I've just bought a new power supply, it was a cheap one rated to 600W (Probably not accurate). My previous 350W PSU that came with my case kept shutting down when I turned my Aero7 up to full speed??. I noticed that in the reviews people were talking about a low voltage on the 12v rail. Currenty mine reads about 11.64v is this Ok? What's the significance of the 12v rail anyway?? Thanks. AMD Athlon XP2200+ Aero7 lite 512mb Crucial pc2700 Abit NF7-s V2.0 Geforce4 Ti4200 128mb SB live 5.1 Digital WinXp Pro + SP1

The significance is everything that runs at 12 Volts (someone more knowledgable than me will probably tell you what runs on 12 Volts) As far as the 11.64, I would say you're probably ok as it's within 10% of 12 Volts. More expensive PS would have better regulators though. When all else fails beat the $%!* out of it!!!

+/-5% is acceptable; 12V rail should not fall below 11.4. AXP depends more on 5 V; while P4 depends on 12V rail. Most PSU specs/wattage don't add up. Label from Thermaltake 480 18A 12V = 18x12= 216 Watt 40A 5V = 200 30A 3.3V = 99 -5V@0.3A = -1.5 -12V@0.8A = -9.6 Total = 503 Watts Label from COOLMAX 400W +3.3V@30A = 99 +5V@40A = 200 -5V@1A = -5 +12V@18A = 216 -12V@1A = -12 +5VSB@2.5A = 12.5 Total = 510.5 Watts Antec 550 +3.3V@32A = 105.6 +5V@40A = 200 -5V@0.5A = -2.5 +12V@24A = 288 -12V@1A; = -12 +5VSB@2A = 10 Total = 589 The Coolmax is way off. Stay with name brand stands a better chance.

I think you're confusing voltage & amperage. The voltage will flucuate a bit & as lazyman & angrymen2001 pointed out, a 5-10% tolerance is considered acceptable. What you need is amperage on that +12v rail...18 amps or more. Have a look at what I wrote here in response 3...the links provided will help explain: http://www.computing.net/hardware/wwwboard/forum/27646.html

i wrote this last week under a different thread: "high quality means big and beefy, if nothing else pick it up and feel how heavy it is the heavier the better you want big capacitors, heatsinks, coils and high quality componets such as fans that last a long time if you arent buying from a store and thus cannot pick it up then you will have to go for the trusted name brands like Antec, PC power and cooling, and Enermax but generally go for these brands anyway another important thing you need to kno is how much juice it has to putout, AND THIS DOES NOT MEAN GET THE 550 WATT OVER THE 400WATT this number is not very significant look for the numbers in amps under the rails there's 3 rails you need to look at +3.3v the +5v and the +12v nearly all psu's will give you more than generous amounts of amps under the +3.3v and +5v rails and thats just great but they usually screw you on the most IMPORTANT RAIL THE ONE THAT YOUR CPU RUNS ON, +12V IT MUST HAVE AT LEAST 18 AMPS TO WORK WITH MODERN CPUS THE MORE THE BETTER" what is painfully obvious to one person might be just painful to the other

Well put, my queen ;)

again, Jam, im the King! what is painfully obvious to one person might be just painful to the other