XFX PSU 12V rail too high!

[PowerPie5000]

I've just built another PC for someone and have noticed high readings from the PSU's +12V rail... It's always bouncing between 12.48v, 12.54v and 12.61v! Does this seem a bit high and can it cause lock ups and hardware failure? The PSU is a new 550W XFX Core Edition Pro (a re-badged Seasonic unit i believe).

I hope this is not going to be a major issue!

[danroyle]

I've just built another PC for someone and have noticed high readings from the PSU's +12V rail... It's always bouncing between 12.48v, 12.54v and 12.61v! Does this seem a bit high and can it cause lock ups and hardware failure? The PSU is a new 550W XFX Core Edition Pro (a re-badged Seasonic unit i believe).

I hope this is not going to be a major issue!

no thats perfectly fine generally they have a tolerance of a bout 10% either way. my coolermaster 700w is running at 12.288v i see that as it has more power to give if needed my last power supply was a 600w at running 11.5v when i changed it.

and the differences you are getting are perfectly normal too a really good power supply will not ripple by very much at all

[Pob255]

The XFX have been shown to run slightly high on the 12v esp if the 12v load is low and the 5v or 3.3v is high.

Stick it under load and you'll see those numbers tighten up.

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

I would use a multimeter you check the voltage readings. Software readings are not always accurate.

[PowerPie5000]

The XFX have been shown to run slightly high on the 12v esp if the 12v load is low and the 5v or 3.3v is high.

Stick it under load and you'll see those numbers tighten up.

You're right! I've just been testing it with BF3 for the last hour and the 12V reading dropped to around 12.20V during gameplay... That's within the PSU's 5% tolerance (i'm sure it used to be 10% for PSU's a while ago). The 3.3V and 5V rails seem fine when idle and under load.

I would use a multimeter you check the voltage readings. Software readings are not always accurate.

The bios read 12.360v last time i checked... I've not got a multimeter handy at the moment as a friend is using it in his quest to resurrect an old Commodore Amiga 1000

The PSU is running the following 'el cheapo' (budget) gaming system:

3.2Ghz AMD Phenom II X4 955
Gigabyte GA-870A-USB3L motherboard
2x4GB Kingston HyperX DDR3 1333Mhz RAM (1.5v)
Club-3D Radeon 6850 (factory overclocked)
1TB Hitachi 7K1000.C HDD

[Pob255]

Hey that's nearly better than mine and it's not an el cheapo system
Nought wrong with those specs it'll play games well, if you had an athlonII x2 and a 5770 then it'd be an cheap gaming system.

It's cheaper than a i5 2500k and a 6950 but that doesn't make it el cheapo.
If you put a system together for more than £200 it's not el cheapo

[PowerPie5000]

Hey that's nearly better than mine and it's not an el cheapo system
Nought wrong with those specs it'll play games well, if you had an athlonII x2 and a 5770 then it'd be an cheap gaming system.

It's cheaper than a i5 2500k and a 6950 but that doesn't make it el cheapo.
If you put a system together for more than £200 it's not el cheapo

My PC is also a cheap'ish one... I say it's cheap because i used to be one of those people who spent over £1k on a new PC every 2 years, then i became wise

I'm going to be building a small budget gaming system for my brothers girlfriend too (she plays stuff like World of Warcraft)... It's going to be:

AMD Athlon II X3 455 (3.3Ghz)
Gigabyte GA-M68MT-S2P motherboard (Micro-ATX)
8GB DDR3 1333 RAM
1GB Radeon 5770 or 6770 (both the same)
500GB WD HDD (luckily i already have this!)
550W XFX Pro PSU
Fractal Design Core 1000 Micro-ATX case
Windows 7 64-bit

Should play games fine at 1680x1050 on a 20" monitor