PSU voltage question

Solution


hard to say w/o knowing what's in your system... you could certainly test CPU load w/o a GFX card using IGP ... if your CPU has on-board GFX. However, w/o a monitor, you can't read the results anyway.... so the missing GFX card is of no consequence.

Your problem at this point is:

a) is the PSU putting out the wrong voltages

b) Is the utility misreading them ?

1. Make sure no other utilities are running which monitor this data. Download the following:

a) RoG Real Bench - Application based CPU stress testing utility
b) Furmark - GPU testing utility

2. Download / install HWiNFO and run it "sensors" only. Look at the voltages on the 3.3 volt, 5 volt and 12 volt rails. They should not vary by more than 5% or they violate the ATX spec ... I look for 2% in moderate gaming builds, 1% on enthusiast high end gaming builds when you run Real Bench or Furmark.

3. If it's still showing bad numbers, break out your multi-meter or PSU tester and test voltages. If bad voltages are confirmed, then time for anew PSU.

Assuming bdget is < $75 and you don't need more than 620 watts, my "go to" PSUs are Seasonic's S12 (standard) and M12 (Modular) series in 520 or 620 watt sizes.
 


But BIOS voltage status is more accurate than these softwares/programs ? :]
At this moment I don't have installed gpu, because my monitors DVI input got broken.

EDIT: CPU testing result: http://www.part.lt/img/2187a2642e23737a04ab7bb3cf16eef7210.png
 
BIOS is a bit iffy for voltage monitoring as in BIOS, everything is at "speed", no power profile setting, Intel Speed Step downclocking, etc is applied until your are "in windows". What you need to confirm is does the voltage remain stable going from idle to heavy load.... knowing what it is at idle or at full load buy itself really doesn't tell you anything.

1, Boot to windows and open HWiNFO ... move window to left side of screen. Clean your desk, scratch your nose, whatever ... wait till CPU downclocks to 800 Mhz (0.800 GHz) ... Intel modern CPU assumed.

2. Hit tjhe clock icon to reset min's and max's

3. Let sit for a minute and then start RoG Real Bench... Move the RoG RB windows over to the left so you can see HWinFO. Let the benchmark run thru, takes about 8 minutes... record min and max voltages on the 3 rails.

4. Ret system chill out again and return to 800 MHz, repeat step 2.

5. Run Furmark **in window** at native resolution of monitor for about 5 minutes. To be able to see HWiNFO, ya wiill need to slide the Furmark window a bit to the left, then click on the HWinfo window to get it to forefront.... can try alt-tab but doesn't always work. After about 5 minutes, record voltages again.

6. Do the math and see by how much the voltages varied. Say you got 12.5 volts max and 11.75 min.

(12.50 - 12.00 ) / 12.00 = 0.042 x 100 = 4.2% over
(11.75 - 12.00 ) / 12.00 = 0.021 x 100 = 2.1% under

If you get < 5%, your god for office work or moderate gaming and won't hurt anything

If you get < 2%, your god for moderate - high end gaming

If you get < 1%, your god for high end gaming - enthusiast level overclocking

 


Well as for accuracy, let me put it this way ... is your speedometer accurate when car is running but parked in driveway ? Yes, we can be sure that the car is going 0 mph but of what value is that to us ? Voltage varies with load and the whole purpose of the test is to see if PSU can deliver stable voltages over varying loads.

 


But to test voltages under load with FurMark I need installed gpu ? Not onboard graphics ?
I can't install it, because I get no display/signal
My monitor DVI input is bad. :/
 


hard to say w/o knowing what's in your system... you could certainly test CPU load w/o a GFX card using IGP ... if your CPU has on-board GFX. However, w/o a monitor, you can't read the results anyway.... so the missing GFX card is of no consequence.

 
Solution