IC7-MAX3, VCORE and 12v readings...

[GRAFiZ]

I know the IC7-MAX3 undervolts the VCORE and VDIMM, and my readings show that.

But, does the motherboard also undervolt the 12v line?

I have a 520watt Vantec Stealth, and under load my 12v reading drops to 11.67.

Reported by both the ABIT program and MBM 5.

At idle it sits around 11.87 - 11.92.

Now mind you I'm not pulling too much through it.

I have one 7200rpm hard, one cdrw, floppy... and a 92mm tornado running through a Areogate II, as well as two 120mm TT and two 92mm TT fans running through a Nexus fan controller.

I dont see why my 12v lines would dip so much.

Also, I must mention my P4 is set at 1.65 volts.

At idle it reads 1.648v and at load it reads 1.6v even.

Is that normal?

Thanks for any help!

[Jupiler]

Your 5V and 12V lines will always drop under load.
But 11.67V seems a little low to me. Also depends on the PSU, of course.
My former Antec 380W truepower gave me low voltages too (11.92 or so) and dropped to 11.80 under load, but the system was stable though.
Got me a Tagan 380W (German brand) and readings are much better now. (12.22 idle - 12.04 load)

Does your vantec has pots inside? Maybe you can turn the +5V +12V lines a bit, to increase voltage.

[Shane5578]

my ic7-max3 12+volt line is between 12.04-12.22.

my 5+v is good too, btw i'm using enermax550w

[GRAFiZ]

Hmm... it's strange because my 3.3v rail is SOLID! It doesnt budge from 3.3v exactly.

Thats what my p4 2.4@3.4 1.65v and my 2x256 OCZ Gold at 2.8v.

Also, my 5v rail never dips below 5v and under load actually sits around 5.04v.

Is it true that the cpu, ram, mobo, pci, agp, etc are all powered off the 3.3v and 5v lines?

And that the 12v is what is used to power the drives and fans?

I should mention that I have a 5900u overclocked quite a bit, it as you know pulls directly from a molex cable.

[Jupiler]

Your 3.3 and 5V looks pretty solid.
I wouldn't worry to much about it.
As long as your system is stable, that's what counts. ;)

Have you tried to measure the 12V directly from the PSU? Because real volts and the voltage that MBM or another proggy read, might differ a lot.

I have 4 HD's, DVD, CDRW and a 9800PRO hooked on my PSU, and it's working fine. :)

[GRAFiZ]

Originally posted by Jupiler
Your 3.3 and 5V looks pretty solid.
I wouldn't worry to much about it.
As long as your system is stable, that's what counts. ;)

Have you tried to measure the 12V directly from the PSU? Because real volts and the voltage that MBM or another proggy read, might differ a lot.

I have 4 HD's, DVD, CDRW and a 9800PRO hooked on my PSU, and it's working fine. :)

Yep, even with all the drain on my 3.3 and 5 they dont move much at all, and they never fall below 3.3 or 5v.

I have not tested the 12v directly yet as I do not currently have a multimeter, gotta get me one of those. ;)

I imagine it's not giving me information that is too far off, it's probably just this power supply has poor 12v output.

Unless I can track it down to one item in my computer I'll just leave it as is and not worry about it.

Thanks for your help bro. :toast:

[Jupiler]

You're welcome. ;)

[TheInVisibleGod]

I'm exactely with the same problem...
I also have a MAX3 and my 12v reading drops from 11.80 in idle to 11.67v under full load, but with the help of a multimeter he says that the 12v line is about 12.17 in idle and 12.12 under full load at the same conditions!!!
My PSU is an Enermax 460W and this readings was with 1.525v vcore! So it seems that actually is a board problem...

[GRAFiZ]

Originally posted by TheInVisibleGod
I'm exactely with the same problem...
I also have a MAX3 and my 12v reading drops from 11.80 in idle to 11.67v under full load, but with the help of a multimeter he says that the 12v line is about 12.17 in idle and 12.12 under full load at the same conditions!!!
My PSU is an Enermax 460W and this readings was with 1.525v vcore! So it seems that actually is a board problem...

Very interesting, basically the same numbers I see.

Hmmm... thanks for the info!

[rsandru]

I've got a MAX3 and an Enermax 465 as well and mine also reads 11.67 in BIOS and MBM5. So I've checked the actual voltage with a multimeter and it's around 12.25v thus the board doesn't measure it properly....

;)

Hmmmm.... do ABIT engineers know how to measure temps and voltages??? The CPU temp is off by 15-20°C and the PSU rails are wrong as well. LOL

Cheers!

[Player0]

My Max3 sagged terrible on any PSU (any number of them) until I had it RMAd. Yeah, it took 3 RMAs and about a month to get a corrected version of the MAX3. But this version has NO saggy voltages, VDimm that really does work, and no more cold boot problems. I put BigToes 13 final on it and it works like the dickens. Much more stable.

Abit told me that they would be releasing their new version with these fixes soon, but they arent yet (which is why i got a modded one and not a new one).