Power Supply Question

[phantomlord]

i was just wondering how much of a fluctuation is in the voltages of my power supply is acceptable... i just bought a 500w Okia cheap power supply less than a week ago and noticed that my voltages are fluctuating quite a bit and always under.. for example my

+12v is always at 11.85.. 11.9 is the max i've ever seen it.. dropping to 11.62 at idle..
+5v is always at 4.972 avg.. never 5.. saw it at 4.99 once lol.. 4.945
+3.3v is usualy 3.28 - 3.26
VCore is usualy 1.407 avg.. drops to 1.353

i'm using xp pro Precott P4 3.0G Asus P4S800D-X Asus N7600GS 256Mb and a gig of ram with a 160 gig sata.. if that's any help.. nothing else in my system other than what's mentioned above.. THX

[2k_dummy]

As long as the voltages remain within the range of +5/-5% you have have problems. However, with a 500 watt PSU you see very little fluctuation. I would replace that one with a quality unit. Think of it this way. The PSU is the machines heart. Would you rather have a good heart or a Jarvic heart?

[phantomlord]

so if i understand you correctly.. you're saying my voltages shouldn't be fluctuating as they are currently doing.. also this is happening during regular idle speed.. and i'm looking forward to overclocking it.. and THX again for the quick response

[2k_dummy]

Some very minor fluctuation is normal. But a good PSU will normally be rock solid. My Antec 350 watt never varies more then .01V even under heavy load.

[soybean]

Since you've had that PSU less than a week, I'm thinking you might another week or two and see whether it becomes more stable.  I installed a new 400 Watt PSU on 1/5/07.  I made a note that between 1/8/07 and 1/21/07, 3.3V, 5V, and 12V readings increased sligthly.  But since then, they have not changed, at least based on my infrequent checking.  So, I'm thinking maybe some burn-in of new PSU's may lead to more stability.  Don't know for sure; it's just my theory.

The only voltage that did change between 1/21/07 and 2/16/07 in my PSU is Vbat, but I don't believe that's significant.  These readings come from SpeedFan.

The PSU I bought is  FSP Group (Fortron Source) AX400-PN, RoHS, 12cm FAN, version 2.2, 2 SATA, 20+ 4 pin, PCI Express, 400W Power Supply - Retail. It's got solid reviews on newegg.com.

[phantomlord]

so you think the fluctuating will settle down.. because the fluctuating i mentioned above is almost constantly fluctuating by the amounts i mentioned above... and i want to overclock the system in the near future.. THX again to all

[soybean]

That's what I was thinking but the constant fluctuation surely doesn't instill any confidence in that theory.  Even during the first week or 10 days, my new PSU did not constantly fluctuate.  

I’m going to weasel out of this by saying I’m not an expert on power supplies.  I’ll acquiesce to 2K_dummy and others on this issue.

[GX1_Man]

I think an "el cheapo" power supply will always maintain the same poor quality it was constructed with. Are you willing to sacrifice some expensive components to save a few bucks that way? Lots of people do, and are sorry later.