Multi-Rail +12v PSUs and X1900XT?

S

Smythe

Limp Gawd
Joined
Sep 12, 2006
Messages
189
So I had a major computer problem last night and thought I had narrowed it down to the video card, but the Sapphire Forums are pointing the finger at my Corsair 520W PSU because it has multiple 12v rails. There are some very knowledgeable PSU people on this forum that I'd like to get a second opinion from as what the Sapphire people telling me seems like bologna.

Heres my thread on the Sapphire forums:
http://www.sapphiretech.com/en/forums/showthread.php?t=13309

I've been leaving the multimeter measuring on a molex and it pretty much stays at 12.05 idle and load. Every once in awhile it dips for a brief moment, but shoots back up to 12.05. The lowest it dipped was 9v, but something had to have been wrong with that reading because the computer continued to function properly and still is as I type this on it. For the most part when it dips it doesn't drop below 11.7 which is within the 5% tolerance. I suppose with those odd dips it could still be a PSU problem, but again I think you guys know a bit more about PSUs.
 
The problem though, the HX 520 isn't really multi railed. It's very unlikely to be the psu.
 
Yeah that's what I thought. IIRC the corsair has three +12v lines, but they're not independant and branch off from a single rail? I still think it's the video card over the PSU, but the voltage drop on the 12v line to ~9v has me worried.
 
Smythe said:
Yeah that's what I thought. IIRC the corsair has three +12v lines, but they're not independant and branch off from a single rail? I still think it's the video card over the PSU, but the voltage drop on the 12v line to ~9v has me worried.
Click to expand...

An actual drop to 9v would most likely lock or crash the system.
 
Yeah, and I didn't detect any change in fan speed either. Possibly the contacts I placed in the molex moved slightly which caused an incorrect reading?

I highly doubt it's my PSU causing me problems, although I've had my computer running all day and the problem hasn't presented itself again. I'm thinking I'm going to see about replacing the video card anyways. After all I have 5 years to get the PSU replaced should it ever need be so there isn't much of a rush while the video card has only either a one or two year warranty.
 
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