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My 12 volt rail reading is very low

A

Aznguy1872

Senior member
My 12 volt reading shows me that its at 11.77. I use ITE smart guardian to check my voltages. I am wondering if I have a bad PSU. Everything runs fine, I've been able to oc my computer so I think it might be just a misreading, but i just wanna check and make sure. Would the 12.02 be more realistic? Any input would be great. Thanks
 
Ahhh. My 12 v rail showing the same reading for the whole time. There's no fluctuations or whatever, proved to be very stable to me. Right before I got a quality psu, I was using a crappy PSU that still shows 11.77 V !!! while...it fluctuates like a mad man.
 
Maybe my readings are really low and that could be why I can't reach 2.7 ghz while many others can with almost stock voltage...
 
Originally posted by: Aznguy1872
This is a stupid question but what is a DMM? is it one of those voltage readers?
Click to expand...

yes it is.

And 11.77 is fine in smart guardian. My Fortron blue storm 500 reads 11.77 in that too.
 
Just use a multi meter (DMM), and read the voltage off of a molex connector, using the yellow as positive and the adjacent black cable as negative, this will give you an accurate reading of what the 12v rail is actually producing, and will be far more accurate than any software used 😉

Just to let you know, the CPU, RAM and chipset all feed off of the 3.3+v rail not the 12v rail, the 12volt rail is used for fans, the spindle/motor in the hard drive (the hard drive electronics PCB uses the 5v rail), and some other hardware.

If you do use a multi meter to test, test the PSU when idle and under load, to see if there is a lot of variation.
 
i got the same power supply as you, with OC'd Venice and OCZ high voltage ram. Smart guardian tells me 11.9 as my 12V rating. I still wouldnt believe it anyway
 
Originally posted by: RichUK
Just to let you know, the CPU, RAM and chipset all feed off of the 3.3+v rail not the 12v rail, the 12volt rail is used for fans, the spindle/motor in the hard drive (the hard drive electronics PCB uses the 5v rail), and some other hardware.
Click to expand...

That's not entirely true,cpu uses the +12v. why do you think we have a 4 pin 12v connector? that's to supply the cpu with power.
 
Gotta agree with the previous post. 12v is used by precision voltage regulators on the mobo to supply other voltages. The critical voltage used to 5v but too much power was being pulled from the 5v rail and hence too much noise induced onto the mobo. 12v has been used for quite a while now.
 
Originally posted by: Budman
Originally posted by: RichUK
Just to let you know, the CPU, RAM and chipset all feed off of the 3.3+v rail not the 12v rail, the 12volt rail is used for fans, the spindle/motor in the hard drive (the hard drive electronics PCB uses the 5v rail), and some other hardware.
Click to expand...

That's not entirely true,cpu uses the +12v. why do you think we have a 4 pin 12v connector? that's to supply the cpu with power.
Click to expand...

lol i forgot about that cable 😱
 
Originally posted by: redhatlinux
Gotta agree with the previous post. 12v is used by precision voltage regulators on the mobo to supply other voltages. The critical voltage used to 5v but too much power was being pulled from the 5v rail and hence too much noise induced onto the mobo. 12v has been used for quite a while now.
Click to expand...

im no expert,.. but isn't there no difference whether 5v or 12v is being channelled through the motherboard tracers, i thought it was just the quality of the PCB used that would denote the efficiency of electrical noise.

i.e. better PCB less electrical noise, aka less interference.
 
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