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Antec 430 Truepower voltage question

TStep

Platinum Member
I have had an Antec 430 for about a year or so now. Works fine, powers everything ok, no problems. I do have a question on the voltages it produces. The AI7 motherboard I have reads them around:

11.78v on the 12v (too low for a high quality PSU in my opinion)
4.94v on the 5v
3.28v on the 3.3v

I had the same power supply with an IC7-G the other day and the 12v rail read about 12.04v. This is what I would expect for the the asking price of an Antec 430. Has anyone experienced this and checked it with a multimeter? Results? I don't have one and don't know how to use it, but I'm getting curious.
 
11.78 is within the 3% spec for the TruePower series, and at the connector it's usually a good one tenth higher than what the mobo's monitor shows, so I would say that it's fine. Your 3.3v is actually very good for a TP, as both of mine show about 3.23. The 5v rail is okay too. As long as you aren't having any trouble, and/or the rails show as stable, I wouldn't worry about it 🙂
 
Thanks for the reply. Do you have a truepower? What is your 12v rail and on what board?

No real concerns about the rail, I just get fanatical about certain things.
 
Yes, I have a 430 watter and a 330 watter, the former with my DFI Infinity nForce2 board, and the latter with my Asus CUSL2. The 430 setup shows about 11.96 and ~11.87 at load. I think the discrepancy is due to the Athlon mobos being less intensive on the 12v rail than the P4 boards. The 330 setup shows about the same but doesn't budge from 11.96 as it doesn't use the 12v rail much 🙂 Using a multi-meter, the molex connectors show a rock solid 12.03v for the 430 setup so I know that the self-regulation is working here. A lot of the power gets lost en route to the mobo's monitoring chipset. Some mobos lose more than others so that might explain the difference between your two boards.

I know what you mean, because of the feedback design for the TruePower units, it's natural that the rails read a bit low on the mobos as the voltage is very different from the connector (the TP PSU's only know what the connector's voltage is, they're the smaller piggyback wires on the orange, red and yellow wires for the mobo header). Components are designed to run with voltages +/- 5~10% in the ATX spec I believe, so your board is getting fed properly 😎
 
FWIW - I just installed an ANTEC True Power 430 and here are my readings:

12 volt- average is 11.82
5 volt - average is 4.95
3.3 volt- average is 3.27


This with :

Abit NF7S
XP Mobile- 2600
Muschkin Green 512 ram /3200
 
Different motherboards read voltages differently.. so before you freak out you might wanna check it on a good multimeter first 🙂
 
I had an MSI board once (just once!) and the voltages were all over the place, but with my NF7 and a 2 year old TP430 this is what I have right now:

XP2800
NF7 2.0
2x512 Crucial 3200

1.6v is 1.66v
3.3v is 3.31v
5.0v is 5.03v
12.0 is 12.04v

Great PSU!
 
This is what my Antec True430 is showing on a Soltek mobo....

12V: 12.352
-12V: -13.935
-5V: -5.961
5V: 4.946
3.3V: 3.216
 
Originally posted by: screw3d
Different motherboards read voltages differently.. so before you freak out you might wanna check it on a good multimeter first 🙂
^ word 🙂
 
My SmartPower 450 reads 12.09V. It varies from motherboard to motherboard. If you download Speen Fan or something, it would probably give you another reading.
 
Thank you all. Since i never had instability issues, this was more of a curiosity question for those who had 430s. I really appreciate all the results. I think I will invest in a multimeter shortly to ultimately satisfy my curiosity.
 
Originally posted by: TStep
Thank you all. Since i never had instability issues, this was more of a curiosity question for those who had 430s. I really appreciate all the results. I think I will invest in a multimeter shortly to ultimately satisfy my curiosity.


Multimeters are a snap to use.
Radio Shack has digitals starting in the $20 range. They're great to have when you need one.
 
When I get a multimeter, I may be back for some help. I need to google to find out how to use one to check out a psu. Anyone know of a good beginners link?
 
Originally posted by: TStep
When I get a multimeter, I may be back for some help. I need to google to find out how to use one to check out a psu. Anyone know of a good beginners link?

Checking voltages (and resistance or ground) is pretty easy. As a rule, when you don't know what kind of voltages you are working with you should always start by setting the MM at the highest voltage setting on the dial and then clicking it down until you are within the range of the voltage you are measuring. Since you know you won't be working with anything above 12vDV on the board just set it to the DC range and keep it red to hot and black to ground.

And since you haven't used one before I would suggest you start by reading the instructions, they will step it out pretty clear for you, and also work with low voltages until you feel more comfortable. PSU oputputs flashlight batteries, etc. until you get the hang of it. Don't go poking around dryer outlets looking for 220v just yet!

Some are autoranging, meaning you just touch the leads to the source and it displays the correct range for you. Those usually cost a few more dollars.
 
Glad to be of help :beer: Adding onto Texun's post, the black probe goes into the terminal marked as COM, and for checking DC volts and most other things, the red probe goes into the terminal marked as V?mA. In order to complete the circuit, the black probe must be grounded and luckily the entire unpainted chassis of the case is grounded by the power supply. So you can either hold the tip of the probe to the case or find a suitable hole or divot to let the probe gently hang from so you can free up the hand for working with the red probe. The setting to use for checking these voltages is 20 under the group marked with a V and a line with three dots under it. This way the best precision is possible for measurement at up to 20v. If you're measuring something under 2v such as a CPU Mosfet or northbridge Mosfet, better precision is with the 2v setting in the same group. For now though, checking the rails just requires the 20 setting. Now, with the red probe you can check the 12v rail by touching it to the terminal of a yellow wire in one of the 4-pin molex connectors for drives or fans etc.. If you don't have any free molexes, you can temporarily unplug a hard drive or fan (while the system is off though 🙂) to use that one or buy/make a Y-adapter for the measurement. When you touch the terminal, you can usually slide the probe in a bit for a more solid connection, but don't push it in all of the way as that can loosen the terminal's ability to grip the male pins. If a solid connection isn't made to the red or black probe, it can give a false or unstable rating, just to keep in mind. Luckily the DMM doesn't draw any power from these measurements so it won't affect the rails that way. For the 5v rail, you can use the red wire in the same molex or you can measure from the 6-pin flat-ish connector that is hardly used. This 6-pin connector luckily has the orange wire which is the 3.3v rail. Usually the probes are too large to stick into the 6-pin connector so you will have to use something small to fit in there that is conductive so you can touch the probe to that for a reading. I like to use a paperclip wrapped in electrical tape with only the one tip exposed so it's insulated in order to handle it while it's live. Also keep the conductive device from touching the case.

Hopefully you can now proficiently measure any rail at any time 🙂 This stuff wasn't in my DMM's manual, so I hope it helps if your DMM doesn't include it either.
 
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