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PSU 12 volt rail at 11.60 volts, should i be worried?

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  • Power Supplies
  • Components
Last response: in Components
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September 10, 2014 8:36:52 AM

I recently upgraded my processor to a dual core and i wanted to see how my PSU would handle it so i hooked it up to one of the power adapters and it seems to only be putting out about 11.60 volts.

I put the system under a load and it seems to be holding steady around 11.60 to 11.70 volts. I had considered replacing my PSU, i wanted to add some more SATA ports via a PCI adapter such as this: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168...

So if i ever do that i know i would need a new PSU with more wattage and adapters in the future. But for now should i be worried the PSU is only producing 11.60 volts? The 5 volt rail is producing 4.99 volts.

More about : psu volt rail volts worried

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a c 2489 ) Power supply
September 10, 2014 8:39:13 AM

Here are the Tolerances , if your with these you are usually ok.
http://pcsupport.about.com/od/insidethepc/a/power-suppl...

Power Supply Voltage Tolerances
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a b ) Power supply
September 10, 2014 9:11:46 AM

What are you actually measuring voltages with?

If your answer is system monitoring software, keep in mind that the motherboard's system monitoring chip itself probably only has 3-5% accuracy. If you want accurate measurements, you need a proper multimeter with better than 1% accuracy otherwise your measurement uncertainty is as bad as the tolerance margins so you cannot really tell how far out of spec - if at all - you actually are: with a 3% measurement accuracy, the actual voltage could be anywhere from 11.25V to 11.95V... anywhere from bad to very good.
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September 11, 2014 5:37:59 PM

SR-71 Blackbird said:
Here are the Tolerances , if your with these you are usually ok.
http://pcsupport.about.com/od/insidethepc/a/power-suppl...

Power Supply Voltage Tolerances


Thanks!

InvalidError said:
What are you actually measuring voltages with?

If your answer is system monitoring software, keep in mind that the motherboard's system monitoring chip itself probably only has 3-5% accuracy. If you want accurate measurements, you need a proper multimeter with better than 1% accuracy otherwise your measurement uncertainty is as bad as the tolerance margins so you cannot really tell how far out of spec - if at all - you actually are: with a 3% measurement accuracy, the actual voltage could be anywhere from 11.25V to 11.95V... anywhere from bad to very good.


I don't use monitoring software, at least on the computer i recently upgraded. I am aware they are not always accurate. I am actually using a multimeter and it's pretty accurate, i use it to test all my batteries. I was checking the voltage again (the 12 volt rail) and it was only putting out 11.55 volts though i checked it at a cold start. My optical dvd player was acting wonky (thought it was a hard drive at first) and it'll only do that if it doesn't have enough voltage. Considering the cooler day we have i'm not shocked that it happened but i will definitely keep an eye on the voltages. I checked the voltage again it's at the same voltage as before, 11.62 volts.
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