a8n sli power issues?

[Regulator07]

i have been running my rig with the neopower 480 for about 3 weeks now and just recently been having some problems. i definitely think it is psu related as increasing voltage to the cpu does help but should not be required. even at stock speeds (2.2 3500+ winnie) i can pass superpi 1m once and then it fails right away anytime after that, also prime goes for about 5 min then done. then also, i was running fine at 2310 (210x11) primed for 3 hours and fine, now same thing cant prime, also when i shut the computer off for awhile then reboot it runs better, when the psu is running for awhile it seems to crap out, i dont get it but i think it might be that dual rail $hit and am thinking about rma'ing it for the powerstream 520. what do you guys think any suggestions and do you think i shoud ge the powerstream 520? thanks!

 

[smc13]

So, you were running fine till recently? Did you change the PSU recently? If not, why would it be the problem? What did you change? I am using the neopower with that motherboard and it is stable. The neopower might be the problem if you were using two 6800s but I doubt it is the problem with only one video card.

 

[Regulator07]

Originally posted by: smc13
So, you were running fine till recently? Did you change the PSU recently? If not, why would it be the problem? What did you change? I am using the neopower with that motherboard and it is stable. The neopower might be the problem if you were using two 6800s but I doubt it is the problem with only one video card.

well i tried overclocking the cpu and it cant do really anything stable, now that may be a mobo issue or something else, but what bothers me is that it was stable when there is a cold boot and the psu is not heavily tasked before hand, it even runs prime for over 9 hours at stock speeds, but now all of a sudden after having the comp on for a while (overnight) and playing games and such, i cant even run prime for over 5 min, it just errors, same settings and all. i am going to test it again, but the voltage fluctuates a lot to the vcore, it is supposed to stay at 1.408 but will go down to 1.396 and sometimes up to 1.424. i am confused and dont doubt the neopower can handle it, just wondering if maybe it is drawing a little too much from it and making it heat up to an unstable state.

 

[KGB]

Reg,

It sounds like a temperature related issue to me.
What temps are you experiencing?
Have you tried opening the case and pointing a house fan inside to see if it helps?

 

[Regulator07]

Originally posted by: KGBMAN
Reg,

It sounds like a temperature related issue to me.
What temps are you experiencing?
Have you tried opening the case and pointing a house fan inside to see if it helps?

no i havent, but the cpu and the case temp are very resonable, but the neopower seems to get quite hot, i am going to see what speed the fan is spinning at in the psu.

anyone have any issues with the neopower, i know it works for some and other say the dual rails suck, but i cant seem to get a clear answer, any opinions would be great, and also if, regardless of my issue, you think the powerstream or modstream 520 is a better bet than the neopower, i still got like 10 days left to return the neo.

 

[ohnnyj]

Originally posted by: Regulator07

Originally posted by: KGBMAN
Reg,

It sounds like a temperature related issue to me.
What temps are you experiencing?
Have you tried opening the case and pointing a house fan inside to see if it helps?

no i havent, but the cpu and the case temp are very resonable, but the neopower seems to get quite hot, i am going to see what speed the fan is spinning at in the psu.

anyone have any issues with the neopower, i know it works for some and other say the dual rails suck, but i cant seem to get a clear answer, any opinions would be great, and also if, regardless of my issue, you think the powerstream or modstream 520 is a better bet than the neopower, i still got like 10 days left to return the neo.

Although I doubt your problem is related to power as 480W on an Antec should be plenty to power what you have, but a PSU is simply another computer component that can fail. Just because it is from a reputable company does not mean it can go bad or was faulty going off the line, there is no way a company can make sure 100% of their products are fault free. So maybe you happened to get a bad seed. Of course, from what I have seen on many posts from various forums this board doesn't seem to have problems with OCZ or better yet PCP&C (what I am currently running).

 

[VirtualLarry]

Well, vcore isn't supplied directly by the PSU, that's supplied by the mobo's onboard regulators. Sure, the PSU input power can affect that if it is unstable, but if the mobo's regulators are overheating/overtaxed/unstable, then there's nothing that the PSU can do to correct that. I wonder if that could be the case here?

 

[Regulator07]

is there anyway to check the temp of the psu?
also when i plug the fan monitor for the psu into the psu fan plug on the mobo, i cant find anywhere where i can see the fan speed, i have to plug it into the chassis 2 fan plug in order to see the fan speed, is that normal?

 

[mlc]

... given some of the posts I've seen on this forum, I can understand your inclination to jump on the "dual rails are $hit" bandwagon... But realistically , if you're running a single graphics card than I really don't think that's an issue.....

.. Given the history of ASUS boards, with respect to their inability to deliver proper voltage levels to chipsets (see A78NX-DLX rev 1 vs. rev2) I would tend to think its a mobo issue more so than the Antec..

