A64 OC With Generic Power Supply

[LloydRose]

Hey guys, currently I have a 3200+ Venice (0520 GPEW), running at 2688Mhz.
It's running off a "500w" psu (Usicase). The cpu is taking about 1.63v to be absolutely stable. What I am wondering is if I get a decent psu, say an OCZ or an Enermax, would the amount of voltage my chip needs to be stable drop? For reference it has an 18 amp +12v rail.

[Ugly n Grey]

no it won't, all a top tier supply does is make more voltage availble in a more stable manner and just plain give you MORE coltage. I bet your cpu oc doesn't change a lick if you change power supplies.

For example that so called 500w PSU puts out as much on the 12v rail as my three year old 400w Vantec stealth, and 12 v less than my OCZ....all psu's are not rated equal.

[LowRun]

I have to partly disagree. Strictly speaking the CPU needs a certain voltage to run stable at a given speed and swapping PSU won't change the voltage needed BUT generic PSUs tend to fluctuate much more than quality ones so you have to set a higher voltage to take the fluctuation in consideration where a good PSU would let you set a voltage much closer to the minimum required.

[smids]

I have to partly disagree. Strictly speaking the CPU needs a certain voltage to run stable at a given speed and swapping PSU won't change the voltage needed BUT generic PSUs tend to fluctuate much more than quality ones so you have to set a higher voltage to take the fluctuation in consideration where a good PSU would let you set a voltage much closer to the minimum required.

Welcome to the Forums :)

Seconded. You have to take the fluctuations into account. I used to have a generic Delta PSU. It was very flakey on the rails and I couldn't clock much at all - restarts/crashes etc. Now on my Hipers - I clock till the sun goes down as it provides a much more stable environment.

[Ugly n Grey]

If minor fluctuations actually make it through the circuitry on the mobo's power transformers.... depends on how severe it is, most aren't that severe. If the voltage drops they just suck more amps to compensate, it's when you hit the rails amp limit you start to suffer...

[smids]

If minor fluctuations actually make it through the circuitry on the mobo's power transformers.... depends on how severe it is, most aren't that severe. If the voltage drops they just suck more amps to compensate, it's when you hit the rails amp limit you start to suffer...
Probably what happened in my case as the generic was only 300W.