PS Rail question/maybe problem.

[eoniverse]

Had this:

http://www.newegg.com/app/View...=17-104-974&depa=0

Per motherboard. All rails solid = never move, except 12V = 11.902.

But when I did video capture, surf, and print jpeg DVD cover at the same time my PC crashed 3 out of ... maybe 10 times I multi tasked that way. It worked perfectly the other 7 or so times. Crashed it once while playing Half Life 2, but it never happened again after 3 weeks. But I wondered about my 12V level.

I do not own - nor do I know how to use a multi meter.

I decided to upgrade to PS to this:
http://www.newegg.com/app/View...=17-104-968&depa=0

After installation all my rails went up in the BIOS compared to the old PS (Since I'm not using a multi meter I am reading the BIOS numbers relative to each PS.) They were:

3.3V= 3.36
5V = 5.107
12V= 12.062

After about a half hour I put the system on a 5% OC - which it had no problem doing on the old PS - and I overclocked my 256mb 6800GT OC to 995/1.05.

Then I ran 3D Mark 01 and 3D Mark 03 each twice. One right after the other.

I ran 01 first and when it got to the Nature test I heard the PS fan speed up as it grew warm. When all the 4 tests completed I quickly went back into the BIOS.

My numbers were:

3.3V = 3.36 steady
5.0V = 5.107, then 5.080, then 5.107, then 5.080, etc. Changing every 5 sec or so.
12V = 11.968, 12.032, 11.968, 12.032, etc. Changing every 20 sec +/-.

My Voltage Core also fluctuates between 1.664 and 1.648.

So is this a lemon? Should I expect the change from 400W to 530W to be that different in the BIOS?

In fairness I did not remember stressing the old PS and paying attention to whether the rails fluctuated afterwards. I can only say that on reboots - adding eqipment, tweaking settings that whenever I looked at the voltage in the BIOS it never changed.

So is this normal?

My system components are/ have been:

ASUS 8KV Deluxe
A64 3500+
256mb 6800GT OC
1 CD RW
1 Floppy
2 7200 160GB rpm HD's. Not RAID setup. Each primary. Different eide.
4 fans plus the HSF
2 x 512 3200 ddr
1 Hauppauge PCI PVR-150
1 56K Modem

 

[ts3433]

Don't worry about it--you're well within ATX spec; small voltage fluctuation is normal, and the ATX spec itself allows for an even greater bit of leeway than that. I don't know that your 400W power supply would have been the source of your previous problems; it's of good quality and should have been able to sufficiently power that system.

 

[CheesePoofs]

Originally posted by: ts3433
Don't worry about it--you're well within ATX spec; small voltage fluctuation is normal, and the ATX spec itself allows for an even greater bit of leeway than that. I don't know that your 400W power supply would have been the source of your previous problems; it's of good quality and should have been able to sufficiently power that system.

what he said ..... that change is perfectly acceptable, ATX spec is +/- 5% for each rail.

But if you want really stress your system try running prime95 and 3dmark 05 at the same time - prime95 works the cpu and 3dmark stresses the gpu.

I don't know about that core voltage change, but i wouldn't worry about it, it seems fine, especially sence you cant trust the bios to accurately report the voltages. If its changing back and forth at a steady rate the voltage is probably in between the two but the bios can't display the correct number, so it picks the two closest numbers it can display and switches between them.

 

[eoniverse]

Thanks.

You both made this newb feel a lot better.

I thought maybe the original crashes were either related to the 400W PS vs overclocked 6800GT vs avg RAM vs multi task. And that 11.90 rail just bugged me.

Last thing I wanted was to smell something frying.

It's just weird to me how the 400W would show stable rails but the 530W bounces up and down. Mind you - even when it's down it's still higher than the old PSU.

 

[Blazer]

you just saved a fatal crash of which some or all your hardware could have been lost.

from your sys specs you needed a min of 22 amps on the 12 volt rail,where you was running a PSU with 15 amps on the 12 volt rail.

Good choice to upgrade your PSU,its a good ideal to leave room for expansion,you may be slightly low on reserve so i would not add any other pieces! IMO !

 

[eoniverse]

Thanks for the info.

Since this PC does everything I can possibly imagine, I'm not adding anything... although I do connect a usb 2.0 DVD writer to it almost daily.

Since you didn't comment on it. I assume you are OK with the core voltage/rails also.

Does anyone know of a good (detailed with pictures) link on how to use a multimeter to check PSU rails. I know all about not touching capaciters so I will not attempt anything without reading and understanding first.

I looked on google but didn't find anything specific.

I can also return the PSU if anyone has any better suggestions in that price range. I also looked at this:

I've only heard good things about Tagan.
http://www.newegg.com/app/view...=17-101-509&DEPA=0

and this:
http://www.newegg.com/app/View...=17-103-457&depa=0

Or I could get this OCZ...:
http://www.newegg.com/app/View...=17-104-154&depa=0

Ahhh buyers remorse... I hate it.

 

[ts3433]

You have a Fortron 530; no need to get a different power supply.

I guess last time I didn't notice that your particular Fortron 400 had just 15A on the 12V rail (current ones should have more); maybe that did end up contributing to a little instability, though your rail didn't appear to sag much.

Oh, and your VCore is fine; it's probably just floating around 1.655, but is within spec.

 

[eoniverse]

I just found a new problem!!!

I think Newegg has the wrong voltage specs on this unit

Output: +3.3V@30/17A,+5V@44/24A,-5V@0.3A,+12V@16/28A,-12@0.8A,+5VSB@2A

But from Fortron Source's own site:

+5V : 6.5V(maximum)
+3.3V : 4.6V(maximum)
+12V : 15.5V(maximum)

And there is a chart that complicates it further:

+12V Normal load = 8.0A Maximum load = 18.0A

http://www.fortron-source.com/

I'm thinking I should send it back.

 

[Appledrop]

wtf if theres nothing wrong with it, why send it back, lol.. you are expecting exact 3.3000000 5.00000000 12.000000000? get real man. dont waste other peoples money by sending back something that is fine!