.. Having said that though, if you are seeing fluctuations, i wouldn't rule out the PSU as it could be a defective unit.. (but I would doubt that is insufficient in terms of power deliver due to dual rails, etc.).. so you do need to dig further into that to determine if its a mobo vs. psu issue...
a) HEAT.. as others suggested .. have u tried running with the case open to rule out heat?
b) i would assume you're running the latest supported bios ?
c) how many Drives, etc.. are you running with ?
d) r u running the case fans off of the psu connectors or the mobo headers ?
e) just for kicks.. lots of myster surrounding the EZPLUG.. Even though u r only running 1 card.. have u tried inserting a connector into the EZPLUG to see if it stablizes your fluctuations?

hope this helps

 

[Regulator07]

mlc, since we have similar setups, what is the speed of your neopower fan, mine seems to be running at like 860 rpm which seems kinda low, even for a 120mm, also do you have your fan monitor pluged into the pwr_fan or the cha1_fan connector?

 

[FastEddie]

Dual Rail psu's are hit or miss for overclocking. You're also running a 6800GT. Another consideration, especially with Corsair---have you manually set the vdimm for your memory?

 

[Regulator07]

well i am rma'ing the neopower, i dont know if this is the prob but i have been running some tests, and it seems as thought it is getting to hot and is over tasked on my system, the 6800gt is a hog and if i try to overclock the system it is very unstable, also super pi seems to fail after running prime for like 40 min, the system seems to break down after a while of high heat and high power consumption, i just think the neopower cant fully handle it and is getting too hot...i dont think that it is a bad psu in any respect and it may just be that mine is getting to hot, but we will see. i hope the powerstream will provide more adequete power. anyone got any thoughts or opionions on this move???

 

[Regulator07]

Originally posted by: FastEddie
Dual Rail psu's are hit or miss for overclocking. You're also running a 6800GT. Another consideration, especially with Corsair---have you manually set the vdimm for your memory?

yeah, i set the vdimm to 2.75, i figured that out early on, but yeah overclocking not so good, but powerstream is on the way and neopower is going back.

 

[ohnnyj]

Originally posted by: Regulator07

Originally posted by: FastEddie
Dual Rail psu's are hit or miss for overclocking. You're also running a 6800GT. Another consideration, especially with Corsair---have you manually set the vdimm for your memory?

yeah, i set the vdimm to 2.75, i figured that out early on, but yeah overclocking not so good, but powerstream is on the way and neopower is going back.

Have you looked at PCP&Cs offerings?

 

[FastEddie]

Have you looked at PCP&Cs offerings?

I've used this---> Athena Power 500W in all the SLI builds I've done, to include FX55 + dual 6800Ultra's. Am using one myself in an A8N SLI Deluxe. It's an excellent single rail psu, and well suited for SLI.

The Neopower 480 isn't designed for the kind of loads an SLI rig is going to put on it. Nor are any of the current dual rail psu's, so can't see why someone would recommend a very expensive dual rail psu for an SLI box, when a single rail unit will perform much better.

 

[Regulator07]

yeah i have and i would love to get the turbo-cool 510 sli or express but unfortunetely i cant drop 230 right now on one, i def think i will be looking into them down the road upon upgrading and new builds, but right now it is just out of my range, i was able to just swap out the neopower for the powerstream 520 so i figure if nothing else, i did not waste any money and got the same if a not a better power supply...but yeah again, i would have liked to have gotten a pcp&c

ohnnyj, i assume that you have one...i have heard they are pretty loud, any truth to that?

oh...and does anyone have any experience with the powerstream 520 on an a8n...ocing and such???

 

[Regulator07]

Originally posted by: FastEddie

Have you looked at PCP&Cs offerings?

I've used this---> Athena Power 500W in all the SLI builds I've done, to include FX55 + dual 6800Ultra's. Am using one myself in an A8N SLI Deluxe. It's an excellent single rail psu, and well suited for SLI.

The Neopower 480 isn't designed for the kind of loads an SLI rig is going to put on it. Nor are any of the current dual rail psu's, so can't see why someone would recommend a very expensive dual rail psu for an SLI box, when a single rail unit will perform much better.

that does look nice and the price is def right...thanks!

 

[ohnnyj]

Originally posted by: Regulator07
yeah i have and i would love to get the turbo-cool 510 sli or express but unfortunetely i cant drop 230 right now on one, i def think i will be looking into them down the road upon upgrading and new builds, but right now it is just out of my range, i was able to just swap out the neopower for the powerstream 520 so i figure if nothing else, i did not waste any money and got the same if a not a better power supply...but yeah again, i would have liked to have gotten a pcp&c

ohnnyj, i assume that you have one...i have heard they are pretty loud, any truth to that?

oh...and does anyone have any experience with the powerstream 520 on an a8n...ocing and such???

Truthfully I don't know how they got this reputation as being an extremely loud PSU, I can't hear it over all the other fans in my system so it isn't unbearably loud in fact it is probably the quietest out of the three: CPU, video cards, and then the PSU.

 

[Regulator07]

oh thats good to know, yeah i was tryen to figure out how it could be louder than the gfx card, $hit is loud!

