Low 12v reading on new OCZ Modstream Power Supply

[fishmonger12]

1 vote for send me your psu and buy a different one...

er 1 vote for perfectly fine.

 

[Glpster]

Originally posted by: fishmonger12
1 vote for send me your psu and buy a different one...

er 1 vote for perfectly fine.

LOL :laugh:

I'll take that as a good vote of confidence.

 

[darkeyed]

That is well within a 5% spec. So it should work just fine for you.

 

[BentValve]

Originally posted by: Glpster

Originally posted by: BentValve

11.67 - 11.80 using what brand of Mutimeter?

Even the best mutimeters aren't fast enough to capture milisecond changes in power , my Fluke meter has a min-max feature where it can take a quick snapshot and get even more accurate readings.

For example in a warm room of around 70F ( I keep a digital thermometer near my PC for reference) , my FSP550 reads 12.12V , under load it drops to 12.11V ..if room temps are @ 60F then I get no drop whatsoever.

Now using min-max tells a different story...in a warm room under load the PSU drops to 12.08V and goes as high as 12.13V. In a cold room under load min-max reads 12.12 min and max.

So @ 65F or less my PSU has zero fluctutation at all.... @ 75F it has less than 1%.


Your MM may be inaccurate so I would not make any conclusions until you have used a true RMS meter on it...Sears sells some decent meters for around the $60 range.

Now if I personally measured 11.67 - 11.80 under any conditions on my PSU id be selling it asap. ...not that it is not acceptable but why settle for it when I can have a better PSU?

I am using a very simple, very basic, very cheap, Cen-Tech P30756 Digital Multimeter. It claims to have a DC Volatage accuracy (for at least 1 year) between 18 - 28 C, of +/- 0.5% of rdg +/- 2D. (The room is 21 C, and the MM is brand new.)

As mentioned the fluctuation on this PSU on the 12v rail is less than 1%. You are saying this PSU is bad, yet others are saying that it's fine.

I bought the PSU because it was an OCZ and reputedly one of the best brands of PSU one can get.

So, I think I'm going to need some additional input. So far I see one vote for *Your PSU is crap. And one vote for *Your PSU is perfectly fine.

Oye! Anyone else?

Thanks.

Who? I did not say your PSU was crap.



I am done with it. Good Luck

 

[Googer]

The word is out, OCZ PSU is crap. This is like the 6th thread I have seen where someone is having trouble with one of these.

On 12volt .6 volts or less is with in the intel 5% variation spec

.25 volts is 5% of 5volts

.165 for 3.3 volts is 5%.

All Pc Power and Cooling PSU's are with in 1% of their stated voltage.
http://www.pcpowercooling.com/products/power_supplies/

 

[Glpster]

Originally posted by: BentValve

Who? I did not say your PSU was crap.



I am done with it. Good Luck

Sorry, no offense intended. I appreciate the help. However, that's the message I think I took from your post if I were to presume that my multimeter readings are correct.

You said "Now if I personally measured 11.67 - 11.80 under any conditions on my PSU id be selling it asap. ...not that it is not acceptable but why settle for it when I can have a better PSU?"

So.... I guess you didn't exactly say the PSU was crap, but it certainly didn't give me a sense of confidence in it.

 

[BentValve]

Your MM may be inaccurate so I would not make any conclusions until you have used a true RMS meter on it...Sears sells some decent meters for around the $60 range.

 

[BentValve]

To summarize:

If your readings are correct then your PSU is well within specs but the fact is there are tighter PSUs out there for less $$.

 

[CraigRT]

Originally posted by: Googer
The word is out, OCZ PSU is crap. This is like the 6th thread I have seen where someone is having trouble with one of these.

On 12volt .6 volts or less is with in the intel 5% variation spec

.25 volts is 5% of 5volts

.165 for 3.3 volts is 5%.

All Pc Power and Cooling PSU's are with in 1% of their stated voltage.
http://www.pcpowercooling.com/products/power_supplies/

And are expensive to boot

I like my ModStream, I think this voltage stuff gets out of hand.

if everything works OK, the voltages likely lie.

I basically somewhat proved this by trying 3 power supplies in my system, all read in the 11.6-11.7 range.

Everything runs fine though, so hey, no biggie.

 

[Navid]

Originally posted by: BentValve

Your MM may be inaccurate so I would not make any conclusions until you have used a true RMS meter on it...Sears sells some decent meters for around the $60 range.

