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PSU readings?

P

punkrockml13

n00b
Joined
Dec 27, 2006
Messages
20
my system is as follows, with all things clocked as stock and whatnot

e6300 c2d
1gb ddr2 ram
p965-ds3 board
120gb ide hdd
80gb sata 2 drive
dvd burner (ide)
6200 pci-e
2 120mm case fans hooked directly up to two 4-pin molex connectors, running at full 12v speed

all run by a antec truepower 2.0 430 watt psu

i ran sensorviewpro and got a 12volt reading of 1.47volts
i dont know if this program is accurate or not, but i havent had any system stability problems yet. i dont know

im upgrading my graphics card to a 8800gts 640mb overclocked edition 2 by BFG, so i know this psu will be hard pressed as it is. im thinking of taking out the 80gb sata hdd and puting my dvd burner in my external enclosure since i barely ever need to burn anything or use it for loading things. will this take more of a load of the psu to be able to power the 8800gts? i know i need to upgrade eventually, but i dont have 100-150 to spend on a psu right now.

any suggestions? can my psu handle a 8800gts with all this hardware, or by removing some that i dont use?

psu stats:

total output - 430w
max load altogether - 410w
+5v - 36a
+12v1 - 17a
+12v2 - 17a
+3.3v - 28a
-12v - 1a
+5vsb - 2a

the requirement for my gpu is a psu with 425w with at least 28a on the 12 volt rail (Minimum system power requirement based on a typical PC configured with an Intel® Core™2 Extreme X6800 processor)
am i screwed? will i blow the computer up by using this card with this psu? am i required to upgrade? when i do upgrade, what should i get?

thanks to anyone taking the time to reply!
 
punkrockml13 said:
i ran sensorviewpro.............
Click to expand...
You could try speedfan. Or just putting a volt metr onto the 12v pins on an empty molex connector (while the computer is under load, or else it''s kind of useless to test).

As for your PSU.......probably not.

The calculations:
+5v x 36a = 180 watts
+12v1 x 17a = 204 watts
+12v2 x 17a = 204 watts
+3.3v x 28a = 92.4 watts
-12v x 1a =12 watts
TOTAL.........692.4 watts Hmmmm, but the PSU is rated for only 430 watts!

What this says is that while each 12v rail is rated for 17 amps, if they are both called on to deliver their rated 17 amps at the same time...well...somethings gotta give. There won't be enough power left over for the rest of the computer (430 - 408 =22 watts, for everything else)...crasho! or worse, my favorite computer question..."Are flames supposed to shoot out of it like that?" The specs say what the various rails can handle, not what they actually can supply. The only "real" spec Antec gives is the 430 watt total output.....And an overclocked 8800 will probably pull 300 watts plus by itself. I think a new PSU is in the future for you.

Hard drives use so little power that removing them to gain more power is a waste of time. If you PSU is that close to being overtaxed, then it's just too small.

Here: http://www.jonnyguru.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1036
 
i was afraid of that. urgh. i really dont have the money to put into a new psu that would be worth upgrading. ive heard the truepower 2.0's are "fireballs" too, so i can't imagine i would have very much good luck if it overloaded. hmm...

i may just cancel the order for my 8800gts. or just get it and hold onto it indefinitely until i can get a new psu. :(

speedfan reports this

vcore1: 1.17v
vcore2: 1.82v
+3.3v: 3.33v
+5v: 4.95v
+12v: 1.41v
-12v: -16.97v
-5v: -6.16v
+5v: 5.11v
vbat: 3.15v

now i have no idea what these mean. im a total noob when it comes to psu's (obviously, in case you couldnt tell). hopefully someone can interpret these for me? im curious to see how high the load is on my psu with its current set of hardware. does this reveal room for a 8800gts? if not, will you either shoot me to put me out of my demised misery or just hand me a nice, new, shiny psu?

i dont know what my combined total on the 12v rails is. i keep trying to look it up but cant seem to find it. i thought i had read it once, but now have no idea. hmm...