 

[mlc]

mlc, since we have similar setups, what is the speed of your neopower fan, mine seems to be running at like 860 rpm which seems kinda low, even for a 120mm, also do you have your fan monitor pluged into the pwr_fan or the cha1_fan connector?

1) Mine runs at around 825 at startup/idle.....

2) I have the antec 2 line fan monitor (black/blue wire) plugged into the connector on the lower right side of the board... down near the led/pwr swithc pins.... Not sure how this is labled.. but it shouldn't matter .. they should all work the same way...

 

[Regulator07]

Originally posted by: mlc

mlc, since we have similar setups, what is the speed of your neopower fan, mine seems to be running at like 860 rpm which seems kinda low, even for a 120mm, also do you have your fan monitor pluged into the pwr_fan or the cha1_fan connector?

1) Mine runs at around 825 at startup/idle.....

2) I have the antec 2 line fan monitor (black/blue wire) plugged into the connector on the lower right side of the board... down near the led/pwr swithc pins.... Not sure how this is labled.. but it shouldn't matter .. they should all work the same way...

yeah that is what i thought, but the one you have it in is the cha1_fan and that has a monitor on it, but the pwr_fan does not, wich makes me wonder why they would even have it other than for an additional fan that is for the case or something?

also that is what mine was running at too, and then it got up to maybe 1060 but that was it, i dont think that is really fast enough and the manual says that it MAY be as low as 1000 rpm which leads me to believe that it was running too slow, anyway, i think that my 6800gt was just killing the power on that rail and with the other stuff and 6 case fans..it may have been too much.

 

[mlc]

Interesting .. I havent tried the mobo pwr fan connector header for the psu monitor... So you're saying that using that connector will not give an RPM reading via ASUS PROBE. etc?

I wonder if QFAN comes into play causing some problems here.. or perhaps the cool n quiet feature.. Do you have either or those enabled via your bios ? If so try disabling it and see if that changes anything. I do have QFAN enabled , but my temps are ok...

However; I do have some good air flow going on within my case which is an Antec Super Lanboy which comes with front and back 120mm fans. I also use a Zalmann 7700 heatsink.. which has yet another 120 mm fan. So maybe I have better airflow going on which is maybe why I am ok?? Maybe I'll try disabling QFAN and see if that makes a difference with my PSU fan. I don't think it would ... but who knows...

I really doubt the PSU rating with the dual rails is an issue... With its true 24pin connector, it really is designed to balance out the load between the 2 rails. It seems most of the folks with dual rail issues are using that 20 to 24 pin adaptor.. which I think distributes the load differently.. no clear answer on that...
If you had a 2 card 6800 setup.. then I would be more inclined to think its a psu capacity issue... however, given your heat and fluctuating voltages.. you may have simply gotten a defective PSU. Or then again.. it could be a mobo issue .. (i assume you're running with a later bios .. 1003 or 1004.. correct?... I'm using 1004)....

In any case keep us posted

 

[Regulator07]

yeah i am not sure about the psu, i dont think it was bad i just couldnt get that 12v rail to be above 11.84 and it dipped to 11.76 sometimes. but regardless, i havent gotten the pwerstream 520 yet, i will let you guys know if that solved the problems. also i have the xp-120 with a high speed panaflo and then six pretty powerful case fans (i think i am gonna take off the 2 80mm intake and put a 120 for better air in), i am not sure if heat was a problem in my case but not 100% on that either. also, yeah the pwr_fan does not display rpms in probe and i dont understand why you would need it then if you cant see what the speed of the fan is. i had both cool n quie and q-fan disabled, what exactly does q-fan do? (and i am using 1003 bios, and have used 1004, i just thought 1003 was more stable but again i think that may have been do to the psu)

 

[mlc]

I wouldn't dwell too much on the low 12v reading ...as long as its holding fairly steady.. I don't know if the fluctuation from 11.84 down to 11.76 is really an issue or not.. maybe the other can help out here ? Seems like it's within range of what it should be.. remember you're using a software reading from PROBE.. so the degree of accuracy is in question.. mine shows a steady 11.71.. which is in line with others across these forums... with no issues..
what range of temps are you seeing on your processor ? maybe the heat dissipation is an issue.. in which case you may need to try reapplying your thermal compound... etc..

Probe not reading the power fan header doesn't seem valid.. I wonder if there is a bug in probe or the board? Do you have the latest version of probe ?.

your case cooling seems more that adequate

QFAN is something you can enable in your bios under the power settings.. Basically it controls the speed of your CPU fan, and others based on the temperature readings it senses... Most of the folks that overclock hate it... as its goal is really to keep the fan noise to a minimum depending on your settings... But it seems to work fairly well on this board as well as my other asus a78nx-dlx based system...

 

[Regulator07]

well my cpu never gets over 38-40 C on full load so i dont think that is a problem. as for the pwr header, it says in the manual that it is not read by probe so i didnt question it, it just doesnt make sense as to why you would need it then. check it out on yours if you have a chance, and let me know if you find something different.