How to Check your Power Supply Rails and Voltages

[Tyreal]

I know that alot of people will eventually wonder how to check their rails or voltages. It's a good idea to check your power supply to see if its up to par to run your system or if it is in a good condition.

You might be thinking now... Why don't I just look at Speedfan or whatever monitoring program. It gives me my voltages. But Software monitoring and Bios monitoring is simply not accurate. They will never be. So you have to go right to the source. to check your voltages/rails your going to need a multimeter.

Here is one of the best guides out there for doing this: http://www.driverheaven.net/guides/testingPSU/

You always want to keep your voltages within 4% of the normal.
So 12V rails should be within 11.52 to 12.48 during load. 5-volt rails should be 4.8 to 5.2 and 3.3V should be 3.17 and 3.43.

For those of you who don't know what a multimeter is. This guide will explain how it works, what it does, how to use it, etc.
http://www.multimeterwarehouse.com/usingamultimeter.htm


EDIT: PSU Calculator


This should clear it all up.

[Archilochus]

This might help!

[Tyreal]

Thanks.

[gvblake22]

Yes, that is definately a great guide. And with the help of Archilochus's diagram, you should have no problem testing your powersupply's voltage rails (which is a good thing to do just so you know what is going on inside your computer. Sortof like monitoring your temperature levels or watching fan speeds.)

Thanks Tyreal and Archilochus! :thup:

[Tyreal]

Do you think it would be worthwhile for me to piece together a guide for the site? It shouldn't take too long since its relatively short.

[gvblake22]

Do you have a digital multimeter?
Usually there's no reason to "re-invent the wheel", but if you have something more to offer then go for it.

[Tyreal]

Of course i do!!!

No... i don't think i really have anything more to offer unless someone wants to shoot me some ideas. Other than giving HardwareLogic its own guide for this sort of stuff.

[Archilochus]

I find this to be of interest too! ;)

http://www.jscustompcs.com/power_supply/

[gvblake22]

Jonathan Ng (Tyreal) has put together his own guide for HardwareLogic and can be seen HERE... :D

[gvblake22]

Originally Posted by Archilochus

I find this to be of interest too! ;)

http://www.jscustompcs.com/power_supply/

That's pretty cool. But I found this other program called "Juice" and it is basically the same thing (except you download it and run it from your machine). I like it better because it has many more components to choose from.

Check it out HERE...