Is 11.8V on 12V rail safe?

[quicky008]

I am currently using a corsair Vs450 psu on a build with the following specs:

Core i5,gigabyte B75 mobo,4+4=8 gb ram,3 HDDs,750ti gpu.

Usually the voltage on the 12V rail of this psu stays at around 12.1 V under normal circumstances,however I have observed that whenever i start some cpu-intensive application such as a game,it drops to around 11.8V and hovers around that level for as long as the application is running.However as soon as the application is stopped it goes back up to ~12V.The voltage readings were taken using HWinfo64 and hwmonitor(please check the attached screenshot).

Is it safe to continue using this psu in this situation?Can running a system at 11.8v cause any kind of damage to it in the long run?I know that the readings provided by monitoring apps may not be 100% accurate,but i can't help but feel concerned about this as the voltages provided by the 12V rail often have a direct impact on a system's stability.

I am aware that Corsair's vs series psus are generally regarded as unreliable,and so i intend to change it in the foreseeable future.But as of now due to financial constraints,i may have to continue using it for a couple of months longer.Therefore i'd really appreciate if someone could shed some light on this matter.

 

[chimera201]

The tolerance is +-5% for 12V rail. So 11.4V to 12.6V is the ATX spec. Nothing to worry there.

 

[quicky008]

^thanks for your inputs,so i should only be concerned if it drops to 11.4V or less,right?I remember reading somewhere else that if the voltage on 12v rail drops below 11.8v then it should be regarded as a warning sign that something could possibly be amiss-do you think this might be true?

 

[chimera201]

As long as it's between +-5% it won't damage your other components that's receiving power. But yes the higher deviation would indicate that the PSU has poor voltage regulation. But 11.8V isn't really that bad.
You can see some voltage regulation comparison here for some budget PSUs:
600 Watt budget PSUs Battle - PC TeK REVIEWS

 

[quicky008]

this is quite an interesting set of results-it seems under load the voltage on the 12v rail dropped to as low as 11.5V for the corsair vs 650 psu,whereas for the other 2 psus they stayed at around 11.8V or more.It seems the 12V rail is rather weak for corsair's VS line of psus.

Btw what exactly is drift in voltage?Is it the difference between the minimum and peak voltage readings for a particular rail?

 

[chimera201]

Btw what exactly is drift in voltage?Is it the difference between the minimum and peak voltage readings for a particular rail?

yes

 

[quicky008]

earlier tonight while gaming i noticed that the voltage dropped even further to 11.7V for a few seconds.

I dont like the idea of continuing to use this psu,even though getting a new one right now is rather difficult for me.

If i had to buy a new one and had a budget of around 4000,which psu would you recommend?Corsair's Cx 550 is available for around 4.4k and so is Antec's vp 650p-which of these two would be a better choice in terms of reliability and proper voltage regulation?

And how about cooler master's master watt psus-are they any good?

 

[chimera201]

Corsair CX550 (CP-9020121)

 

[gta5]

/like chimera said , it is fine .. group regulated units generally are very poor with Crossload performance ( too much load on 12v and very less on minor rails like most modern system)

but yes CWT made older VS series is much worse in crossload performance /voltage regulation above 220- 250 watts ..

11.7-11.8v is common with these older group regulated design units under crossload

your system should consume about 230-250 watts max only during gaming and it is fine for that use case.. if it was 330-350 watts + then it would have been a worrying part..

here is a review of your model no - CP-9020096

Sprawność, Test zasilacza Corsair VS450 - jednostka (prawie) dobra | ITHardware

at your system load , the bigger issue with corsair VS is capacitors quality.. so you never know when caps are going to fail.. though they generally hold up good for 1.5- 2 years of use

i would say use it for a month or so , increase your budget and buy Corsair TX 550M instead.. it is superior to both of the above mentioned options and has a long warranty of 7 years for Rs 5700 or get CX 450 and save Rs 800-900 .. if you are lucky you may get the better model of CX made by CWT ( from the early available info ) ( there are 2 variants of new CX ) only 1 has been tested till now afaik ..

 

[quicky008]

Thanks for posting the link to the detailed review of vs450-it seems this psu's 12v rail can drop to as low as 11.6v under 100% load,which doesn't exactly inspire much confidence.My vs450 psu is already well over a year old-so what do you think are the odds that its capacitors might fail anytime soon?

