Should I be worried about my PSU?

[jamie7barnes]

Hi,

I've recently started to worry that there is something wrong with my computers PSU. With the CPU and GPU under a constant load, the reported voltage for the motherboards 12v sensor according to HWinfo seems to vary erratically. I know its normal for the PSUs voltage to drop when its under a load but the fact that is seems to be swaying around so much seems to suggest that something is wrong. I logged 5 minutes of data from HWinfo while my computer was running folding@home to create some quick graphs in excel to show what I've found. The same behaviour can also be created while gaming however.

 

My computers key specs are:

-i5 8400

-GTX 970 overclocked slightly

-ASUS H370-I motherboard

-Corsair VS550 Orange label PSU

 

From doing some research, I know my PSU is fairly well known for being poor quality but what I'm wondering is if the PSU should urgently be replaced or whether its safe to keep using.

 

Other things that might be interesting to know is with the case fans set to 100%, the pitch of the sound they make reduces when something GPU intensive is opened suggesting they all slow down slightly. My motherboards built in sound also recently stopped working properly - not sure if this is PSU related but its not a huge problem. 

[Guest]

1 hour ago, jamie7barnes said:

With the CPU and GPU under a constant load, the reported voltage for the motherboards 12v sensor according to HWinfo seems to vary erratically.

It might comfort you to know that the PSU voltages reported in software like HWInfo are largely bullshit.

 

They do not come from the PSU itself.  They come from an IC in the middle of the motherboard.

 

Are you experiencing problems?  No?  Don't worry about it.

1 hour ago, jamie7barnes said:

Other things that might be interesting to know is with the case fans set to 100%, the pitch of the sound they make reduces when something GPU intensive is opened suggesting they all slow down slightly. My motherboards built in sound also recently stopped working properly - not sure if this is PSU related but its not a huge problem. 

The dead sound isn't a PSU issue.

 

How are the fans powered?  Through the PSU via Molex connectors, plugged into a fan controller (if so, which one?), plugged into an AIO, or plugged into the motherboard?  Are they DC or PWM?

 

One thing you could use HWInfo for, if the fans are plugged into the motherboard, is to see if the change in pitch is related to the fan speeding up or slowing down.

[jamie7barnes]

Hi,

 

The fans are connected straight to the motherboard and are 3 pin DC fans, using HWinfo it didn't really show clearly if they were slowing down or speeding up (numbers were varying up and down) but seeing as its not causing any issues and I thought it might have been PSU related, I wont worry about it.

 

Its good to know not to worry about the PSU, thanks for the help