Anyone know any good deals i can take advantage of right now on something that would suffice?

anyways, thanks for the reply...
 
punkrockml13 said:
v
+12v: 1.41v
Click to expand...

Well that is WRONG, maybe you meant 11.41 ? if so thats low but 1.41 is just f00ked up for a +12v rail which should be anywhere roughly between 12.1 and say 11.7 within those 2 would be ok for a +12v rail.
 
well, thats what it says. both sensorviewpro and speedfan report the same exact readings. not a typo. it might be that the programs just arent reading the voltages correctly through the motherboard. i get about 3 or 4 different cpu temp readings depending on what program i use, ranging from 36-60c, so i tend to go with intel's TAT program since it usually lies right in the middle lol. but whatever.

you say im putting all of that load on the 5v and 3.3v rails and then tell me whats left on the 12v rail to supply the cpu, gpu, drives, etc. but am i really using all of that on the 3.3v and 5v rails? ive heard of other people running the 8800gts on 430w psu's and the like, and i cant imagine them having very different amperage ratings. i guess it all depends on if i risk it or not, and whether or not i blow my whole system with that risk if it ends up not in my favor.

again, im not too good with psu's. would anyone care to try to explain exactly where im putting a load on my psu and with what hardware? im not trying to prolong the truth that i may not be able to run a new graphics card. im just trying to understand the logistics of why the psu might blow up in my face if its stated that my psu cant cut it.

by my calculations (found the max amps on the 12v rails combined. its 31a max)...

31a (max) x 12v = 372w
36a (max) x 5v = 180w
28a (max) x 3.3v = 92.4
plus the odds and ends of the +5vsb and -12v = 22w-ish

am i really going to be maxing the 3.3v and 5v rails, thereby leaving more power supplied on the 12v rails? what exactly runs off of the 3.3v and 5v rails?

anyways, im just trying to play with the numbers. maybe make it work until then end of the year. probably going to be upgrading my psu no matter what. just would rather not HAVE to right this moment, since id like to go for quality, which means spending upwards of 100-150...
 
motherboard not supported by speedfan. other people in the speedfan forum have reported whacked voltage readings, and even fan speeds of 1.35 million.
 
Chances are it will just be reported wrong, your rig wont be running solely off of teh 5v and 3v rails, just impossible as it wouldnt start and if it did it would shutdown, so it will just be a reporting error.

the motherboard you have, is their not any software that comes with it to monitor voltages ? try your mobo makers website and see if they have a tool to read temps/voltages and such like for their mobos and you may just get an accurate reading or as accurate as software can be for your voltages.
 
easytune5 (i have a gigabyte board. this is gigabytes program, which i didnt remember as showing voltages) shows me as having a +12v rating of 12.040v.

vcoreA is at 1.2v-ish
+3.3v shows as 3.320
cpuvid is at 1.310

no other values are shown. maybe with a restart itll show the +5v lines

under load of two instances of prime 95 and atitool's fuzzy cube to place the system on a heavy load, the +3.3v dropped to its lowest of 3.290v and the +12v dipped as low as 11.920v

any opinion as to what these numbers mean?
 
those numbers are good, your 12v didnt drop by much and neither did your 3.3v, to me that means your psu is stable under load and it isnt spiking that much, nothing to worry about their ;)

my 12v goes from 12.032 to at the very very worst underload 11.860 which is withing the 2 or 3% fluctuation allowed by the psu maker.
 
EVIL-SCOTSMAN said:
Well that is WRONG, maybe you meant 11.41 ? if so thats low but 1.41 is just f00ked up for a +12v rail which should be anywhere roughly between 12.1 and say 11.7 within those 2 would be ok for a +12v rail.
Click to expand...

The ATX12v specification is 11.4v to 12.6v.
 
I am not speakin about the atx specification, I am merely pointing out that a "good" psu should roughly be between those numbers, I for one would not be happy with my psu's +12v running at 11.4, I wouldnt like it too high nor too low. Ok not all psu's are going to be inbetween, some will be lower, some will be higher, but I personally find that the numbers I posted are a real good happy-medium of what a decent psu should be capable of, i.e capable of not straying to far off of 12v whilst idle and underload.

