• Welcome to TechPowerUp Forums, Guest! Please check out our forum guidelines for info related to our community.

It's all about POWER!

Bastieeeh

New Member
Joined
May 31, 2004
Messages
459 (0.06/day)
Location
Germany
Processor Dual Xeon 2.8GHz
Motherboard Asus PCH-DL
Cooling Alphacool NexXxoS XP and Dual Laing
Memory 4GB Samsung
Video Card(s) Sapphire X800XT
Storage 8x Hitachi 7K250 Raid 5 and 2x WD Raptor74GB Raid 0
Display(s) Eizo 21" FlexScan T966 CRT and S1910 LCD
Case Lian Li PC-V2100B
Audio Device(s) Creative SB Audigy 2 ZS
Power Supply Tagan 480W TG480-U01
I had some sort of a debate lately regarding overrated power supplies and their necessity. And when I came to browse through the websites that I read on a weekly basis afterwards I found a very interesting article about how to prevent electrical fires caused by draining too much power from the wall outlets. Though the stated formulae, calculations and hardware devices are dedicated to the '110V world' only the theory behind is applicable to the rest of us with ease.

View at TechPowerUp Main Site
 
Last edited:

WeStSiDePLaYa

New Member
Joined
Jun 26, 2006
Messages
83 (0.01/day)
it isnt. and its a load of garbage. every house requires circuit protection via fuses or breakers that trip far beyond the maximum of the circuit where there could be problems. Also, where did they come up with this crap that a household outlet will drop to 98volts when loaded?
 
Joined
May 20, 2004
Messages
10,487 (1.45/day)
it isnt. and its a load of garbage. every house requires circuit protection via fuses or breakers that trip far beyond the maximum of the circuit where there could be problems. Also, where did they come up with this crap that a household outlet will drop to 98volts when loaded?

Actually that's quite true. It is true for the 240V world anyway, just take your multimeter and measure the power in the power outlet at home, it most likely is around 115V or 240V (depending on where you are) Try the same in heavily loaded situations, at the office/school for example, often the output is slightly lower there, normally this isn't a problem though.
 

WarEagleAU

Bird of Prey
Joined
Jul 9, 2006
Messages
10,812 (1.67/day)
Location
Gurley, AL
System Name Pandemic 2020
Processor AMD Ryzen 5 "Gen 2" 2600X
Motherboard AsRock X470 Killer Promontory
Cooling CoolerMaster 240 RGB Master Cooler (Newegg Eggxpert)
Memory 32 GB Geil EVO Portenza DDR4 3200 MHz
Video Card(s) ASUS Radeon RX 580 DirectX 12 DUAL-RX580-O8G 8GB 256-Bit GDDR5 HDCP Ready CrossFireX Support Video C
Storage WD 250 M.2, Corsair P500 M.2, OCZ Trion 500, WD Black 1TB, Assorted others.
Display(s) ASUS MG24UQ Gaming Monitor - 23.6" 4K UHD (3840x2160) , IPS, Adaptive Sync, DisplayWidget
Case Fractal Define R6 C
Audio Device(s) Realtek 5.1 Onboard
Power Supply Corsair RMX 850 Platinum PSU (Newegg Eggxpert)
Mouse Razer Death Adder
Keyboard Corsair K95 Mechanical & Corsair K65 Wired, Wireless, Bluetooth)
Software Windows 10 Pro x64
cool. thanks for the info.
 

Completely Bonkers

New Member
Joined
Feb 6, 2007
Messages
2,576 (0.41/day)
Processor Mysterious Engineering Prototype
Motherboard Intel 865
Cooling Custom block made in workshop
Memory Corsair XMS 2GB
Video Card(s) FireGL X3-256
Display(s) 1600x1200 SyncMaster x 2 = 3200x1200
Software Windows 2003
***** SERIOUS HEALTH WARNING - PAY ATTENTION!!! ******

@dan,

This is TERRIBLE if you discover this. For a local voltage drop to occur, there would have to be a voltage drop at the last transformer (street or town level). This is not possible.

The only occasion you can experience 98v at the socket is when a voltage DIFFERENCE is measured at 98v. This can occur is if there is a near FULL load at the socket... and the house is serving 115v, but the WIRING between the supply and the socket is "losing" 17v from the 115v.

THIS IS VERY VERY DANGEROUS. It suggests that a high current is being transmitted through thin wires designed for low current. The resistance is too high. There is SIGNIFICANT probability of the cables over-heating, arching, burning, shorting, causing one or more of:

1./ Fuse cut off (hopefully)
2./ Cable burn out within the walls or socket (will need to recable house)
3./ Major fire (will need to rebuild house).


IF YOU EVER MEASURE 98V at the socket (115v countries) or only 200v at the socket (230v countries), then SWITCH OFF IMMEDIATELY and call an electrician to recable the house.

The National Electric Code (USA) recommends a 5% MAXIMUM before risk. This means a 120v sully can go to 114v, or a 115v supply to 110v MAXIMUM. http://www.psihq.com/iread/faqvolt.htm

In Europe the maximum allowance is 2.5%
 
Last edited:

macawman

New Member
Joined
Dec 7, 2006
Messages
6 (0.00/day)
Location
modesto,ca
The sky is NOT falling!

Yes, house voltage dropping below 98V happens on occasion esp. in CA. in the Summer. When voltage drops / amperage draw goes up on a circuit under load then the circuit breaker is supposed to open the branch circuit when it has sensed a 15a load on a #14 wire or 20A on a #12 wire circuit.

A Uninterruptible Power Supply (UPS) system of about 750 watts will prevent your performance computer from dropping below 104V or above 136V. A UPS also cleans up a lot of the electrical noise (RFI) on a computer ac typical 115V circuit. My 1200 watt APC ups cost about 130. It gives me about 45 minute of back up time. :toast:
 
Top