1500VA and Up - Rack UPS Territory

Quick answer

Above 1500VA the purchase changes shape: 15 units in stock at 1350-2700 W of maker-stated real power, 11 of them rackmount, and the constraints become depth, weight and the plug rather than runtime. 10 state pure sine.

Prices updated · 15 units in this band · maker-stated watts run 1350-2700 W · from $1012.38

Pure sine 1500VA and up units in stock

10 in-stock listings · VA, watts, waveform and outlet counts are the maker’s claims, read from the listing · refreshed every few hours

UnitVAWattsWaveformFormCommsPrice
CyberPower PR2200RTXL2UN
CyberPower PR2200RTXL2UN Smart App Sinewave UPS System, 2200VA/2200W, 8 Outlet
2200 VA2200 Wpure sineRackmountSNMP, LCD$1094.22Buy Now
APC SMT2200RM2UC
APC 2200VA Smart UPS with SmartConnect, SMT2200RM2UC Rack Mount UPS Battery Ba
2200 VA1980 Wpure sineRackmountnot stated$1012.38Buy Now
CyberPower PR2200RT2U
CyberPower PR2200RT2U Smart App Sinewave UPS System, 2200VA/2200W, 8 Outlets,
2200 VA2200 Wpure sineRackmountLCD$1485.00Buy Now
CyberPower PR2200LCD
CyberPower PR2200LCD Smart App Sinewave UPS System, 2200VA/1980W, 10 Outlets,
2200 VA1980 Wpure sineTowerSNMP, LCD$1759.95Buy Now
APC SMT3000RM2UC
APC 3000VA UPS SMT3000RM2UC Rack Mount Sinewave Battery Backup Bundle
3000 VA2700 Wpure sineRackmountnot stated$1840.50Buy Now
APC APC-3000VA
APC 3000VA Lithium Ion UPS, SMTL3000RM2UC, Pure Sine Wave Rackmount UPS, 120V
3000 VA2700 Wpure sineRackmountLCD$1999.00Buy Now
Eaton Eaton-3000VA
Eaton Tripp Lite SU3000RTXLCD2U 3000VA Online Double-Conversion UPS 2700W
3000 VA2700 Wpure sineTowerUSB, Serial, LCD$2309.95Buy Now
APC SMX3000RMLV2U
APC Network UPS, 3000VA Smart-UPS Sine Wave UPS with Extended Run Option, SMX3
3000 VA2700 Wpure sineRackmountnot stated$2493.71Buy Now
Eaton Eaton-3000VA
Eaton Tripp Lite Series 3000VA Smart UPS Back Up, Sine Wave, Network Card Incl
3000 VA2700 Wpure sineRackmountLCD$2749.00Buy Now
APC APC-3000VA
APC Smart-UPS 3000 VA Lithium Ion UPS, SMTL3000RMUCNC, Short Depth, Pure Sine
3000 VA2700 Wpure sineRackmountSNMP, LCD$4055.60Buy Now

1500VA and up units that do not state a waveform

5 in-stock listings · unknown is not the same as safe - check the maker's datasheet · VA, watts, waveform and outlet counts are the maker’s claims, read from the listing · refreshed every few hours

UnitVAWattsWaveformFormCommsPrice
APC SMT3000RM2UC
APC 3000VA Smart UPS with SmartConnect, SMT3000RM2UC Rack Mount UPS Battery Ba
3000 VA2700 Wnot statedRackmountUSB, Serial$1820.00Buy Now
Eaton Eaton-3000VA
Eaton Tripp Lite SU3000LCD2UHV 208V/230V 3000VA Double-Conversion UPS 2700W
3000 VA2700 Wnot statednot statedLCD$2204.33Buy Now
APC SMX3000RMLV2U
APC Smart-UPS X SMX3000RMLV2U 3000 VA Rack-mountable UPS. SMART UPS X 3000VA R
3000 VA2700 Wnot statedRackmountLCD$2381.99Buy Now
Vertiv Vertiv-3000VA
Vertiv Liebert PSI5-3000SRT120LI Lithium-Ion UPS 3000VA Battery Backup 2U
3000 VA2700 Wnot statedRackmountnot stated$2494.99Buy Now
Vertiv Vertiv-5000VA
Vertiv Liebert GXT5-192VBATKIT Double Conversion UPS 5000VA to 10kVA 192V
5000 VA1350 Wnot statednot statednot stated$1716.00Buy Now
How many listings actually tell you the waveform

Of the 15 in-stock units we track, 10 state an output waveform - 67%. Of those, 10 say pure sine and 0 say simulated. The remaining 5 say nothing at all.

