Will my new Mac Mini work with the APC SMC1000 Smart UPS?

Actually I did and they pretty much said the same thing you did. The unit will work with the Mini, but as to whether it will work with the Energy Saver Preferences in Mountain Lion...they said I needed to check with Apple!

Round and round I go.

There are other discussions on this topic. Some say APC Smart units WILL recognize and work with the Energy Saver Preferences on Macs (https://discussions.apple.com/thread/3659052?answerId=17310920022#17310920022). Some say they have had problems getting the two units to talk nicely with each other. It seems to depend on what APC Smart model and what OS you're running. That's why I thought I'd give the forum a try. Maybe, just maybe, someone has had personal experience with this APC unit and Macs running Mt. Lion.

This is a fairly popular APC model as it is their least expensive unit that outputs out a pure (not stepped) sine wave voltage. Hopefully, that is in favor of getting a response.

I think this is more of a general Mac and APC question. But I have a Mini so I decided to label the question as such.

Yep...I told them that. Apple does sell some inexpensive APC units, but that is of no help. I'm going to try APC again. I might get lucky and connect with someone in the right mood or with greater expertise. The Apple Discussion Forum is always a good place to try. That's why I'm here. I have been Googling. No luck yet, but my search has not been exhaustive.

Contacted APC. No reply yet.

Read this online. Just a regular guy posting a regular old review of an APC UPS he bought. It's not the unit I referred to in my question. Nevertheless, I'll copy it here for folks to read.

"I spent some time researching back up power supplies to replace my OLD and outsized APC 500. I wanted a model with sufficient back up for my iMac, AND well spaced outlets on the back of the device for all of my peripherals. This unit has it all! The ony thing that made me hesitate is the APC management software is for PCs only. APC does not mention MAC compatability in any of their web sites or documentation. However, after reading a few on-line reviews of APC products, I found out that the MAC OS has the required software built into the OS.

When I received my APC UPS it was really plug and play. My iMac immediately recognized the unit and it was easy to configure the device on the Energy Saver preferences, UPS tab."

OK folks, I got a response from a different APC customer care representative. I used their e-mail support this time and seemed to have found better success than talking on the phone. Here is what they wrote. BTW, I assume by "native shutdown" he means using the Energy Management preferences on the Mac Mini. If things do not turn out to work as promised I will update. Otherwise, I think I'm set.

Mr. Luigi,

You can use the Apple Mac mini with SMC1000. Yes, you are correct, we do not have a PowerChute software which is compatible with Mac OS. So you can configure the native shutdown to have a graceful shutdown of the UPS.

If you have any further questions, please do not hesitate to contact me by responding to this incident. It would be my pleasure to ensure that your issue is quickly resolved!

Solutions to most common customer problems can be found in our APC Knowledge Base which can be found at:

http://www.apc.com/support/answers.cfm

Hi All,

I received the SMC1000 in the mail and hooked it up to my new Mac Mini. Sure enough, it works like a charm as far as I can tell by the options given me via Energy Saver in Preferences. Connecting the Mini to the SMC1000 by USB does indeed activate the built in software provided by Apple to control the UPS. There is even an icon that gets displayed on the menu bar showing the battery level of the UPS. I've attached screen shots below so you can see the functionality you will get via the software Apple provides built into OSX v10.8.3. Again, the PowerChute software provided by APC does not work on Macs. That software may provide more functionality than what Apple has built into Mountain Lion, but for my purposes the Apple software is more than good enough. BTW, the unit is quiet as a church mouse. It also puts out a pure sine wave voltage. Not an approximated stepped sine wave that can sometimes be problematic with certain electronic equipment. It is the most inexpensive UPS APC manufactures that outputs a pure sine wave voltage.

Best Regards, Mr. Luigi