PSU volt monitor mod
 

After looking for an article on how to raise the voltage on the 3.3, 5 and 12 volt lines, I settled on one at http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/oth...ltmodding.html by Kirill. In a nut shell, the idea is to add variable resistance to each sensor wire. The mod works great, but I wanted a more convenient means to adjust the rails and to measure the voltages in real time as I adjusted. First, I purchased a PCI pass thru Molex bracket at Performance-PCs. (I couldn't attach the link as their Website is down due to the Hurricanes). This bracket has 3 molex connectors . This bracket works great as the female molex pins fit the test leads from a Multimeter. But you can only measure the 5 and 12 volt lines this way. Standard configuration is yellow(12V), black(ground), black(ground), red(5V). The article had another great idea to attach another lead to the 3.3V sense line. I ran this line down to the Molex pass thru bracket and replaced one of the ground wires with the 3.3V. Now I have yellow(12V), black(ground), orange(3.3V), red(5V). Now all you have to do is insert the black test lead into the ground pin and the red lead into the 3.3, 5 or 12 volt pins and you can measure the voltages in real time. In the future I will make a Molex extension cable so I can place my Multimeter next to my screen and observe the voltages while fraggin away to see how my PSU reacts under load as the system heats up. As an afterthought, to prevent me from plugging my external WC rig(In process) into the molex that was modified, I removed all but the orange leads from the modified Molex. Now I insert the black test lead into either adjacent ground pins and use either adjacent red or yellow leads.
Next step was to make a convenient way to adjust the variable resistors at a convenient location while reading the Multimeter. I ran the wires out of another PCI bracket, soldered the variable resistors to the ends, and added some wire wrapping to allow the "adjustment cluster" to be moved into a convenient position and stay there.

Nice.

I've never been a fan of exposing DC voltage connectors, rather I favor the use of a simple DC voltage module, such as this one:
http://mpja.com/productview.asp?product=7537+ME

A nice clean and elegant way of monitoring those voltage rails, but you still need a decent voltage reference, because as with any meter, you never know exactly what the actual voltage really is.

So I have a Fluke 8840A meter... :D

Thanks for the link. Those panel mount meters are exactly what I was looking for. I agree with you completely about using a real meter. Mine is a Fluke 177. I was also a liitle nervous about the exposed power. When not measuring, the standard wired molex will be connected to my external WC box(when I finish it), and the others will have a blank female molex covering them. Have a good one.