RMS stands for Root Mean Square. It has nothing to do with the ability to measure minimum and maximum voltages and store them.
A DC volt meter, which is what you should be using for the voltage on the 12V line, is not an RMS meter (true RMS or not). The DC meter measures the average voltage.

When you say the line voltage is 115V, that is RMS. The voltage on the line is AC. Its average voltage is 0 (it goes positive and negative). The RMS is used to represent the effective voltage. The energy delivered by that alternating voltage is the same energy that a 115V DC voltage would deliver.

Your Fluke meter is a good meter that allows you to measure the peaks and valleys of the voltage. But, that is not RMS.

 

[BentValve]

You misunderstood me , I did not say the min max feature had anything to do with the meter being true RMS.

 

[Navid]

Originally posted by: BentValve
You misunderstood me , I did not say the min max feature had anything to do with the meter being true RMS.

OK :beer:

 

[boshuter]

Originally posted by: Navid

Originally posted by: BentValve

Your MM may be inaccurate so I would not make any conclusions until you have used a true RMS meter on it...Sears sells some decent meters for around the $60 range.

RMS stands for Root Mean Square. It has nothing to do with the ability to measure minimum and maximum voltages and store them.
A DC volt meter, which is what you should be using for the voltage on the 12V line, is not an RMS meter (true RMS or not). The DC meter measures the average voltage.

When you say the line voltage is 115V, that is RMS. The voltage on the line is AC. Its average voltage is 0 (it goes positive and negative). The RMS is used to represent the effective voltage. The energy delivered by that alternating voltage is the same energy that a 115V DC voltage would deliver.

Your Fluke meter is a good meter that allows you to measure the peaks and valleys of the voltage. But, that is not RMS.

LOL... exactly.


As far as the low rails on the PSU..... what's the deal? They are low, RMA the damn thing and buy a better PSU, you may convince yourself that you can live with it, it's working fine, etc. BUT, the rail is low. OCZ psu's are highly overpriced and if you pay that much for one it should at least perform to spec. The problem is the OCZ's are the "popular" psu's right now and anyone that has bought into that is going to say anything to keep from having to admit they have a sub-par psu. I'm not saying they are not good psu's, but the one you have certainly isn't. Send it back to OCZ and don't take a chance.

 

[Glpster]

Well...

Alright, so it seems that the power supply is a little on the low side of the +12v rail, but is definitely stable.

I've been running Prime95 exclusively for the last several hours, and my multi-meter hasn't once budged from 11.75volts (at least not during the times I would glance over at it).

Also, MBM5 has read a steady 12.01volts during the same time frame without wavering (High, Low, Current, and Average voltages all 12.01).

(By-the-way, I had on the wrong sensor configuration for MBM, which is why it was reading so low. Of course now it seems to be reading higher than the actual voltage. 12.01 for 11.75)

So... Question is, considering boshuter's statement above, should I expect my voltages to be closer to 12v from this OCZ PSU, and demand a replacement? Or is that being too picky?

One concern I do have is that what happens down the road when I upgrade my CPU, my video card, add more DIMMs, another harddrive, and optical drive? And possibly overclock with increased cooling needs.

Would any of these things drag my voltage down much further than where it's currently operating?

 

[Patrick Wolf]

Someone reported before that they were getting good 12V rails on their ULTRA X-Connect, I reported I was getting too high. 12. 34-12.58, I returned mine and got an OCZ Modstream 450 from Monarch, good price, really good price. My 12V rail stays at around 12.08, readings from MSI Core Center. Looking at the BIOS readings, I see the 12V getting 11.97 - 12.03. My MBM5 is configured wrong, so my readings are WAY off.

I have a good multimeter, but don't know how to use it.

 

[Glpster]

Originally posted by: wolfman579
Someone reported before that they were getting good 12V rails on their ULTRA X-Connect, I reported I was getting too high. 12. 34-12.58, I returned mine and got an OCZ Modstream 450 from Monarch, good price, really good price. My 12V rail stays at around 12.08, readings from MSI Core Center.

I have a good multimeter, but don't know how to use it.

Not familiar with MSI Core Center. Presumably that comes with your mb.

At any rate, I wonder how sensitive components are to the voltages?

Apparently the spec for ATX12v power supplies is the +12v rail should be no less than 11.4 volts and no more than 12.6 volts.

