What are you using to check the voltages on your PSU?

[kater1]

I see people are posting what the voltage on their PSU 12 rails are with a screen shot of a program.

What is the program they use? I can't find one.

Thanks

Bill

 

[natto fire]

Speedfan is a good one. I have heard Everest is good as well, but haven't tried it.

Speedfan.
Everest.

Of course many have said these programs can be off, which seems kind of unusual unless the monitoring chip itself is off. In any event if you are experiencing problems that might be PSU related, it is a good idea to check the voltages with a multimeter as well.

 

[montag451]

The problem with a multimeter is that if you get fluctuations they don't show up very well, if at all.
For instance, if your psu stops supplying power for 100th of a second, that is well enough to cause problems, or switch off the system, but it won't show on a multimeter that checks for current every 0.5 seconds.
The only true way is to graph the psu output.

 

[Navid]

Originally posted by: montag451
The problem with a multimeter is that if you get fluctuations they don't show up very well, if at all.
For instance, if your psu stops supplying power for 100th of a second, that is well enough to cause problems, or switch off the system, but it won't show on a multimeter that checks for current every 0.5 seconds.
The only true way is to graph the psu output.

I hope that the low-pass filters at the output of the PSU would take care of a 100th of a second glitch. That is their job after all.

There is bound to be ripple on any supply voltage. All computer components can tolerate an acceptable level of ripple. Of course, the ripple can get to an unacceptable level (inadequate PSU filtering can cause that). In that case, it would not be enough to just monitor the average voltage, which is what a Volt meter does.

But, I am curious as if a software program like SpeedFan and the sensor on the motherboard are capable of monitoring voltages with such timing resolution. Don't forget that the sensor on the motherboard itself is powered by the same voltage from the same power supply!

You have a point that a Volt meter is not capable of measuring the ripple. The only true way to get a graph of the supply voltage is to use an oscilloscope, which is not something you can buy for $10.00.

May be the best thing to do is to use both. Use a Volt meter to measure the average voltage accurately. And use a software utility to check for glitches. I wonder about the accuracy of the software though.