Power supply and voltage?

Soyo's motherboard monitor is reporting voltage supply as follows:

12V= 11.9, 3.3V= 3.28, 5v=4.94, DDR= 2.46, AGP= 1.47

This is 10ths and 100ths under what the supposedly required voltage is.

Is this a problem? If so, how serious?

 

This is nothing to be worried about, it's not a problem. As long as the difference is within somekind of limits, it's okay. A quarter of a volt is often considered limit, but not directly hasardous, but may shorten the lifetime of some components.
Those numbers are actually very good.

 

Thanks TheJ: After I posted the question, I was thinking that maybe that was the voltage the components were drawing, but I guess not. The probable critical numbers are the wattage, is there any way to determine that the wattage the PS is capable of delivering without believing the label on the unit? I read somewhere that the mfgs fudge to make their products look good.

Martin

 

Wattage is important but assuming you've got enough, the critical numbers are those voltages - especially when and if you start fine tuning for maximum performance.

 

Hey Rockster: Always good to hear from you.

Supposedly my PS is 400 Watts. If the voltage is critical, how about those off speed (my terminology) voltages that are reported to be tenths and hundreths low. Any impact??

Of course, the next question is: how reliable is the reporting mechanisim?

 

Voltages are never going to be spot-on. Most voltages drop below their rating when under load - that's just electronics. Sometimes voltages will actually read higher than "spec ".

The bottom line, which always seems to be the case, is that if your PC is running well you don't need to worry about your voltages. Hey, cool, one less thing in life to worry about!
Use the voltages as an indicator of how much "extra headroom" you have to add more peripherals.

A telltale sign of an insufficient PSU is not being able to cold-boot. I have one PC which runs my business where the 12v rail comes in at 11.49v. And that's with a 400W PSU and not many peripherals! But it still boots everytime. I might have trouble if I unplugged the power cord alot but I don't.

I'd say that bioses read the voltage rails pretty well - though you can check your 5v and 12v rails by using a voltmeter on one of your Molex power connectors.

 

Thanks Chiles: I'm going to dig my multimeter out of the garage and check the molex. A couple of wees ago I didn't even know what a molex was!

Am I getting smarter?

Martin

 

It's bound to happen when you hang with us rocket scientists! *where's that smilie with the propeller cap?*

Set your multimeter (I knew it had a better name than voltmeter) to test voltage in the small 1-20v range. With PC on (duh!) test the yellow wire (+) and the black (-) ground wire next to it for 12v. Test the red wire (+) and the black (-) ground wire next to it for 5v. Shake lightly and enjoy!

 

Sounds Like Fun! Now, If I can just make it to the garage........