Voltage reading differences

I always had quite a low 3.3v/5v line according to my BIOS and programs like MBM5.

Even at a fsb of 100, the 5v line is around 4.86 idle.

Idle and load voltages show quite some voltagedrops average.

Quite recently I measured the 5v/12v line with a digital voltage reading device connected to one of the molex' and I was suprised:
perfect around 5.00 and 12.00 and hardly any difference idle vs load nor between with a fsb of 100 or 133 or 138.
Err, right

I was looking for a reason why I cannot overclock my system past the 143fsb line, and I thought the PSU was the one to blame.
But now? Hmm, I'm a bit confused.

Is there a reason to not always trust what the BIOS says?
The voltages apart from the 5v and 3v line (12v only a tad lower than what I measured) all seem to be fine / accurate and show hardly any difference between idle and load.

Maybe the MoBo connector is from a different circuit in the PSU?

Could be my Palomino CPu aswell, but I do not know if I can rule out my PSU for blocking my OC attempts.....it is either the PSU, CPU or both.

You simply don't know anything about the voltages until you put a voltmeter on them and check. The voltmeter doesn't lie, motherboards do.

As far as the limit for your overclock, it might be cpu, ram, or motherboard. I tend to suspect motherboard as ECS is junk, but after you change two of the three you will know about the third. I think it is safe to say your power supply is not the source of your limitation.

Read this

http://forum.oc-forums.com/vb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=58333

I have to agree with Larva. I don't think the PSU is holding you back. I would suspect the palomino or the ECS mobo first. With that combo I wouldnt expect much of a OC.

Tnx guys, for the information.
I know a bit 'bout computers, but on certain areas I know jack so forgive me for that.
Now I know I can rule out the PSU... heh, this might have been put in another section of this forum I guess.

Before the cpu-voltage bump from 1.76 to 1.86 I could not even boot into Windows at a FSB of 143Mhz; now I can.
Strangely enough I can run mem-test-86 at a FSB of 147 perfectly no matter what memorytimings, but that's about it.
But assoon as Windows starts up, it hangs at random moments during start-up, so I suspected the PSU.

As a sidenote: I call my memory "generic", but I bought it at a cheap place not knowning where the modules originated from; just to put it that way. According to SiSoft it can do atleast a fsb143 cl3.
Running perfectly now at 143-ultra-cl2-2-2.

But you guys are right; this MoBo is junk; I reckon it wasn't cheap for nothing. Two sd-ram modules can't be used now (crash under load); although in the winter it ran fine........ *sigh* I miss having 512mb of ram.

Well, I guess I'll leave it with 143 fsb and see what my GF2 can do (220/400 'till now).
If done some soldering to get my vcore bumped up; but I don't want to risk anything more because I have to use my pc for my study aswell.