The asymmetry is the finding. Pure sine is a selling point and gets printed; a stepped approximation is not and does not. So a silent listing is more likely to be the cheaper waveform than the better one, and we still do not claim to know which - we count it as unknown and tell you to check the datasheet.

What changes above 1500VA

This is the band where a UPS stops being an appliance you put under a desk and becomes a piece of infrastructure. Three things change at once.

The unit gets heavy, because the weight is almost entirely battery. A 2U unit in this class can outweigh the servers above it, which makes its position in the rack a structural question rather than a convenience one: it goes at the bottom.

The plug changes. Larger units frequently ship with a NEMA 5-20P rather than the standard 5-15P, which is a physically different connector with a rotated blade that will not enter a household outlet. Where a listing states its plug type we render it as that listing's statement of what it ships with. We publish no guidance about what circuit to install - that is an electrician's decision and a code question, and it is not something a storage price site should be answering.

And the depth becomes the constraint that actually decides the purchase. A 2U label describes height. Full-depth server cabinets take anything; a great many home and small-office racks do not, and a unit built for a datacentre cabinet will not go in. 11 of the 15 units in this band are rackmount, and the correct sequence is to measure your rack, then read the maker's datasheet for the specific model.

Pure sine is not optional at this size

Everything at this size is protecting equipment with active PFC power supplies. There is essentially no modern hot-swap server supply that is not one, and CyberPower's own definition names sine wave output as the feature that prevents unexpected shutdowns and component stress on exactly that class of load.

There is a wrinkle specific to rack equipment. Redundant server supplies are two units sharing a load and designed so that either can carry it alone. That protects against a dead supply or a dead feed. It does nothing at all about waveform: if both supplies are on the same UPS, both see the same output at the same instant, and redundancy buys you two failures instead of one.

Of the 15 units in this band, 10 state pure sine and 5 do not state a waveform at all. At this price point a unit that will not tell you what it outputs is worth thirty seconds on the maker's datasheet before you commit several hundred dollars.

Sizing for a restart, not for an idle rack

The sizing method is unchanged - total your real wattage, divide by the unit's output power factor, and that is the required output rating - but the input to it changes at this scale.

A rack of equipment restarting together draws dramatically more than the same rack sitting idle: every drive spins up, every fan runs to full, every supply charges its capacitors. A unit sized precisely to the running load will trip on the restart, and the restart is the moment immediately after the event you bought it for.

We are deliberately not giving you a multiplier for this. We have not measured one, and a made-up safety factor dressed as guidance is exactly what this site refuses to publish. The honest version is to size against your servers' documented maximum draw rather than their typical draw, which is a figure the vendor publishes and we do not have to invent.

The other thing worth buying at this size is regulation rather than runtime. A line-interactive unit corrects voltage sags continuously without going to battery at all, and on a supply that dips when something large starts up nearby, that is the feature doing the most work day to day. Total outages are dramatic; bad mains is what does the slow damage.

VA is not watts, and this is the sizing error people actually make

Sellers lead with VA because it is the bigger number. VA is apparent power; watts is real power, and watts is what decides whether your load fits. The ratio between them is the unit’s power factor and it is not a constant - Synology’s own guidance is that “Different manufacturers have different volt-ampere (VA) ratings based on the performance of their UPS. To determine the total power (W) that the UPS can support, we recommend consulting the manufacturer’s product manual.”

Their published method, which is the one these pages use rather than one of our own:

Output power required = total wattage of your devices / output power factor of the UPS

Synology’s worked example takes a 650 W load and a UPS with a 70% output power factor and arrives at 928.5 W - so a “1000VA” unit rated at 600 W would not have carried it, despite the reassuring four-digit number on the box. Add your own devices’ figures from their spec sheets; we publish no wattage on your behalf.

Where to go next

The UPS hub carries the waveform rule, the sizing method and the battery economics · 600-900VA · 1000-1500VA · For a NAS · For a rack · tower vs rackmount (2 tower and 11 rackmount units sit in this band).

This page exists because the catalogue holds at least 4 units in the band. Bands below that floor are not published rather than published thin.

Frequently asked questions

Will a 2U rackmount UPS fit my rack?

Check the depth, not the U count. The U number describes height only. Many home and small-office racks are far shallower than the server cabinets these units are designed for. Measure the rails-to-rear clearance, then check the maker's datasheet for the specific model - and where a listing states no depth, treat that as unknown rather than fine.