So, I'm curious if any of my components will be lacking for voltage, or worse harmed in the long run, or my system will be unstable, by a power supply that my system idles at 11.78 volts, and dips to 11.67 under load.

 

[Navid]

Originally posted by: Glpster

Not familiar with MSI Core Center. Presumably that comes with your mb.

At any rate, I wonder how sensitive components are to the voltages?

Apparently the spec for ATX12v power supplies is the +12v rail should be no less than 11.4 volts and no more than 12.6 volts.

So, I'm curious if any of my components will be lacking for voltage, or worse harmed in the long run, or my system will be unstable, by a power supply that my system idles at 11.78 volts, and dips to 11.67 under load.

You have to add to that the effect of temperature variation on that supply voltage.
You also have to add to that the effect of more loading of the PSU due to CPU upgrade or overclocking.

I would contact them and find out what they have to say about that and how easy it is to RMA.

Edit:
You say that it dips to 11.67V.
I am saying that it will dip even more if you load it more and increase the temperature.

 

[Gamingphreek]

Originally posted by: Googer
The word is out, OCZ PSU is crap. This is like the 6th thread I have seen where someone is having trouble with one of these.

On 12volt .6 volts or less is with in the intel 5% variation spec

.25 volts is 5% of 5volts

.165 for 3.3 volts is 5%.

All Pc Power and Cooling PSU's are with in 1% of their stated voltage.
http://www.pcpowercooling.com/products/power_supplies/

You have absolutely no clue what you are talking about do you? That extremely general statement with no evidence what so ever proves that.

How can you even compare a Modstream (Mid Range) to a PCP&C highest end PSU. OCZ makes some of the best PSU's in the world (well at least HEAVILY Modifies the TOPOWERs to achieve this). I would compare the Powerstream to the PCP&C. Much better match as the OCZ supplies more power, but the PCP&C has tighter voltage regulation, less ripple due to the fact that it has Active PFC as compared to Passive PFC.

The modstreams are rated very good, and it definately seems if this reading is wrong, then there is some sort of defect. Manf can have bad products you know.

Do you own an OCZ powersupply?

Also 6th thread today, this must be one of the first on the AT forum. I would consider that pretty good considering they were released a while ago.

All PCP&C are not within their 1% stated voltage. All manf. will have a product defect. They are not perfect, no company is, so i dont know how you can make that statement.

I would watch how you post and think to yourself "Do i really know what i am talking about" before you post.

-Kevin

 

[drpootums]

alright...i'm probably gunna order my OCZ Modstream 520w tomorrow, and this thread is kinda bad news for me...i'm RMA'ing my Fortron supply because i believe it may be the culpret behind my 3 dead 6800GT's.

 

[loafbred]

Originally posted by: Glpster
So... Question is, considering boshuter's statement above, should I expect my voltages to be closer to 12v from this OCZ PSU, and demand a replacement? Or is that being too picky?

One concern I do have is that what happens down the road when I upgrade my CPU, my video card, add more DIMMs, another harddrive, and optical drive? And possibly overclock with increased cooling needs.

That is a tough question. If you paid a lot for it, I think you should expect it to read 11.9v to 12.2v. Then again, I'm not an electronics technician, so anything I think is based on at least some assumption.

I decided, a couple of weeks ago, to replace the Antec Smart Power 350 in my second machine. When I really cranked up the overclock with it, it would start to fluctuate a little, which made me worry about overstressing the psu and possibly frying everything. I had an Antec True Control 550 in my A64 box, and it runs dead steady under heavy load. I always hated the grey Antec control panel mounted in my white case, so I decided to put that p/s in my second box. The grill in the Antec's control panel also adds some needed airflow to the cheapo case of box #2. I adjusted the voltages to 12.00v, 5.00v and 3.33v. Now, the NF7/XP 2600-m runs stable at 2.35 GHz with 1.575v, whereas before, it needed ~1.7v. The 9800 Pro, which wouldn't overclock before, now overclocks an appreciable amount (385/365). That made me happy.

I bought a Fortron Blue Storm 500 (it's actually 460 watts continuous) for the A64 box, for $75 plus $16 3-day shipping. It has dual 12v rails, 31 amps total 12v, the latest connectors, etc. With a multimeter, it reads 12.12v idle, and bounces up slightly whenever a load is added. I don't know whether that's normal/good/bad, but I guess it's better than dropping under load. I didn't change anything when I replaced the psu, and it has maintained the same maximum overclock I had with the Antec True 550. This Fortron is the first non-Antec psu I've used in years, so I can't vouch for reliability.

