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Yet Another PSU/Power Question

  • 08-11-2002 5:13pm
    #1
    strat
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 3,005 ✭✭✭


    Ok i have shed loads of stuff on my system atm and i think i shall be running low on power soon

    So what I'm asking is can any components be damaged from low power due to too many items drawing from a low spec psu ??

    Am i likley to fusk up a cpu or currupt a hd partiton :confused:


Comments

  • #2
    noog
    Registered Users Posts: 514 ✭✭✭noog


    indeed


  • #3
    BigEejit
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 3,739 ✭✭✭BigEejit


    I dont think so, but like nearly everyone else here IANAE (engineer) ... I would guess that if your PSU started to max out it would start browning out OR it would switch off ... it is very hard to know what the hell will happen with a switched mode PSU in that situation...
    But keep in mind that stuff inside your computer does not use all that much power (just add up all the maximum wattages of the parts, I remember that I did it one time on my previous pc and got a total of 155.. I thought it was way way higher, the hard disk on powerup was the biggest power user) ....

    If you are using more power than 2/3 of the PSU I'd say change ... Just to be on the safe side ...

    But as I said at the start of this post, there are very few power engineers reading posts here (I am guessing this, because there are very few power engineers in the country).. everyone here will have an opinion but you are the one who will have to cough up for a new XXX (insert name of broken part here) if something goes wrong


  • #4
    strat
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 3,005 ✭✭✭strat


    *bumb, thump, slap etc*

    can anyone give me a straight answer ?


  • #5
    BabyEater
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 691 ✭✭✭BabyEater


    You are very unlikely to fusk up a CPU through low voltages it might crash the system tho , i don't know about currupting a hd partiton tho. Can you use motherboard manager to check your voltages to see how good bad they are.


  • #6
    Gerry
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 4,457 ✭✭✭Gerry


    Monitor the voltages in your system, if they are dipping much below their intended level ( 12v, 5v, 3.3v, ) the psu is under strain. Don't go running out for a new psu if the 12v line is at 11.99. I wouldn't worry until it goes below 11.8 or thereabouts. You are not likely to damage components from too low a voltage, however if the voltage is unstable, as can happen if your psu is under heavy pressure, you might damage stuff then. As bigeejit said, your system is probably not drawing nearly as much power as you think.

    Go read this:

    http://www.tomshardware.com/howto/02q4/021021/index.html


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