minutes of power left or when there is n% power left) and you can also tell it to power back on when AC is restored. It did not do this for me. It shut down into some indeterminite state (unusable but drawing power) at the specified time and did not come back on power up. I think this is an OS X problem or maybe my own config problem, nothing against the UPS.
4) By default, the UPS can drive you nuts during a power failure. While it is supplying power it beeps every 30 seconds. And it beeps repeatedly when the battery reaches full discharge. My computer room is near the bedroom. Need I say more? We had a power failure at night within a few days of the time I installed it. Luckily, if you install PowerChute on a PC, you can program the UPS not to beep. It took me a while to determine this, but there are quite a few options (unclear which are UPS settings and which are software settings) on the PC version.
5) My speakers came with my HP LCD monitor and are powered by it. If I have the LCD on battery, the speakers make a buzzing noise. Not surprising that the UPS does not put out as pure a sine-wave as the power company, I suppose. It does not bother me, but you should know about it if you want to use the unit for audio applications.
Hope this helps...
Burns
It works like it should 2007-07-03
I got one of these for each workstation at the office. I ran a test on the station. I plugged in a 19" CRT monitor, desktop, and laser printer into the battery backup outlets. First there was not an overload on the UPS, so that was good. I unplugged the fully charged battery from the wall and got about 15 minutes of run time. This is more than ample time for the user to save work, so I think this UPS perfectly did its job.
Not reliable enough for me. 
2007-07-01
If your power goes out often, it might be worth buying this unit, as that part of it does work. However, in my use I found that it caused far more system crashes, than it protected me from. Details below:
I installed this system (Model BE650R) new around February 2006. It worked well for about 8 months, through a couple of power outages. In October 2006 though it started momentarily switching off the power, so that my systems would crash. After about 5 system crashes this way, I realized it was the APC supply that was doing this. I called customer support and after a couple of interactions, a technician walked me though a lot of settings that control when the unit's power supply switches in. The firmware that resides in the unit is quite complex, so in reality it's a separate computer monitoring the power line supply and battery levels.
Anyway, it worked ok until March 2007, when it would simply shut off and not work causing several more system crashes. I took it out of the system for a couple months, then decided to give it another try. APC sent me a new backup unit on 6/10 which I installed. The first day I happened to have a power outage, so was very pleased I had followed through. However, the 2nd day, the APC started beeping, indicating power was off. However, it wasn't! Even though there was power to every other appliance, it acted like it was getting no power, and eventually shut down.
So, for my purposes the trouble using it just isn't worth the hassle. Each interaction with customer support is a major time hassle plus there are significant costs sending units back since it's so heavy.
Customer support was excellent and they do stand behing their product.
No surge protection 2007-06-25
I bought this to protect my new PC that I bought just last week. We had an electrical storm today. My motherboard is now toast. I only saw one other person in the Amazon reviews talk about this experience (probably b/c electrical spikes of this magnitude don't happen every day).
If you buy this unit, be sure to buy a good surge protector. It may do the battery backup part OK, but don't make the same mistake as me and rely on it for surge protection.
