do i need a new PSU?

CDsDontBurn

i think i do, but i just want a 2nd opinion from other members. i currently have an OCZ PowerStream 520w. plenty powerful right? But i'm not sure if it's powerful enough for everything i have. i'm finding my 12v rail to be pretty low. too low for my tastes.

I recently added a 4th HDD to my machine, and ever since, i can hear a clicking type sound once in a while. as if one of the hard drives power up or down. It usually happens when my machine is powering up or down, and also when i first open up one of my hard drives to search for any kind of file.

here is a pic of my rig's voltages at idle aside from web surfing....kinda low already i know.



here it is w/two instances of toast running.....looks the same really



here are my voltages running HD Tach (long test) on my newest drive (it scored 130Mb/s BTW). running this test gave my machine the most voltage flux. it went from 11.80v to 11.98v



and my voltages running my raid0 setup (it scored 112Mb/s). running this test gave me a voltage flux of 11.86 to 11.92

Dyre Straits

CDs, you and I have almost identical systems. I have a 500W PSU with 28A on my 12V rail.

I also have two SATA, two IDE HDDs, two CD/DVD writers, 2GB Corsair RAM, X800 XL AGP, a separate PCI Audio Card (not using onboard presently), and a separate PCI USB card.

My case has several fans, too.

So far, though, I'm quite happy with the mix. I don't notice anything that would lead me to believe I'm underpowered.

[hobo]eclipse

Isnt your powerstream adjustable? mine is, i just assumed they all were....

H3X4D3C1M4L

PowerStreams have adjustable voltage pots yes, so that's an option.

The clicking noise may be ACPI spinning the drive down when not in use, if you go into Power Management and turn off HDD spin down see if that fixes it.

CDsDontBurn

@ dyre: if you say that your system is fine on 28a, mine should be as well on 33a

@ hobo: yes, mine is. i had forgotten about that, lol. ill mess around with it later.

@ H3X: in my power management set up, i've got it set to power down HDDs after 45min. of system idle. thing is, my system is not always idle when it does this.

Geminiwave

the question is: is it shutting off randomly? is it crashing alot? is your performance dropping dramatically? If the answer is yes to any one of these then MAYBE your PSU is to blame.

I was under the impression that it wasnt the 12v rail going to the hard drives though. I might be wrong on that i suppose.

Anyway on my old Antec (NEVER BUY ANTEC AGAIN!) it was undervolting everything but ESPECIALLY the 3.3v rail (went down below 3v a few times. surprised the comp even ran). I got an OCZ now that I'm quite happy with.

From what I read now (I've been looking up power requirements for your setup) a 520w PSU SHOULD be fine as long as its efficient enough.

you know what you might try? Whenever my Antec started undervolting, I'd blow all the dust out with a dust can (there was tons) and then the voltages would return to a more reasonable level (3.13v). Try it. Heat = less voltage and that dust holds in alot of heat.

Also, I believe a +\- 5% is acceptable for 3.3 and 5v rails and a +\- 10% is acceptable for 12v. Even if its only 5% you're still well within tollerable levels.

H3X4D3C1M4L

If there are no handles on a non system drive / RAID array then it'll spin down after that time.

For example if I stuck in an IDE drive in my system and didn't touch it for 30 mins and had my time out set to 30 mins (like if I was web browsing), it would spin down

CDsDontBurn

no, my system does not randomly crash. it did on my old 485w enermax whenever i would OC my rig. it would also do that same clicking noise i described earlier in the thread w/my old enermax. my old enermax is the reason why i got my PowerStream .

lol, don't blame Antec for undervolting. maybe it was just old and of low wattage, which would be another reason for it undervolting (i'm just presuming it's old and of low wattage).

the day i put in my new drive, i also got out the air compressor, and blew out all the dirt and crap that had accumulated. i spent a good 20min. blowing out my whole rig . it's only been two weeks since, so i doubt that's the reason why.

CDsDontBurn

ok. i'll try that when i get home. i'll try that before i mess w/the adjustable rails thing.

H3X4D3C1M4L

Well do that anyway..you need more +12V.

My friend keeps his at 12.16

Zelig

Don't mess with the rails using that software, you want to get a real multimetre, your rails might turn out to be dead on. Software is pretty much useless in giving voltage information in my experience, get yourself a digital multimetre if you're interested in how your PSU is performing.

Judas

NEVER use software, readings within windows as your guide. As i've yet to get a decent reading from anything of the sort....

IMO, your best readings are within your bios without a multimeter, and even then, they aren't reliable (just more likely).

Don't touch the powerstream till your DAMN sure of your case.

Plus if your overdrawing on that PSU, it'll simply cut down, as it's max output is something like 600watts for 60 seconds. You'll know when you need more power with those things ( my 600 watt powerstream would simply Kick out, wouldn't be able to turn the computer on until i flipped the switch at the back and unplug the main power cord for several seconds)

It may not be a bad idea if you can find a new home for the 520 and perhaps get a gamexstream 600+

Zelig

What? The bios uses the same sensors as any other software, and will give the same readings, unless either the bios or software are calibrated differently... why would you recommend against just using a multimetre?

[hobo]eclipse

on the back of the supply if all LED by the POTs are green the PSU says the rails are within reason, to low or to high will resault in the LED's changing color, red i think is to low and yellow to high i believe.

CDsDontBurn

@ Judas: the next home for my PowerStream will be in my sister's computer.

@ Zelig: my dad has a multimeter........somewhere

@ hobo: yes, yellow is low, green is good, red is high.

Judas

said t wrong..

i ment that if your not using a multimeter.. or don't want to.. your best results are directly from the bios page itself.. not within windows.

I've ran several in windows apps that report incorrectly. They may use the same sensors, but i'd say there is a better chance that the bios results which were built specifically for the board are more reliable then windows based software which basically pull from the same source, but generally can be completely inaccurate. Even todays software doesn't report things right even for my newer motherboards i've got. I just can't and will never trust them until The bios and chips are more tuned and windows itself without using 3rd party tools can get a result in which i can switch from one to the other and have exactly matching results.


IMO, multimeter is the ONLY way to be spot on guaranteed your results (as long as you know how to use one lol )