Unfortunately,Corsair's TX550M is priced at around 6000,which is significantly above my budget.Will the Cx450 suffice for my needs?Its available at mdcomputers for only Rs 3400.What kind of capacitors does it have?Can it be expected to last for atleast 4-5 years without any issues?And is its voltage regulation significantly better than the VS series units?

 

[gta5]

Thanks for posting the link to the detailed review of vs450-it seems this psu's 12v rail can drop to as low as 11.6v under 100% load,which doesn't exactly inspire much confidence.My vs450 psu is already well over a year old-so what do you think are the odds that its capacitors might fail anytime soon?

at 100 % most cheap PSU's behave badly .. some with voltage regulation , some with high ripple.. your system is going to run at max 40-50 % capacity of your PSU so look at those values , not 100 % which you aren't going to use ever and they are designed keeping this in mind

i think it is still good for another 6 months , but ofcourse these are Chinese stuff so they vary a lot in quality from batch to batch as they have poor quality control .. there have been many members here who have run similar power configuration as yours on VP450P and VS 450 for more than 2 years
(VP450P uses similar caps ).. but all i can say is it depends upon your luck..

Unfortunately,Corsair's TX550M is priced at around 6000,which is significantly above my budget.Will the Cx450 suffice for my needs?Its available at mdcomputers for only Rs 3400.What kind of capacitors does it have?Can it be expected to last for atleast 4-5 years without any issues?And is its voltage regulation significantly better than the VS series units?

yes , CX uses the new Modern DC-DC design that used to come only in mid-high end power supplies till recently .. so unless something is seriously very wrong , Voltage regulation during crossload should be excellent as is the cases with most DC-DC units

you can refer this Corsair CXM and check crossload voltage regulation results (CL2) as a rough reference

Corsair CX650M PSU Load Testing

New "CX" series is slightly better than "CXM" series

There are 2 version of CX series and which 1 will you get is again a game of luck..

if you are not going to add a more than 120 watt TDP GPU to this build in future i think it will last , if you get the CWT's version i think it may last you 6 years ( judging from early limited info/pics ) - no proper reviews yet of CX...

 

[quicky008]

Thanks for the info.Although i am using a 750ti in this pc for now,i may upgrade to a better one in future such as a gtx 970(provided of course i can find one used at a reasonable price).Will the 450W CX psu be able to handle a gpu like the GTX 970?Can the increased load that will be exerted by a more power hungry gpu cause it to fail prematurely?

Is there any way to check which version of the CX psu i am gonna get before purchase(such as via some kind of serial/batch no etc)?I am thinking of swapping out my vs 450 with a newer one this week as i don't want to continue using it much longer.

Also how reliable are antec's VP 550V2 and VP650V2 psus?Antec claims that they have used "heavy duty" caps in these psus to improve their performance and reliability-are they similar to the CX series psus or even better than them?

 

[chimera201]

Thanks for the info.Although i am using a 750ti in this pc for now,i may upgrade to a better one in future such as a gtx 970(provided of course i can find one used at a reasonable price).Will the 450W CX psu be able to handle a gpu like the GTX 970?Can the increased load that will be exerted by a more power hungry gpu cause it to fail prematurely?

Is there any way to check which version of the CX psu i am gonna get before purchase(such as via some kind of serial/batch no etc)?I am thinking of swapping out my vs 450 with a newer one this week as i don't want to continue using it much longer.

Also how reliable are antec's VP 550V2 and VP650V2 psus?Antec claims that they have used "heavy duty" caps in these psus to improve their performance and reliability-are they similar to the CX series psus or even better than them?

There's the part number I listed before.

CX > Antec VP

Also going from VS to CX isn't much of an upgrade. TXM is a better choice for something like the GTX 970. For PSUs the rule is simple - you get what you pay for. Just remember that much more expensive PSUs exist than what we suggest.

 

[quicky008]

Thanks for pointing it out,chimera-i seem to have overlooked your earlier post.Ideally i would have bought a s12ii unit from seasonic as i have used the 620W variant of this psu already and found it to be very reliable.However i am on a shoestring budget at the moment and therefore i have no choice but to look at cheaper options.

S12II 430 from seasonic is quite cheap and has all jap caps,however this seems to unavailable at wherever i look.Hence that leaves me only with CX or Antec VP series psus.

