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Enermax Whisper 350W question

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Voodoo Rufus

Powder Junkie Moderator
Joined
Sep 20, 2001
Location
Bakersfield, CA
I've been running this PSU for over a year and a half now, and through the MBM5 and Digidoc5 voltage readings, I have these measurements:

12V: 12.52V (DD)
5V: 4.73V (MBM)
3.3V: 3.04V (MBM)

I wanted to know if any of these should be the cause of worry, since this is in my non-OCed 1400MHz stock voltage state. OCed, the 12V RISES to about 12.75V. Seems wierd doesn't it? I compared these numbers to Anandtech's PSU ripple readings, and mine are like 10x there's, if MBM and the DD5 are to be believed.

This PSU has been a cause of trouble in the past, melting my ATX connector at 100% CPU uilization on the 5V lines, smoking itself. Long story.

Just wanted people's opinions on this as to whether this is normal or what.
 
How can you compare steady state DC voltage readings with ripple readings, which are AC? Also, are you measuring the ripple with a scope or FET-VOM? Because my digital meter goes all over the place with AC voltages above a few thousand Hz, and PSU ripple is around 60 KHz.
 
Well, I do not know that much about "ripple". I was just going by the example provided by anandtech, where it seems that they were measuring the variation in DC voltage from the speced voltage, which they called "ripple".

If ripple is AC, then I am mistaken. I'm really only worried about my voltage variations and if they could cause stability or longevity problems in my computer.
 
Your 5V and 3.3V rails are running low. You want them to be very close to specification. If there is significant variation, you either have too much equipment running on the PS causing it to run low or the PS is not working right. The fact that the 12V rail rises over time indicates that the regulation is poor. If it were me, I would get a new PSU.

Ripple is the AC voltage that gets through the filtering and lays on top of the DC voltage. You can measure it with an oscilloscope or a special ripple test set. More than a few millavolts of ripple indicates poor design or bad components.
 
Well, currently I'm running non-OCed, with CPU idling most of the time (no seti or F@H currently). 256MB DDR, single hard drive, Kyro 2 graphics (chip pulls about 4W, ram I don't know). one sound card, one lan, a few slow fans, and one optical drive. 350W should be enough I would think.

I would be interested to know if you think that pulling too much 5V current could damage the PSU. What happened in the past was that the ATX connector was using only 2 of the 4 12V wires to poewr my CPU OCed running SETI, and between loose contacts and maybe bimetallic corrosion (gold and tin) caused enough heat buildup to fuse the ATX cable to the mobo connector and start the contacts smoking. The wires just broke off.

You think that might have caused PSU damage?
 
Anandtech tried to look smart by using an oscilloscope, but they used it the wrong way, without measuring the ripple at full load.

Anandtech's article was nothing more than the typical half-arsed PSU test you see almost everywhere on the web, written more for people who are interested mostly in adoring and cuddling their PSUs, not in real performance.
 
I can't help, but i'm wondering if there is anyway to fix the unregular voltages in the enermax whisper 350W. that is what I am running now. The voltages don't really change much with respect to how many components i'm running or how overclocked I am. but I really don't like what i see with my system:

(as reported by mbm):
3.3V: range: 2.95-3.04V avg: 3.02V
5v: range: 5.78-5.97V, avg: 5.95V
12v: range: 10.94-11.07V, avg: 11.00V

I had heard about adjusting some potentiometer in the psu or something? Is that a way to help this situation? Or just buy a new psu?
 
a pot would burn up. I'm guessing the early enermaxs had crappy regulation. All show and no go maybe.

I should check the voltages with a voltmeter to get a more accurate reading. I'll do that sometime soon. No way to check the 3.3 safely though.
 
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