Enermax 600w question

[JaMD]

I bought a Enermax NoiseTaker 600watt ( Active PFC ) this morning
then put it into my XaserIII, happily boot up into BIOS Setting
and take a look at the power setting..
I feel very disappointed
because the core voltage shown is too low
+12V =====11.60V
+ 5V ===== 5.02V
3.3V ===== 3.25V

is it something wrong with my new PSU?
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

AMD64 3500+ newcastle
Thermalright SLK948U
Asus A8N-SLI Deluxe
Leadtek 6600GT Extreme PCI-E x2
Kingston HyperX 433mhz 256mb x2
Seagate SATA 80GB x2 raid 0
Lite-On 16x DVD-writter
View Sonic VG910B LCD minitor
Creative Audigy 2 ZS
Creative S750 THX speaker
Enermax Noise Taker 600w
Thermaltake Xaser III V2000A
Window XP SP2

 

[JaMD]

why no response?
is it normal??

 

[_Korruption_]

The BIOS reads the voltage off a sensor chip on the motherboard. It is often inaccurate.

 

[JaMD]

i test run sisoft burn in (high)
and the voltage result shown :

+12V === 11.54V
+3.3V=== 3.25V
+ 5 === 5.03V

when i run prime95 (after 30min)
Asus PC probe software shown:

+12 ===11.84V
+3.3v==3.248V
+5 ===5.023V

normal?

 

[aug1516]

Read the reply above again, slowly this time. The bios is often inaccurate in reporting voltage from the power supply. Go pick up a $20 multimeter and measure your lines using that instead.

 

[JaMD]

Read the reply above again, slowly this time. The bios is often inaccurate in reporting voltage from the power supply. Go pick up a $20 multimeter and measure your lines using that instead.

I'll get the multimeter later,but i dont know how to do the test
can you show me..thanks a lot

 

[aug1516]

Post when you get the multimeter and I can explain how to use it. I think there is already a good right up on how to do this somewhere but I'm not sure where. Maybe someone will post a link to it if they see this thread.

 

[JaMD]

I have got the multimeter already
Pro'skit 3PK-8202A ( orange colour )
http://www.prokits.com.tw/english/on_line_cat/01_tester/p_07.htm
Please teach me how to use the multimeter to test my PSU Voltage
Thanks

 

[aug1516]

First thing you need to do is consult the manual that came with your multimeter and figure out how to set it up to measure DC voltage. It looks like your multimeter is an autoranging one so you just need to set it to DC voltage. You also need to make sure that the red and black power leads are plugged into the right places on the multimeter. Once again, the manual should tell you where they need to go. Once you have that setup, you need to locate a free 4 -pin molex power connector inside your computer. You will notice that these power connectors have 4 wires, yellow, red, and 2 blacks. The red and yellow carry voltage, the blacks are ground. So to measure your 5v line you stick the black power lead in any of the 2 black connectors and the red lead into the connector with the red wire. Now turn your computer on and see what the multimeter is reporting, should be around 5v. To measure the 12v line you do the same thing but use the yellow wire instead of the red. Once you have taken those measurements you may also want to take additional measurements with your computer under load. So you could pull up Prime 95 or somethign start stressing your CPU and see how much the 12v line drops. I know these are not the best instructions so I am still trying to find you some pictures somewhere so you have a better idea of what to do.

 

[lt_wentoncha]

Sort of on the same topic, but I've read over at anandtech these Enermax SLI ready PSUs are bunk because of the the 12v dual rails. If so, are these PSUs not ready for SLI primetime? I'm a little confused as to which one is now.

Thanks.

 

[LoneWolf]

Sort of on the same topic, but I've read over at anandtech these Enermax SLI ready PSUs are bunk because of the the 12v dual rails. If so, are these PSUs not ready for SLI primetime? I'm a little confused as to which one is now.

Thanks.

Why would dual 12v rails make a power supply "bunk"? That makes no sense. Especially as you have to have two 12v rails for ATX 2.x compliance. And AFAIK, every SLI mainboard on the market uses ATX 2.x power connectors (though many are backwards compatible with ATX 1.3).

 

[lt_wentoncha]

Why would dual 12v rails make a power supply "bunk"? That makes no sense. Especially as you have to have two 12v rails for ATX 2.x compliance. And AFAIK, every SLI mainboard on the market uses ATX 2.x power connectors (though many are backwards compatible with ATX 1.3).

http://forums.anandtech.com/message...1504383&STARTPAGE=1&FTVAR_FORUMVIEWTMP=Linear

http://forums.anandtech.com/messageview.aspx?catid=29&threadid=1505751&enterthread=y

I know nothing about power supplies, but dual rails aren't as good as one 12v rail with atleast 25a from what I've read over there. The caveat is I don't think there's a SLI ready PSU in the $100-$125 range with two PCIe plugs.

Thanks.