Why do these units have a different plug?

Larger units often ship with a NEMA 5-20P, a 20-amp plug with one blade rotated 90 degrees, which physically will not fit a standard 5-15P outlet. We show the plug type where a listing states it, as a statement about what the unit ships with. We give no advice about your building's wiring - that is a question for an electrician and for local code.

Do redundant server power supplies mean I need less from the UPS?

No. Redundant supplies protect against one supply or one feed failing. If both are plugged into the same UPS they both see the same output at the same moment, so a waveform the supplies dislike takes out both halves simultaneously. Redundancy is not a substitute for the right waveform.

Why does this page show the waveform on every row?

Because it is the specification that decides whether the unit works with your hardware. An active power factor correction power supply - most servers, desktops and NAS units - can shut down unexpectedly when fed a stepped approximation of a sine wave, which CyberPower's own documentation names as the failure sine wave output exists to prevent. A listing that does not state its waveform is marked not stated rather than assumed safe.

Sources

Specification claims on this page were checked against the pages below on 4 August 2026. Where a widely-repeated figure did not survive that check, we report what the source says now and say so in the text rather than repeating the familiar number.

  1. CyberPower Systems - Active PFC Compatibility (glossary) (cyberpowersystems.com, 2026-08-20)
    Used for: the maker's own definition, quoted verbatim on our pages: Active PFC compatibility is "a feature of UPS systems that delivers sine wave output to prevent unexpected shutdowns or component stress for connected devices with Active PFC power supplies." This is the source for the spec-gate framing - the failure mode named by the maker is an unexpected shutdown, which is precisely the event a UPS was bought to prevent.
  2. Synology Inc. - How do I choose a suitable UPS? (Knowledge Center) (kb.synology.com, 2026-08-20)
    Used for: the sizing method used on these pages, quoted rather than paraphrased: "Output power = Total wattage of your devices / Output power factor of a UPS", with Synology's own worked example dividing a 650 W load by a 70% power factor to reach 928.5 W. Also the VA-versus-watts caveat in the vendor's own words: "Different manufacturers have different volt-ampere (VA) ratings based on the performance of their UPS. To determine the total power (W) that the UPS can support, we recommend consulting the manufacturer's product manual." Article last updated 1 April 2024.
  3. Synology Inc. - Products Compatibility List - UPS, filtered to tested by Synology (synology.com, 2026-08-20)
    Used for: the full tested list, captured in a rendered browser session: 79 entries, 73 UPS units and 6 management cards or protocol adapters. Also the vendor's own two operational notes, which we quote rather than restate: that any listed model can extend UPS service to a second Synology product over the network, and that "The UPS power-off function varies by brand and model. Please simulate a power outage to ensure the function performs as expected." The list is CATEGORY-level: it does not filter per machine.
  4. QNAP Systems - Configuring the UPS settings, QTS 5.2.x (docs.qnap.com, 2026-08-20)
    Used for: that QTS supports three connection modes - USB cable, SNMP over the network, and network UPS slave against another machine acting as the server - and the two configurable responses to a power failure: powering off after a set period, or entering auto-protection mode, which stops services and unmounts volumes.
  5. Network UPS Tools project - Network UPS Tools (NUT) - project overview and hardware compatibility list (networkupstools.org, 2026-08-20)
    Used for: the project's own description of its scope - "to provide support for Power Devices, such as Uninterruptible Power Supplies, Power Distribution Units, Automatic Transfer Switches, Power Supply Units and Solar Controllers" - its GPL licence, and the size of its hardware compatibility list at the date read: at least 199 manufacturers and 1,436 device models. We link this list; we do not reproduce it. It is maintained upstream, it changes, and a stale copy of somebody else's compatibility list is worse than a link to the live one.
  6. Schneider Electric (APC) - What is the expected life of my APC UPS VRLA battery? (se.com, 2026-08-20)
    Used for: the three-to-five-year expected service life of the sealed lead-acid battery in a typical APC UPS, and that operating temperature is the dominant factor in shortening it. The replacement-cartridge prices quoted on our pages are described as reported figures, not as our measurement - we do not track UPS battery prices.
  7. DatacenterDisk - Live catalogue - UPS listings (datacenterdisk.com, 2026-08-20)
    Used for: every price, VA rating, watt rating, outlet count and waveform statement on these pages, read from the seller's own title and feature bullets at seed time and refreshed by the price cron. The waveform coverage rate is recomputed on each render rather than frozen here.
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