- Joined
- Aug 9, 2002
- Location
- Bakersfield, CA - USA
AV8 Vcore fluctuation
Hello my fellow AV8 owners, lets get serious about our boards shall we? I understand my cutesy new loli avatar might get in the way of taking me seriously but please try to get past it if possible.
I'd like a few opinions and experiences of AV8 users regarding Vcore stability. Help me out and we can get to the bottom of this. I'm sure we'll all benefit in the end.
As you might expect by the fact that I started this thread I've observed large & baffling Vcore fluctuations with my setup.
At full load, Abit EQ reads Vcore between 1.55v and 1.6v although it usually hangs around 1.58v. I checked the voltages with a multimeter through a molex and the 5v aux connector a while back. They tested to 12.08v, 5.09v & 3.43v respectively. The readings showed zero fluctuation in these numbers. I know I should perhaps test through the ATX connector though.
All of my other voltages do not fluctuate at all according to Abit EQ. It reads 5v at 5.12v and the 3.3v at a perfect 3.3v.
Also, observing the voltage in BIOS after a cold boot shows spot on voltages with very little fluctuation at first, but it slowly jitters down to be somewhere near to what I see in windows. This suggests to me that the power reg components (MOSFETs etc) are warming up causing the undervolting.
So I'd like to hear from other AV8 + Winchester CPU owners. Does your Vcore fluctuate as much as mine? What PSU are you running? If you have installed MOSFET cooling has it improved the fluctuation and/or overall Vcore level? If you reply please post your system details as I did because sigs change.
Regarding AV8 MOSFET cooling
I've thought about trying it to see if it helps the fluctuations, but upon looking at the mess that that area of the board is I was a bit put off. The AV8 uses 12-13 of the 'small' type MOSFETs, and they are hardly lined up into a neat little row.
(power regs - full board pic)
So have any of you taken a shot at taming this wild mess? If so please post some pics. Thanks a lot.
Hello my fellow AV8 owners, lets get serious about our boards shall we? I understand my cutesy new loli avatar might get in the way of taking me seriously but please try to get past it if possible.
I'd like a few opinions and experiences of AV8 users regarding Vcore stability. Help me out and we can get to the bottom of this. I'm sure we'll all benefit in the end.
As you might expect by the fact that I started this thread I've observed large & baffling Vcore fluctuations with my setup.
- Winchester 3200+ @ 2.5 Ghz, 1.625 Vcore in BIOS.
- Fortron 530w PSU
- Abit AV8 @ 250 fsb
- 2 x 512mb Kingston Hyper-X PC3500 @ 2.65v, 204 Mhz, 2-3-2-6 timings
- X800XT 533 gpu & 528 mem (only clocks up when a 3d game is launched.)
- 1 WD Raptor 74gb, 1 Maxtor DM10 300gb 16mb cache
- Audigy 1 & Revolution 7.1
- 1 Lite-on DVD burner
- 2 x 120mm case fans, 1 x 90mm cpu fan all running undervolted to ~7v through my fan controller.
At full load, Abit EQ reads Vcore between 1.55v and 1.6v although it usually hangs around 1.58v. I checked the voltages with a multimeter through a molex and the 5v aux connector a while back. They tested to 12.08v, 5.09v & 3.43v respectively. The readings showed zero fluctuation in these numbers. I know I should perhaps test through the ATX connector though.
All of my other voltages do not fluctuate at all according to Abit EQ. It reads 5v at 5.12v and the 3.3v at a perfect 3.3v.
Also, observing the voltage in BIOS after a cold boot shows spot on voltages with very little fluctuation at first, but it slowly jitters down to be somewhere near to what I see in windows. This suggests to me that the power reg components (MOSFETs etc) are warming up causing the undervolting.
So I'd like to hear from other AV8 + Winchester CPU owners. Does your Vcore fluctuate as much as mine? What PSU are you running? If you have installed MOSFET cooling has it improved the fluctuation and/or overall Vcore level? If you reply please post your system details as I did because sigs change.
Regarding AV8 MOSFET cooling
I've thought about trying it to see if it helps the fluctuations, but upon looking at the mess that that area of the board is I was a bit put off. The AV8 uses 12-13 of the 'small' type MOSFETs, and they are hardly lined up into a neat little row.
(power regs - full board pic)
So have any of you taken a shot at taming this wild mess? If so please post some pics. Thanks a lot.
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