Multimeter recommendation

pegasus1 · 27 Jun 2006 at 11:54

Thinking of Volt modding my 7800gtx 256 and so are looking for a multimeter.
Any sudgestions for a cheep <£20 one.
Cheers

cokecan · 28 Jun 2006 at 11:04

got one of the cheap domestic multimeters from an electronic retailer. only cost a fiver and is bright yellow but meh, it does the job

used this when i was volt modding my old shuttle SN45G and as far as i can tel the readings are pretty accurate

4Qman · 28 Jun 2006 at 11:56

Yeah Mapin down town will have one for around £5 as cokecan72 said. most around that price u mention will be around the same quality, Some more expensive giving a few extras that you wont need to Volt Mod.

pegasus1 · 28 Jun 2006 at 12:16

cheers dudes

Jokester · 28 Jun 2006 at 12:22

Beware.

I bought a cheap £10 one and it's repeatabilty was shocking, measuring a constant voltage was giving me different values +-5% of the real thing.

Bought a £40 one and no such problems.

Jokester

squiffy · 28 Jun 2006 at 12:57

A certain supermarket has one for £6 this week.

squiffy · 28 Jun 2006 at 13:10

Jokester said:
Beware.

I bought a cheap £10 one and it's repeatabilty was shocking, measuring a constant voltage was giving me different values +-5% of the real thing.

Bought a £40 one and no such problems.

Jokester

If you need accuracy, get it calibrated.

[blatent plug]
Our company offers such services.

Jokester · 28 Jun 2006 at 13:13

squiffy said:
If you need accuracy, get it calibrated.

[blatent plug]
Our company offers such services.

Nothing to do with the accuracy as such, more the repeatability.

Jokester

pegasus1 · 28 Jun 2006 at 13:41

Jokester said:
Nothing to do with the accuracy as such, more the repeatability.

Jokester

Excuse my stupidity but what is "repeatability" and how will it affect my volt mod attempt.

cokecan · 28 Jun 2006 at 13:45

i think jokester is talking about measuring the same thing a few times.

say you had a constant 12v line that was at an actual 11.85v. everytime he measured it with a cheaper multimeter it gave a different reading such as 11.62v, 11.94v etc. basically like he said, +-5% of the actual reading

where as with a more expensive one you will or should get something like 11.85 give or take .01 - .02 of a volt difference when repeatedly measuring

pegasus1 · 28 Jun 2006 at 13:52

cokecan72 said:
i think jokester is talking about measuring the same thing a few times.

say you had a constant 12v line that was at an actual 11.85v. everytime he measured it with a cheaper multimeter it gave a different reading such as 11.62v, 11.94v etc. basically like he said, +-5% of the actual reading

where as with a more expensive one you will or should get something like 11.85 give or take .01 - .02 of a volt difference when repeatedly measuring

So for Volt modding my 7800gtx 256, i realy need an accurate reading.
To tell the truth im still not 100% sure i'l do the mod but my WCed Card idles at 32C at 520/1.37 and is gagging to be over volted.

cokecan · 28 Jun 2006 at 14:01

not all the cheaper ones are that bad, the one i have is ok, and it gave me a similar readin everytime i measured constant voltages etc, but there are some really poor quality ones around.

eitherway they are very hadny to have for anythin, not just volt modding

squiffy · 28 Jun 2006 at 14:17

£6 meter (going to get one this week)

removable probe leads

mcmad · 28 Jun 2006 at 14:20

no multimeter will be calibrated when you buy it, unless you specifically pay the extra for it, have a look at RS etc for info.

but pretty much any will be close enough for what you need.

Jokester · 28 Jun 2006 at 14:44

pegasus1 said:
So for Volt modding my 7800gtx 256, i realy need an accurate reading.
To tell the truth im still not 100% sure i'l do the mod but my WCed Card idles at 32C at 520/1.37 and is gagging to be over volted.

The issue I had, was you could get a reading saying 1.5V but in reality it could be upto 1.6V.

Accuracy is how much it's out by (on average), whilst repeatability is the range of possible values.

You could have a meter that was always 2% out (giving 2% (in)accuracy and 100% repeatability in effect).With my cheapo meter values were all over the place.

Jokester

pegasus1 · 28 Jun 2006 at 15:02

Now ive got it, I think i'l look to borrow a decent one.
Any recomendations for an accurate one £40 or <
Cheers for the help

squiffy · 28 Jun 2006 at 15:16

You'll still want the meter to be calibrated, especially when you're talking in millivolts accuracy. Checkout Robin meters

About £30 for a calibration, ISO standards, for 1 year.

yoda · 28 Jun 2006 at 18:45

argooose has a cheep one.... i have two... one was a cheep £10 one... the other is £60 professional.... upto 10,000 volts, 30 amps, resistance upto 20mega ohms, transister testin, capacitor testin upto 0.2 farad.... diodes... u name it...

and yes... i use it....

Street · 28 Jun 2006 at 18:50

I paid around £25 for mine from ******, seems to be fairly reliable and accurate. Measure the rails on my PSU the same every time... my 12V rail runs at 12.04

Seasonic PSUs rock

The one I got was a Uni-T UT58C.

Edit: ****** is a competitor now? Well I got it from the well known electrical component shop

dalex · 28 Jun 2006 at 18:57

try an industrial spec one like fluke,always been good for me at work,available at RS components(not a competitor),never buy cheap when dealing with electricity.
dave