Btw do all the CX psus come with 5 years warranty in India?

 

[gta5]

Thanks for the info.Although i am using a 750ti in this pc for now,i may upgrade to a better one in future such as a gtx 970(provided of course i can find one used at a reasonable price).Will the 450W CX psu be able to handle a gpu like the GTX 970?Can the increased load that will be exerted by a more power hungry gpu cause it to fail prematurely?

Is there any way to check which version of the CX psu i am gonna get before purchase(such as via some kind of serial/batch no etc)?I am thinking of swapping out my vs 450 with a newer one this week as i don't want to continue using it much longer.

Also how reliable are antec's VP 550V2 and VP650V2 psus?Antec claims that they have used "heavy duty" caps in these psus to improve their performance and reliability-are they similar to the CX series psus or even better than them?

unfortunately you can't tell that which version you get from model no CP-xxxxx , only batch/serial no , and that info is with Corsair which batch is from which OEM .. both versions have the same model no .. you can only tell by looking inside the PSU through fan grill , that means opening the box ...

check this
Post your latest Purchase

how much is it going to be used like gaming hours per day etc .. if it's not going to be too heavily used i think it should be fine with Gtx 970..

buy a new GPU after 6 months when VOLTA launches .,.. A GTX 2050TI will likely be very close to Gtx 970 performance and consume much less power...

ofcourse TXM is much better than seasonic and CX if you can afford it


Antec VP550P v2 and 650P are also good budget power supplies , until new Cx , they used to be the first choice in this budget .. but are now old..

they use all Japanese caps on 12v rail and made by Delta , which is a very good and largest PSU maker ( makes server PSU's ) considered better than seasonic by most as on OEM and if it weren't for the shorter warranty of only 2 years and older design , though high ripple on full load

but CWT's CX with many solid caps seems better than VP550P/650P

but don't fall for that heavy duty marketing , they use that everywhere even in Vp450P which uses 100 % Capxon caps

 

[chimera201]

^ The part number is unique as far as i know. And it will be listed somewhere on the box most likely on the same sticker with the serial number/date of import. Besides it's easy to tell if it's the new ones or not by the 5 yrs warranty label. CX units are made by Great Wall and CXM (modular) ones are made by CWT.

 

[quicky008]

^^^At vedant computers(kolkata),CX 450 is retailing for 3350 and 550 for 4100-there's a difference of about Rs 800 between the 2.I wonder will it be worthwhile to get cx 550 by paying the extra amount or should i just stick to the 450W model-seems like a really tough choice!

I don't really game for long periods-maybe around 2-4 hours per day at the most (if at all).Will the Cx 450 hold up well under these conditions(when paired with a gpu like the gtx 970,that is)?

Thanks for offering your insights on the vp series psus-if they produce higher degree of ripple on full load then they are definitely a no-go.

@chimera:If a CX series psu bears the 5 yrs warranty label,then does it indicate CWT or great wall as its manufacturer?Which variant is actually the better of the 2-the one made by CWT or great wall?

 

[gta5]

^ The part number is unique as far as i know. And it will be listed somewhere on the box most likely on the same sticker with the serial number/date of import. Besides it's easy to tell if it's the new ones or not by the 5 yrs warranty label. CX units are made by Great Wall and CXM (modular) ones are made by CWT.

this is the thing .. new CX (non modular ) is made by both CWT and Great wall .. it is dual soured and hence the CP-xxxxx won't be able to tell ... both Cx 450 has Model no - CP-9020120

read jonnyguru's comment ..

What's the difference between the Corsair cx450m and the cx450?

 

[chimera201]

this is the thing .. new CX (non modular ) is made by both CWT and Great wall .. it is dual soured and hence the CP-xxxxx won't be able to tell ...

read jonnyguru's comment ..

What's the difference between the Corsair cx450m and the cx450?

Ah okay. Something that EVGA was doing but much worse. Great Wall is still ok though shouldn't be much of a quality difference between CWT and Great Wall. Corsair will still have to honour 5 yrs warranty in any case.

 

[chimera201]

I don't really game for long periods-maybe around 2-4 hours per day at the most (if at all).Will the Cx 450 hold up well under these conditions(when paired with a gpu like the gtx 970,that is)?

Well if you are going to get a GTX 970 then you should just save up and get a TX550M. Even the old outdated Seasonic S12II is still a tier higher than the new CX.