[BloodEagle]

Power Supply: Antec EarthWatts 650.

Issue: Yesterday afternoon PCAlert4 (set on 5 second monitoring intervals) pops up, blaring its warning siren. It seems as though my 5v rail jumped to 5.03 for the duration of one interval (odds are it lasted less than one second). Today (~5 minutes ago), the same thing happened. I've never seen it do this before (although I could have missed it whilst away from the computer).

Query: Should I be freaking the Hell out and shutting everything off/cashing in on the lifetime warranty?

[MP-Ryan]

You're worried about a 0.03 V differential?  I don't think I've ever seen a +5v rail actually run at precisely 5V.  Now, if it's drastically fluctuating that's different.  Reboot and sit on the BIOS monitoring tool and watch the voltages for 15 minutes or so.

[BloodEagle]

Safety ranges of voltages is one of the few things that I'm not familiar with. Combine that with the fact that the numerals changed to bright red, and the attached sound file started playing, sort of gave me pause.

[attachment deleted by MSC

[Nuke]

buy a power supply that puts out 3x what u need. seriously. they all lie on their ratings, ive never had a power supply that could do what the sticker said it could do.

THEY LIE!!!!!

[Bob-san]

Power Supply: Antec EarthWatts 650.

Issue: Yesterday afternoon PCAlert4 (set on 5 second monitoring intervals) pops up, blaring its warning siren. It seems as though my 5v rail jumped to 5.03 for the duration of one interval (odds are it lasted less than one second). Today (~5 minutes ago), the same thing happened. I've never seen it do this before (although I could have missed it whilst away from the computer).

Query: Should I be freaking the Hell out and shutting everything off/cashing in on the lifetime warranty?

No; you shouldn't be worried. At all, really. The sensors for voltage as well as temperature are VERY rough guesstimates and usually leave a lot to be desired due to poor design and poor placement. If you really want to know, learn how to use a multimeter.

You're worried about a 0.03 V differential?  I don't think I've ever seen a +5v rail actually run at precisely 5V.  Now, if it's drastically fluctuating that's different.  Reboot and sit on the BIOS monitoring tool and watch the voltages for 15 minutes or so.

Readings are only as good as the sensor is.

Safety ranges of voltages is one of the few things that I'm not familiar with. Combine that with the fact that the numerals changed to bright red, and the attached sound file started playing, sort of gave me pause.

Look up your ATX specs for those exact numbers, but it doesn't matter since voltage is almost NEVER steady. There are always peaks and troughs, the argument is all over size. Staying within ATX specs you can still kill equipment. But no, those readings are bologna.

buy a power supply that puts out 3x what u need. seriously. they all lie on their ratings, ive never had a power supply that could do what the sticker said it could do.

THEY LIE!!!!!

You're an idiot.

and youre an asshole
-nuke



The moral of the story is two-fold. First is to buy reputable power supplies from reputable brands. PC Power & Cooling, Antec (sans Basiq line), Seasonic, Corsair, and a goodly number of other brands or lines too. You'll pay more, but nobody should be fooled into buying a 300W power supply with a 600W label for $30. You can't get that type of power for the price, which is why high-end units sell for so much more. I always love when these units are marketed based on peak power and not continuous power. The marketing director or product manager figures they'll make more money that way. Second is to never trust those software readings. Use a good multimeter or watch for signs of something going bad. Having a second PC to swap parts in or out of is always nice. But yes, buy more than you need, if just for longevity.

[High Max]

I think mine is a Corsair Ultra and it was around $100 and it is 575W. It is all silver, has the word "Ultra" on it, and has a nice big fan. Maybe one should get a surge protector (whatever they look like) though incase of a lightning storm or they will have to shut it down when a storm is occuring to be safe and not get their parts destroyed. Even brown outs could be a problem so some have a battery that allows you to have enough power to shut it down properly in time.

If you don't have enough wattage, you might get spantaneous reboots or shutdowns, especially when running hard drive intensive programs like anti-malware programs, I believe.

[Liberator]

I've had little to complain about my Cooler Master 550w that I bought about a year ago.  Just throwing that out there....

[castor]

It seems as though my 5v rail jumped to 5.03 for the duration of one interval (odds are it lasted less than one second).

Quite a leap indeed

Generally, supply voltages must be within ±5% of their nominal values at all times. The little-used negative supply voltages, however, have a ±10% tolerance. There is a specification for ripple in a 10–20 MHz bandwidth:[4]
Supply [V]    Tolerance    Ripple (p-p max)
+5 VDC    ±5% (±0.25 V)    50 mV
−5 VDC    ±10% (±0.50 V)    50 mV
+12 VDC    ±5% (±0.60 V)    120 mV
−12 VDC    ±10% (±1.2 V)    120 mV
+3.3 VDC    ±5% (±0.165 V)    50 mV
+5 VSB    ±5% (±0.25 V)    50 mV

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ATX

[portej05]

If your power supply is one of those used in a laboratory setting, I'd worry incredibly about 0.03V.
But, lets think about this for a moment. Your 0.03V excursion is approx ~0.6% different from the rating.
I'd be more concerned that you've set your tolerances so tight.
You probably have that kind of voltage drop across the entire wiring harness, so I wouldn't worry.
As components age, you can expect to see minor excursions like that, but most switchmode supplies will still work fine.

My brothers machine died when the capacitors started becoming significantly leaky (remember all that fun a while ago with the stolen electrolyte formula?) and started having excursions around 20-30% and then things went wrong!