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If enermax psu's supposedly have low 5v, would that affect me if I'm not overclocking?

C

Cougar

Golden Member
Ok, here's the deal:

I'm going to upgrade my power supply to a P4 ready power supply so that I can be prepared once I upgrade my system. Now I am leaning towards getting an enermax EG365P-VE(FC) (350w version) because I hear that they're pretty quiet and reliable (I know it's not dead silent but it HAS to be quiter than the beast I have now). Now I've just been scouring the forums and it seems that some people have reported low 5v readings from their enermax power supply's (especially on Epox mobo's) and they didn't seem too thrilled.

I think when I finally upgrade I'm going to go with either MSI, Asus, or Gigabyte for my motherboard and probably a p4 1.8ghz. I won't be overclocking and I don't have 8 million fans in my pc just the basic components (video, sound, modem, nic), 2 7200rpm hdd, 52x cd-rom and a 12x burner.

Would the "alleged" low 5v reading have any affect on me?
 
In all likelihood, you'll have no problem. The ATX spec allows 5% variation, few complainants have offered that the voltage was below 4.75.

As to the cause of the "issue" everybody has their pet theory. I rather strongly suspect that Enermax regulates the 3.3 and 5 voltages differently than some others, as this seems to occur only with boards that don't actually use the 3.3v supplied from the psu. Instrumentation is also an issue, as the measuring point of the board voltage can be different than the voltage at the mobo plug.

As I understand it, these voltages aren't regulated separately, one is dependent on the other. So if the 5v is the controlled voltage, then the 3.3v would be a little high during high current demand on the 5v- not an issue on the boards in question. If the 3.3v is the controlled voltage, then the 5v would sag some during high current demand since the regulator is fighting hard to hold down the voltage on a zero-current 3.3v.

Pure speculation, offered as a reference for anybody who has the time and money to sort it out. I suspect that introducing some load on the 3.3v would smooth things out....
 
Should be fine,btw I`m using a Enermax 431w on my Epox board and the 5v rail is very stable around 4.98v ,so it`s not giving me any problems,also I know somebody else with the same rig he too has no problems.



🙂
 
Jhhnn, Mem....

Thanks for the input. In all honesty I have no idea how or why these voltages fluctuating would affect my system, but when I noticed some people complaining about their Epox boards being affected I thought I'd ask and see what the deal was. From the little bit that I've read it looks like Enermax makes some great power supplies and it just seems strange that they would have this issue (especially with one particular motherboard).

Well, unless I hear anything conclusive that proves a defect in Enermax power supplies, I'm probably going to stick with the plan and get the EG365P-VE(FC). I just hope that it's quiter than the one I have now.

If anyone knows of a site that goes into any detail about the low 5v reading or even a good in depth review of this power supply, I'd be forever grateful 🙂
 
bigbootydaddy...

Ah, yet another Epox owner with an Enermax power supply. Maybe the people that are having problems are the extremely vocal minority?
 
There's been considerable discussion over at the Athlonmb forums- a few even applying some scientific method(gasp!) to sort it out, rather than just whining.
 
and my 465 reads about 4.92 and that's with 2 processors.

The 5-volt problem on these supplies seem to only be when paired with an Epox board even tho my voltages were fine when I had my 8K7A.
 
I haven't checked the voltage, but I'm a brand new 8KHA+ owner using a 330W enermax ps in my cool new black enermax case. This system is stoopid fast. (sorry had to pretend i was in high school again) It's also perfectly stable, at least once i got the 4 in 1's installed.
 
I have the Enermax 431, Epox 8K7A and my 5v readings are usually at 4.71 to as low as 4.63. My system has always been rock stable regardless🙂
 
I have heard alot of people say that the Epox 8k7a had a problem with the 5 volt line. I can say with both my systems which use the Epox 8k7a there is no problem with them going lower than 4.95 even at 2 volts going to the processor.



Jen
 
hmmm, from the responses it sounds like it's more of a random thing with epox boards and not a common occurance.

ganesha....

Your readings actually drop that low? I know that there can be some variation in the voltage but that seems awful low. I guess if the system is stable though who cares how low it drops 😀 I read about another user that had pretty low 5v readings and he straightened his wires a bit and it actually started operating within normal parameters (oy, I sound like Data 🙂)
 
I think the P4 uses the 12v line to power its CPU and the 5v and 3.3v is for other things,while its just the opposite for AMD cpu's. So if this is true you should have no problems at all overclocking unless the 12v runs very below spec.
 
I actually checked the high/low readings from MBM 5 and it actually drops as low as 4.58. Still, never a problem🙂
 
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