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I suspect that my ATX case's power unit from China provides FAR LESS power than it's supposed to. Is there a way to see (in real time) how much power the whole system is trying to consume and how much is it really getting? Maybe, not in watts, but the voltage is not enough, say, 4.5V instead of 5V. What I really need to know, is should I return the power supply to a shop and buy another one.
Just in case (I don't know, do the following components support power consuming feedback):
- PCI-E 2.0 PALIT GTX550Ti, NE5X55T0HD09-1061F, 1Гб, GDDR5
- ECS H67H2-M3 LGA 1155, mATX
- INTEL Core i5 2300, LGA 1155
NO FORMULAS, PLEASE. I can calculate the summary power on my own. I need REAL TIME consuming data.
NO KILL-A-WATT LIKE DEVICES, PLEASE. I need power consuming data AFTER the power supply, not of the (system + power supply itself).
UPDATE
This is my HW Monitor Screenshot:
UPDATE 2
What I've learned from the answers. This problem is not solvable by people like me. I'm not kinda electrician man, and I have no multimeters/testers. It's too much for me to buy one just for this private task. (Though, I have to, maybe, to be able to solve such tasks in future). Without hardware, I can control voltage only, that can prove the suspicion but not refute. To make the things worse, software like HW Monitor is buggy, since it shows VIN1 values instead of +3.3V like in my case.
P.S. Since I've replaced DDR3 memory, no more BSODs, so I think, the power supply is OK.
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Voltage != (not equal) Power! As @RedGrittyBrick mentions in a comment in one of the answers, without the current, you cannot tell nearly anything about the power consumed. The two things it does tell you is a) how well regulated the PSU output is, and b) whether the voltage may droop as the load increases.
– mctylr – 2012-01-02T19:27:01.640I should mention Joule's Law namely the form:
– mctylr – 2012-01-02T19:27:13.450Power (Watts) = Voltage (Volts) times Current (Amperage)
, and Ohm's Law.So, in other words, you want to measure the efficiency of the power supply? – sblair – 2012-01-03T00:31:06.827
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Chances are, if it's a generic PSU in a cheap case, the only thing the PSU will be guaranteed of is being a piece of Junk. for the stability of your system, especially if you plan on overclocking or doing any serious CPU/GPU intensive tasks just dump it and get a decent unit from this list: http://www.overclock.net/t/183810/faq-recommended-power-supplies with PSU's you REALLY get what you pay for. with your system, you won't need more than 400W but you definitely want 400 QUALITY watts ;)
– geocoin – 2012-01-03T10:09:03.620