Do I need a new PSU?

Alright....I've had limited success trying to find a real good answer for my dilemma as of late....it seems as if my 2800+, PC 3500, watercooled system has hit a wall at 2.3Ghz..which is FAR more disappointing than what I had hoped for....(and yes, the chip is unlocked, week 29)...

So for all of you guys....I need to discern whether or not a new PSU is really what I need for this system to reach the 2.4-2.5 mark....

System configuration:

Athlon XP 2800+ Barton
NF7-S 2.0
Mushkin LvL2 PC3500 1x512mb
WD 120GB 7200
WD 8GB 7200
3 Case Fans
1 Radiator Fan
1 Floppy
1 CDRW
1 Cathode

Watercooling:

Dtek WW Waterblock
Dtek VGA waterblock
Dtek Chipset Waterblock
Heatercore Radiator
T-line
Eheim 1250 (externally powered)

System Temps:

Right now the system is running rather conservatively at 200 x 11 and is sitting at 35C idle and 38 under load....

System Voltages @ current OC:

Vcore 1.7......Hardware Doctor Reads 1.7
Vdimm 2.7....Hardware Doctor Reads 2.72
Vio................Hardware Doctor Reads 3.3
+5.................Hardware Doctor Reads 5.0
+12...............Hardware Doctor Reads 11.68-11.86
Vsb................Hardware Doctor Reads 4.92
3.3 Dual........Hardware Doctor Reads 3.54


I am really totally baffled right now as I don't really see any stress on the PSU at this moment...but as I increase the FSB up to 215..the system becomes quite unstable even with Vdimm at 2.8 and the Vcore at 1.8..

I've tested the memory on memtest86 and it passed all tests twice in a row with flying colors at 2.8v....

As soon as I get to Windows, it either crashes and reboots, or Prime won't let it slide by for 1 minute...

And yes, my PSU is an ISO 450...which is a bundled POS with my Antec Plusview case...but I don't want someone telling me that I should just buy a new one because this one is a hunk of junk...I understand (and have read the FAQ atop this forum) that generic PSU's do fall short in retrospec to some others out there....Fortron, Sparkle, Antec.....

And if a new PSU is in order, what would be the best combo'ed PSU to fit this system (I'm thinking the Fortron 530 with adjustable pots)....can someone tell me if I'm over doing it with a unit such as this....

Can Someone PLEASE help me out....Don't really want to lay down 74 bones on something that will be of no benefit to me...I've been scratchin' my head on this for 4 days and I really would like someone to tell me where my RIG needs a makeover

UPDATE:

I am starting to OC again to see the voltage differences on MBM5...

215 x 11 @ 1.8, 2.8, 1.6, 1.5 (Bios settings) give me the following voltage numbers from MBM5..


Low / Average

Vcore: 1.7v / 1.74v
Vdimm: 2.82v / 2.83v
3.3 3.25v / 3.29v
+5 5.0v / 5.0v
+12 11.49v / 11.69v

I figured the Highs mean nada....

From looking at these numbers via MBM5, it looks to me as if the Vcore is waivering very low below the Bios voltage settings..which would suggest that my 3.3v rail is not providing the necessary juice for my OC....I also notice that the 12v rail is getting down to that mark where functionability of hard drives in heavily clocked systems will become non-existant...which may be my answer as any higher of an OC will cause my system to crash and turn off (I'm guessing the hard drives shut off?)

Am I going about this the right way?

Multimeter measurements on the 12v soon to come as well....

PLEASE help!!!!!!!!!

Not sure myself if it's the PSU until you manage to get some meter readings, however it may be a little on the weak side.

That said, it's not necessarily junk - ISO's parent company is Channel Well, who is the current OEM manufacturer for Antec PSU's. It is, however, at the bottom of CWT's line and I don't care for their model numbering scheme on these (yours is in fact a 350w unit - info here). IMO an upgrade to an Antec 430w+ or Fortron 350w or 530w might be worth your while - I generally find CWT units below 380w or so a bit on the weak side.

Have you tried lowering the mult to verify that your system can handle 215fsb? Most NF7-S boards can handle that but I have seen some that cannot.

The multimeter will certainly help determine if the PSU is playing a role in the issues, but it would also be a good idea to try and isolate the problem a little more. Take the mhz speed of your cpu out of the picture and focus on just fsb by lowering the mult. Doing the opposite and raising the mult with a more conservative FSB will help you get a true idea of the ceiling on your cpu.

Any software that reads from the onboard sensors will
be a little flaky. Better to use a MultiMeter instead if
you want a true indication of what's going on.

IMhO ... unless you are going to power a huge server tower
full of HDD's a 530w PSU is a bit of a waste.
When you consider how many use the 300w, or even
250w Fortron in their OverClocked & loaded systems without
any problems this becomes obvious.

So far I've been extremely happy with my 300w Fortron
units at $30. Even with my 1700 OCed to 2.5ghz, 9500 GfX card
that connects directly to the molex, and a whole slew of fans and
lights they have no trouble remaining within 2-3% of specs.

How low should I bring the multi to test for my FSB wall??

Xaggerate said:

How low should I bring the multi to test for my FSB wall??

Click to expand...

Your best bet is to use the lowest multi.

I've always gone with "10" as it's easy to
figure the resulting speed. But I've never had a 2800 Barton
so I'm not sure if it's available with that chip.