system voltages a little off...bad?

[paparacus]

Hi,

I just setup a new system, and when running the hardware monitoring software that came with my board was getting a warning for the 3.3V, the voltages are running from 2.96-3.008 for the 3.3V, around 4.7-4.96 for the 5V and 12.2-12.4 for the 12V...checked the values in the bios as well and found they were similar

I wanted to know if this is something i should be concerned about, the system seems to be running ok.

my specs are:

Asus A7V333 KT333 w/ onboard audio
512 Samsung DDR 333
Athlon XP 1800+
Geforce2 M/MX400
Seagate Barracuda 80 gig hard drive
LG Cd writer
Pioneer DVD drive
Okia 350 watt atx psu

Thanks for your help

 

[dbwillis]

It seems a little low, I believe alot of folks use the + or - 5% rule.



3.3v (3.135 to 3.465)
5.0v (4.75 to 5.25)
12.0v (11.4 to 12.6)

vcore- as stable as you can get

What are the specs on the power supply unit"?

 

[paparacus]

the psu is 350 watt atx brand is Okia it came with my case which was not that expensive...i checked the ampage for the 3.3V and its says 28 amps...don't have it in front of me right now though so not sure about the other specs

 

[rectifire]

To be honest, the 3.3V and 5V voltage levels you stated are way out of spec. They are a good 10% off spec. The most they should be off spec is 5% These are the two most important voltage levels as they provide power for your processor, PCI cards, motherboard, etc. Your 12V levels are well within spec.

First, make sure that the voltage levels the software is giving you are correct. Check in your BIOS to see if the voltage levels are reasonably close to those given you by the monitoring software. If they aren't, you know that something is screwy with the monitoring software and you might either want to disregard the readings or check the settings in the montoring program.

If the voltage levels are basically the same in the BIOS, then thank your lucky stars thar you are not having any problems with your setup...as you must have a very forgiving motherboard and processor.
There have been many stories where people had problems with their Athlon systems when they had even better voltages than you have. They usually just changed out to a beefier quality power supply and all was well.

If your system works well, you should be OK to leave it alone. However, if you ever add any more drives, more RAM, PCI cards, or faster model processor, your computer might possibly become unstable. Look for any warning signs after you have added these devices.

 

[paparacus]

thanks for your advice rectifire!

do you think it is worth trying out a better power supply to be on the safe side?

 

[dbwillis]

Yeh, a beefier one from a well known name should help...at least it couldnt hurt!

 

[rectifire]

paparacus:

I'm with dbwillis on this one.
Personally (since you asked my opinion), if it were my computer, that power supply would already be gone. It would have been replaced with a 350W or better Antec, Enermax, Sparkle, etc. name brand power supply that would give you proper 3.3V and 5V levels. Someone please correct me if I am wrong, but I don't think Okia is a well known quality power supply manufacturer. In my humble opinion, it's hard enough troubleshooting a computer without having to worry whether the power supply is up to snuff.

Also, power supplies tend to fail much more frequently when they are being run at close to their maximum. If and when they do fail, they can damage your motherboard, processor, or add-on cards. It seems that your power supply is running near it's max, since it cannot sustain proper voltage levels.

Keep in mind that I'm not trying to scare you into buying a power supply. In the end, if your computer operates normally, it's up to you how comfortable you are with your current power supply. Odds are that you will be fine with your current configuration as long as it stays unchanged. It's something that I might recommend for your next upgrade though.

Good luck!

 

[isimbor]

This is maybe bordering on offtopic, but tommy boy did a comparison of a bunch of power supplies, some interesting stuff to look at, especially if you're considering buying soon.

Power Supply Comparison