vcore and power supply question

[ColdBrew]

I upgraded my computer with a new motherboard (Asus P4B533-V), (Pentium IV 1.6a), and Samsung 512 MB DDR 333 memory.

The power supply I have is a sparkle 300 watt power supply. I am suprised that it even works with as much stuff as I have in the system, but it seems to. Stuff it has to power in my system is 4 SCSI hard drives, 2 SCSI CDROM's, 2 Tape Drives, 5 case fans, and a dual disk (5.25'' and 3.5'') Disk Drive.

The power supply doesn't have the P4 connector, but I have a standard 4 plug power connector pluged in to the asus MB since it has that special connector for it.

Now the question I have is about what reading, I'm getting on the vcore using Asus Probe. The vcore readings seem high. When I have it set to 1.5v (default) it actually seems to vary up to 1.56v ( and mostly stays at 1.56v). I don't think it ever goes under 1.5v but it will move between 1.5 and 1.56. At 1.65v it goes up to 1.72v and varys between the two, I did see it dip to 1.64 once but I don't think it does it often (it mostly stays high at 1.72v).

Is that normal? Should I be worried? Should I upgrade to a 430 watt Antec?

I tried setting the voltage at 1.75 I think it was and when it rebooted the motherboard posted but was doing some crazy beeping... Anyways I droped the voltage back because it worried me.

 

[Arschloch]

That's a very interesting situation. I've been having a similar problem, although my system specs are completely different. I have an Abit motherboard, and an Athlon XP... but I -DO- have a Sparkle 300W power supply.
When I set voltage to 1.675V, the BIOS actually reads 1.74; when I set it to 1.75V, the motherboard actually reads 1.82.
Is it the power supply that's causing it? I don't know. I had assumed it was a motherboard issue, but in looking around the web I haven't seen anyone else with my motherboard say that they've experienced the same problem.
Unfortunately, I don't know enough about electrical engineering to actually be able to say if the PSU is or isn't the problem, and why that would be the case. I'll be looking for answers though...

 

[SupermanCK]

Normal...no worries...no need to upgrade unless it starts to drop below 1.45 when you are stressing your computer

 

[SupermanCK]

when i set my vcore to 1.8...it would show 1.888 idle and 1.792 when under heavy loading...I have asus p4b266-c and using asus probe and verify with motherboard monitor...even bios said the same

 

[hobbit]

ColdBrew:
I have the same P4B533-V. When I set it to 1.75 volts it booted into windows OK but it gave me some crazy beeping continuosly as you have experience. I wonder what's that beeping for ? Can anyone shed some light into this ?

 

[ColdBrew]

Good, I guess that it is normal to have the higher voltage at idle. I didn't really want to invest in a new power supply.

hobbit:

What is weird about the voltage at 1.75v (I tried this to get it to post at 160 FSB), is that you can actually go up to 1.8 or 1.85 with the overvolt jumper enabled. So I would think it would be so far out of range that it should complain. I wonder what is up with that.

 

[SupermanCK]

the crazy beeping should come from asus probe...when you set your vcore limit to 10%...and anything above 1.75 should give you warning...

 

[ColdBrew]

Originally posted by: SupermanCK
the crazy beeping should come from asus probe...when you set your vcore limit to 10%...and anything above 1.75 should give you warning...

It beeps during posting, so it isn't asus probe. Maybe there is a setting somewhere that I missed that will disable the beeping....

 

[Jgtdragon]

No, its not your power supply. It is your motherboard reading. I also have a Sparkle 300w power supply. On the abit Th7-II motherboard, my 1.5v in bios reads 1.46 with MBM 5. I currently set in bios to 1.625 and in MBM 5 reads it as 1.55-1.58v.

I almost talked myself into upgrading to an Antec 430w too, but I came to my senses.

 

[zzzz]

Originally posted by: Jgtdragon
No, its not your power supply. It is your motherboard reading. I also have a Sparkle 300w power supply. On the abit Th7-II motherboard, my 1.5v in bios reads 1.46 with MBM 5. I currently set in bios to 1.625 and in MBM 5 reads it as 1.55-1.58v.

I almost talked myself into upgrading to an Antec 430w too, but I came to my senses.

I had a Th7-2 which also undervolted the cpu and gave low 12V readings with the antec 400W. I tweaked the power supply to give more juice to the 12V line. The stability at 150fsb increased a lot..

 

[Jgtdragon]

I had a Th7-2 which also undervolted the cpu and gave low 12V readings with the antec 400W. I tweaked the power supply to give more juice to the 12V line. The stability at 150fsb increased a lot..

You knew this was coming when you posted it. How you tweaked your power supply?
My 12v currently range from 11.55-11.73. If I could increase it, that would be sweet.

 

[zzzz]

There was a post at overclockers.com abit forum. I will see if I can dig it up. It basically involved opening the ps and rotating the the pot by 1/8 of a turn. The link given there had pictures to make it clear.
here is the link
Be sure to rotate very little. At first I rotated a bit too much (1/2 turn) and it didnt turn on. It scared me a bit but I could rotate it back and it worked. Also take caution not to touch the capacitors. ( very easy to avoid in the Antec PS)

 

[ColdBrew]

After getting home last night, I noticed that the vcore does drop down to normal range (what I have set in the bios) when under a load (such as prime95). I ended up leaving my processor at 147 MHz FSB which gave me a 3350 MHz at 1.6v. The temperature was around 51 degrees celcius under a load. I don't feel that I want the processor to get any hotter. It would probably help it if I removed the pad (the stock intel retail package) from the heat sink and used grease instead.

I also noticed that my +12 volt never actually reaches 12v. It seems I'm just like everyone else.