 

[loafbred]

Originally posted by: drpootums
alright...i'm probably gunna order my OCZ Modstream 520w tomorrow, and this thread is kinda bad news for me...i'm RMA'ing my Fortron supply because i believe it may be the culpret behind my 3 dead 6800GT's.

I just connected the same Fortron psu to my 6800 GT. This thread is going to give us all a headache.

 

[Glpster]

Well, I paid $79 shipped for this OCZ Modstream. So... it wasn't the most expensive power supply out there, but it certainly wasn't cheap either.

I'm considering RMA'ing it, but I want to make sure it is the appropriate thing to do. This is a brand new system, and I'm just putting it through it's paces now, so I haven't noticed a whole lot of instability. Some freeze-ups in Everest and a couple Sandra tests (which may be application/new rev.1 motherboard related), and 3DMark01 (which I think I solved by a driver upgrade for my Leadtek 6600GT).

I guess I need to find out if this voltage operating range is normal for these PSUs, because who's to say if I won't get another one that is exactly the same or runs a little high on the 12v rail (although that's probably better if PSUs tend to dip when put under load).

I suppose I should consult with OCZ on this. They should know if this power supply should be running closer to 12v than it currently is, or if this is normal and okay, and will maintain my system through future power hungry upgrades. Should I trust the manufacturer to give me an honest answer?

One thing I can say for sure is that the PSU is quite steady when under a continuous unvarying load. Been running Prime95 for several hours now without a blip above or below 11.75v (according to the multimeter and tracking via MBM). It did go down to 11.74 for a second when I opened the DVD tray to remove a DVD. I think tomorrow (when I'm resested) I will test the PSU rails detached from everything including the mb.

Ugh, yes this whole thing *IS* giving me a headache. Maybe I'm putting too much thought into this. If not for AT forums, I probably wouldn't even be thinking about these issues!

 

[jonnyGURU]

Originally posted by: Gamingphreek

Originally posted by: Googer
The word is out, OCZ PSU is crap. This is like the 6th thread I have seen where someone is having trouble with one of these.

On 12volt .6 volts or less is with in the intel 5% variation spec

.25 volts is 5% of 5volts

.165 for 3.3 volts is 5%.

All Pc Power and Cooling PSU's are with in 1% of their stated voltage.
http://www.pcpowercooling.com/products/power_supplies/

You have absolutely no clue what you are talking about do you? That extremely general statement with no evidence what so ever proves that.

How can you even compare a Modstream (Mid Range) to a PCP&C highest end PSU. OCZ makes some of the best PSU's in the world (well at least HEAVILY Modifies the TOPOWERs to achieve this). I would compare the Powerstream to the PCP&C. Much better match as the OCZ supplies more power, but the PCP&C has tighter voltage regulation, less ripple due to the fact that it has Active PFC as compared to Passive PFC.

The modstreams are rated very good, and it definately seems if this reading is wrong, then there is some sort of defect. Manf can have bad products you know.

Do you own an OCZ powersupply?

Also 6th thread today, this must be one of the first on the AT forum. I would consider that pretty good considering they were released a while ago.

All PCP&C are not within their 1% stated voltage. All manf. will have a product defect. They are not perfect, no company is, so i dont know how you can make that statement.

I would watch how you post and think to yourself "Do i really know what i am talking about" before you post.

-Kevin

Hey Kevin,

You feeling that AT love, man? I know you're feeling that AT love. Now you know how I feel. "I farted and it sounded like the virgin Mary telling me not to buy an OCZ PSU! Blah blah blah!!! Sell it on eBay!" I'm starting to think 80% of the sign-ups here are trolls! :beer: :beer: :beer:

 

[Gamingphreek]

This AT love is like a midlife crisis i swear. Once you hit like 3000 posts its like BAM... all of it hits you. (I guess Mid Life Crisis would be about 10,000 maybe puberty lol)

-Kevin

 

[Duvie]

That is why I got the powerstream...I could mod the rails if they didn't meet my specs....my +12v and +5v rails were fine but my +3.3v rail read 3.26v so I turn the dial like a fraction of a milimeter and it hover s at 3.36v and doesn't budge under load....