Voltage questions?

[beppodmime]

Ok, so I've been using my trusty old Epox 8RGA+ for quite some time now, and it has been running in an overclocked environment basically since I installed it. I monitor my temps and adjust clock levels accordingly (I have a pretty low tolerance for temps). I've had this thing running on an older-model (lousy first generation) Vantec Stealth PSU (470W).

After adjusting a few timings, and overclocking the cpu a bit more (and increasing voltages slightly) I'm getting some pretty curious voltage readings. I use the monitoring program supplied with the motherboard, and find it to be pretty accurate with what's going on in the BIOS. I have the latest updates.

Ok, so my readings on the VDD, VCore, and VDIMM are pretty consistent, and undervolted as this board is generally known to do. No concerns there. What concerns me are the ratings for the individual rails and such.

As of right now, it goes like this:

+5V=4.811
+12V=11.065
-12V=-6.685
-5V=-4.998

The first three (especially +/-12V!!) have me a bit concerned. I'm only running a 2800+ Barton in the 8RGA+, Geforce3, onboard audio and LAN, one WD 80GB drive, and a floppy and CD burner. Other stuff includes 6 fans, and that's it. Is this power supply just not capable of giving me anything near what it's rated at? It seems to have gotten worse since a recent series of brownouts that had the computer doin all sorts of wacky things until I got home to pull the surge protector. Could it be just gone enough to be practically useless? Or am I overreacting? So far, it doesn't seem too flaky, although I notice my overclock ceiling has come down quite a bit since that incident. I just don't want this thing to go and take anything else with it.

Thanks.

[jmichna]

Just an FYI, the published wattage output of PS's is based on wattage delivered at 25°C. Real output decreases as the temperature increases, and it can decrease significantly. I've seen charts showing a "typical" 550W (@25°C) PS pushing out only about 420W at 35°C, and about 370W at 40°.

Obviously, our case temps are rarely at 25°C, and -- for the interior of the power supply -- probably closer to 35-40°C.

My suggestion would be to investgate a better power supply.

Check out the Turbo-Cool brand, by PC Power & Cooling (http://www.pcpowercooling.com).

I currently use an Enermax 350 in one PC, and an Antec True-Blue 480 (don't recall what's in my wife's P-4 box), but most likely when I need to replace a power supply (or get to build a new PC), I'm definitely going to take a good look at the Turbo-Cool 510.

[lukewarmdog]

I've been looking at a possible power supply problem on a really cheap and nasty PSU that came with a case for a pitiful sum of money. So I knew it was never going to be great but great things were never going to be asked of it so meh. Oh and it wasn't for me

Anyway not only are all the rails well off but horrible fluctuation on each and every one of them. And it works fine.
I'd say don't worry about it, there's only any point monitoring the rails IF when you notice something like this you're going to do something about it such as replace the PSU.
There's a PSU thread about somewhere, I know because I read it and then thought to myself "why am I reading a thread about PSUs?"..