 

[JaMD]

First thing you need to do is consult the manual that came with your multimeter and figure out how to set it up to measure DC voltage. It looks like your multimeter is an autoranging one so you just need to set it to DC voltage. You also need to make sure that the red and black power leads are plugged into the right places on the multimeter. Once again, the manual should tell you where they need to go. Once you have that setup, you need to locate a free 4 -pin molex power connector inside your computer. You will notice that these power connectors have 4 wires, yellow, red, and 2 blacks. The red and yellow carry voltage, the blacks are ground. So to measure your 5v line you stick the black power lead in any of the 2 black connectors and the red lead into the connector with the red wire. Now turn your computer on and see what the multimeter is reporting, should be around 5v. To measure the 12v line you do the same thing but use the yellow wire instead of the red. Once you have taken those measurements you may also want to take additional measurements with your computer under load. So you could pull up Prime 95 or somethign start stressing your CPU and see how much the 12v line drops. I know these are not the best instructions so I am still trying to find you some pictures somewhere so you have a better idea of what to do.

cheers!! i did successfully test what u teached me,the result shown was satisfied.

before this ( shown in bios )
+12V = 11.84V
+5V = 5.03V

multimeter test: (after run prime95 2 hour )
+12V = 12.12V
+5V = 5.15V

but, how to test for the +3.3V?

 

[ImJacksAmygdala]

Sort of on the same topic, but I've read over at anandtech these Enermax SLI ready PSUs are bunk because of the the 12v dual rails. If so, are these PSUs not ready for SLI primetime? I'm a little confused as to which one is now.

Thanks.

I have read those threads at Anandtech and there are reasons why some dual 12volt power supplies are not good choices for SLI rigs. I have written a topic at both the Anandtech motherboard forums and the HardOCP mother board forums that helps explain what makes a PSU "SLI compatible" whether it has a single 12volt rail or dual 12volt rails. You might want to give the threads a read.

http://www.hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=862178

http://forums.anandtech.com/messageview.aspx?catid=29&threadid=1505751&enterthread=y

 

[aug1516]

cheers!! i did successfully test what u teached me,the result shown was satisfied.

before this ( shown in bios )
+12V = 11.84V
+5V = 5.03V

multimeter test: (after run prime95 2 hour )
+12V = 12.12V
+5V = 5.15V

but, how to test for the +3.3V?

A couple of things...

You don't need to run Prime 95 for an extended period of time to measure voltage under load. Voltage is not like heat, it should not change too much over time. So as soon as your CPU hits 100% utilization, usually instantly, you will have an accurate reading. I usually take one at idle and one at load just to see how the power supply handles the change. As you can see by your tests, your power supply is working perfectly. Testing the 3.3v line is a little trickier but not impossible. Most power supplies come with a 6-pin connector and I'm not really sure what it's used for. I know it plugs into a motherboard but I have never seen a board that supports it. Anyways, this connector has some orange wires on it which carry 3.3v. So once again put the red lead on the orange wire and the black to any of the black wires on that same 6-pin connector. If you don't have that strange connector then let me know and I can give you info on another way to do it.

**Look at the picture of the 6-pin AUX connector, that is what I am talking about**
http://maxpoint.com/downloads/ps_installguide.htm
The pin holes are quite small so you either have to use a little force getting the leads into it or try going in from behind the connector .

 

[TrueRush]

First thing you need to do is consult the manual that came with your multimeter and figure out how to set it up to measure DC voltage. It looks like your multimeter is an autoranging one so you just need to set it to DC voltage. You also need to make sure that the red and black power leads are plugged into the right places on the multimeter. Once again, the manual should tell you where they need to go. Once you have that setup, you need to locate a free 4 -pin molex power connector inside your computer. You will notice that these power connectors have 4 wires, yellow, red, and 2 blacks. The red and yellow carry voltage, the blacks are ground. So to measure your 5v line you stick the black power lead in any of the 2 black connectors and the red lead into the connector with the red wire. Now turn your computer on and see what the multimeter is reporting, should be around 5v. To measure the 12v line you do the same thing but use the yellow wire instead of the red. Once you have taken those measurements you may also want to take additional measurements with your computer under load. So you could pull up Prime 95 or somethign start stressing your CPU and see how much the 12v line drops. I know these are not the best instructions so I am still trying to find you some pictures somewhere so you have a better idea of what to do.

thanks i wasnt sure where to put it myself that helped. as for the 3.3v and finding it in the aux i had to try it out a bit and not sure if its the correct results.

 

[aug1516]

thanks i wasnt sure where to put it myself that helped. as for the 3.3v and finding it in the aux i had to try it out a bit and not sure if its the correct results.

I'm confused, were you able to test the 3.3v line?

 

[TrueRush]

i'm not to sure. but the closest to resemble 3.3v was 2.07 on the meter. i had to poke around a bit to get it right.

 

[aug1516]

Then you did not measure the 3.3v line. Did you find the aux connector I mentioned?