psu question

[bazzer55]

hi folks! a pretty staightforward Q. on atx psu's. i bought a channel well technology 350watt p4 compatible psu some time back. tested it ok on receipt and re-boxed it. now, some eigteen months later, i needed it for a build. this time it was tested with mbm5 ( i'd never heard of the prog. at the time!!) and find that the 3.3v rail runs at just over 3v. any clues on the relative importance of the 3.3v rail please? what is the function in a p4 system? the unit will only be basic. any links for info would be appreciated.
thanks in advance

 

[Nitestick]

thats maybe a little low but it shouldn't damage anything. if the voltages run high then you're more likely to get damaged components. unless you have stability issues with the build i think the psu will handle it.

 

[dipique]

The 3.3v rail is rarely even used fully bc a lot of times it's used by the processor. But like nitestick has, if you stability issues...

Dan

 

[bazzer55]

thanks to nitestick and dipique for your input....so, what are the uses that the 3.3v rail is put to? considering that the psu is the most important harware item in the system, too little is talked about it. seems very difficult to obtain indepth knowledge on the subject!!!

 

[Nitestick]

i think like dipique pointed out its mainly used for cpu and memory. so really it shouldn't be a problem unless you have stability issues because thats the only problems you should get from a lack of voltage to these components

 

[Apokalipse]

yup, if the 3.3V rail is not up to par, it can cause the CPU to misprocess data, causing a crash.

 

[bazzer55]

many thanx all, that puts things nicely in perspective; the board i am using ain't overclockable!! so shouln't be a prob there. also helps me to understand a little better what is happening under the "hood"..still a steep learning curve....thanx again.