PSU's

[DeadMan]

Q: How do you know when your PSU is not providing enough power?

I know this is a bit of a loaded question but is there a definitive way of testing this?

Cheers

DeadMan

 

[DeadMan]

Let me put it another way, I have a Hiper type R 730w

Current rig is this:

Q6600 - overclocked to 3.6GHz
Asus Blitz Formula
4GB Crucial Ballistix 4x1GB
BFG OC 8800GTX
WD1200 SATA
WD1600 SATA
WD2000 SATA
Aopen DVD/CD-RW Drive
Thermaltake P400 pump
Alphacool LCD
3x Zalman 120mm on akasa fan control Jr
OCZ Memory Cooler

Do you think this would be too much for a 730w PSU?

Reason I ask is that I have been having problems with my ASUS motherboard not starting correctly when everything is connected.

Not sure if its the PSU or the mobo?

Either way would I need to get a bigger PSU for this setup?

Cheers

DeadMan

 

[DeadMan]

I would think that it's more than enough...

Just so you can compare:

E6600 @3ghz
P5B Deluxe
2X1gb 6400
3xHDDS
DVD-RW x2
4X fans + CPU Fan
HD 2900XT

All off a 485W Enermax...

What actually happens when all is connected?

Its a bit weird, when I shut it down it sits in the 5v powered standby mode, power it back on and it works fine, but if its left in this state for more than a few hours when the power button is pressed it basically locks up showing over voltage on all the LED motherboard voltage indicators.

I then have to power cycle the motherboard to get the system to boot up again.

Its all happened since I rebuilt the system recently.

Added 3x120mm fans on a thermochill PA120.3 Radiator and akasa fan controller.

I also upgraded the motherboard firmware recently to 1205 which didn't make an immediate impact but I think is part of the problem.

If I remove some of the HDD's it seems to help, pointing to a PSU problem.

Any ideas?

DeadMan

 

[DeadMan]

The PSU is a good one but I don't know if it's up to the job how old is it? and what are the rail amps? ie 12v 15a etc..

Its about 4 months old.

4x 12v rails

Clocked to 3.6ghz:

CPU Core 1.43v
+3.3v 3.20v
+5v 4.90v
+12v 12.43v
+5v Standby 4.87v
FSB VTT 1.55v
North Bridge 1.57v
South Bridge 1.07v
SB PLL 1.50v
DIMM 2.29v
DIMM VTT 1.14v

Voltages Taken from Everest.

I don't seem to have any problems with the 12v rails at all, not sure if modern PC's suffer from the +5v problems of the past as they get fed from the 12v rail these days.

+12V 1 (± 5%) 0A - 16A
+12V 2 (± 5%) 0A - 16A
+12V 3 (± 5%) 0.9A - 16A
+12V 4 (± 5%) 0.1A - 16A
-12V (± 5%) 0A - 0.5A
+5VSB (± 5%) 0 - 3A
+3.3V (± 5%) 0.8 - 24A

+12V 1 & +12V 2 & +12V 3 & +12V 4 < 672 W
+3.3V & +5V < 140 W

I have now flashed back to the 1101 asus bios to eliminate a dodgy flash.

Cheers

DeadMan

 

[DeadMan]

Well i seem to have isolated the problem to overclocking, it seems after lots of elimination loading all the defaults with all the hardware installed the motherboard will boot correctly with bios 1101 and 1205 so it must be a bug in the bios that's causing the problem.

Any ideas?

Cheers

DeadMan

 

[DeadMan]

looks like it could be a memory frequency problem as i have just gone from 800 to 1066.

Either that or the "auto" values for Multiplier, FSB, Vcore and NB Volts...

Source: Asus Forums

 

[DeadMan]

Just did a few tests and the jump from 800mhz to 1066mhz is indeed looking like the cause of the problem.

Any value over 800mhz will cause the motherboard to lock up on power on after a normal shutdown.

I hope ASUS can fix this one!

Cheers

DeadMan