So a decent psu to me should roughly be within those 2 figures that I posted, if not inbetween, not far off of it.

I still affirm that his 12v rail/s is pretty good as his 12v+ doesnt deviate much from idle to load.

I am not a psu guru and was unaware of the exact voltages of what the atx spec was capable of, but just because it is 11.4 - 12.6, their is no way on earth that I would be happy with a psu either running at 11.4 lowest or 12.6 highest.

The 12.6 I could accept more than the 11.4
 
Yes, but honestly, would you feel happy with your psu at 11.4 idle ? maybe you would be ? but the majority of people on these boards and others would not.

As I said, I would rather be at the other end of the scale and feel happier than be at the lower end and have to worry that at times the psu "might" be struggling to supply a nice constant current, but in the end it's a moot point because 11.41 as you quoted from my post was'nt his voltage, it was a wrong reading from a 3rd party app.
 
Software readings are a bit off.

EastTune4 on my system reports 12.04V idle and 11.92V load. I measured 12V rail myself with a multimeter and got 11.98V idle and 11.97V load CPU+GPU. (Yes, it really did only drop .01V under load - that's a HX PSU for you right there).

SpeedFan also reads something retarded for me like 1.47V for the 12V rail.
 
EVIL-SCOTSMAN said:
Yes, but honestly, would you feel happy with your psu at 11.4 idle ? maybe you would be ? but the majority of people on these boards and others would not.
Click to expand...

Overvolting is just as much of a problem if not more so.

As I said, I would rather be at the other end of the scale and feel happier than be at the lower end and have to worry that at times the psu "might" be struggling to supply a nice constant current, but in the end it's a moot point because
Click to expand...

VxI=W V is dropping, without an ammeter you can't say what the current is doing.

11.41 as you quoted from my post was'nt his voltage, it was a wrong reading from a 3rd party app.
Click to expand...

I didn't quote 11.41 from your post.
 
I know overvolting is just as much of a problem, but if its a stable psu and stable current, then theoretically the only thing the 12v should do is go down by however much when the pc changes from idle to doing work, whether thats gaming or whatever, the harder you use the pc the more the psu is strained and the more chances you have of the voltage drooping by however much, maybe it wont, maybe as the poster above us says, just by a miniscule amount.

It is also true that without a volt meter you cannot accurately say what is really happening with the psu, but you can get a rough idea of what the actual voltages maybe, ok in some cases the software will say one thing and when checking with a volt meter it will be wildly different thus the software being wrong, but generally the software can give you a fair indication and it is kinda safe to say to some degree that if your voltages are stable and sitting at 12v bang on idle and underload then to a fair degree you can be as certain as you will ever be by just using software to read voltages, remember not everyone who uses a pc will use a volt meter and will generally follow what software says, however right or wrong it maybe. If your software says 12.2 idle and 12v load then it is probably safe to say that your psu is pumping out a good stable'ish 12v as long as the power going into the psu is a nice stable current to start with.

Also, I know you never just quoted 11.4 from my post, I meant as a whole, you quoted a line from one of my posts which included 11.4 and your response was the atx spec which is 11.4 -12.6, thats what I meant when I said quoting 11.4.

As I said, its basically a moot point because his voltages were read by a 3rd party app that had problems reading the sensor on his motherboard thus the reason it was showing 1.41v for a 12v rail, his motherboards actual voltage monitoring software showed his 12v rail to be 12v or thereabouts, now we both know that without a meter he is never gunna know the precise voltage, but personally I would say unless he is having problems with unexpected shutdowns whilst say gaming or other heavy work or even at idle or he is having loads of weird errors that he cannot explain, then personally I would say his psu is handling what he is throwing at it without any problem. I also still maintain that even tho as you say the atx spec lowest is 11.4, I for one would not be happy with a power unit of mine being 11.4, its just the way I am, to be virtually honest I wouldnt be happy with anything lower than say 11.7 whether it was in spec or not, but thats just me.
 
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