Geeky1University of the Pacific (Stockton, CA, USA)
edited February 2004
Mackanz, I may pick up one of the Fortrons the next time I need a PS then. I've always thought they were pretty good, and they make a LOT of power supplies for other companies (look at the part number on the PS- if it says FSP, it's probably a Fortron Source PS). I know I ran a dual P3-500 system (128mb ram, Rage 128, SB Live, Adaptec SCSI, 7200RPM HD, CD, Floppy, Zip, Win98 [yes I know win 98 isn't SMP capable, but I didn't then]) on a 235w PowerMan PS, which is Inwin's in-house brand, and I'm almost positive they're OEM'd by Fortron.
Overclocking does not have THAT profound an affect on power supplies. For example, a power supply delivers 12.30 volts on the 12 volt rail. As power load increases the power supply will continue to produce that or very near to that voltage up to a certain point. It's much like a car increasing engine power to maintain a steady speed going uphill.
At a certain point the speed can no longer be maintained.
Poor quality power supplies will fluctuate greatly on the rails causing increases and most detrimental, decreases, in voltage for a split second up to several seconds. It is these dips in voltage will cause stability problems.
That's why there is so much talk in these forums of "how steady are the rails"...and of course, second most important, what do they read?
If you are exceeding the power supplies specification...say 5 optical drives, 6 hard drives, dual processor, etc then you are overloading the PSU...like trying to pull a boat with a motorcycle. Some rails have been known to drop while others don't always continue dropping based on higher loads, some of the rails have an inverted bell curve voltage that has lower voltages when under no load, increases to an arbitrary max point and drops thereafter.
The key is matching the proper wattage to the system requirements AND ensuring that voltages supplied are free from significant fluctuations.
Cheap power supplies use shortcuts or lesser quality parts/quality control so they will either A) not deliver the promised power. B) have misleading ratings C) have rails that fluctuate greatly or D) all of the above.
Is there a magic answer...not really except doing what is being done here...reading and asking questions.
Thanks Mac, just got the PSU today, and opened it up, there sure are the pots for adjusting voltages.
poped it in, and switched out my 8rda+ to my NF7-S and reinstalled windows, overclocked my cpu and then installed folding and mbm
voltages are awsome
+3.3 at 3.31 +5 at 5.03 +12 at 11.92 little weak on the +12 rail, but nothing a little pot turning can't fix.
thanks again for telling me to get this great PSU
Comments
At a certain point the speed can no longer be maintained.
Poor quality power supplies will fluctuate greatly on the rails causing increases and most detrimental, decreases, in voltage for a split second up to several seconds. It is these dips in voltage will cause stability problems.
That's why there is so much talk in these forums of "how steady are the rails"...and of course, second most important, what do they read?
If you are exceeding the power supplies specification...say 5 optical drives, 6 hard drives, dual processor, etc then you are overloading the PSU...like trying to pull a boat with a motorcycle. Some rails have been known to drop while others don't always continue dropping based on higher loads, some of the rails have an inverted bell curve voltage that has lower voltages when under no load, increases to an arbitrary max point and drops thereafter.
The key is matching the proper wattage to the system requirements AND ensuring that voltages supplied are free from significant fluctuations.
Cheap power supplies use shortcuts or lesser quality parts/quality control so they will either A) not deliver the promised power. B) have misleading ratings C) have rails that fluctuate greatly or D) all of the above.
Is there a magic answer...not really except doing what is being done here...reading and asking questions.
poped it in, and switched out my 8rda+ to my NF7-S and reinstalled windows, overclocked my cpu and then installed folding and mbm
voltages are awsome
+3.3 at 3.31 +5 at 5.03 +12 at 11.92 little weak on the +12 rail, but nothing a little pot turning can't fix.
thanks again for telling me to get this great PSU