[Zoolander]

hey,

The only thing you have to watch out for when you're testing out your powersupply is the ramping up and down of the voltage.

yeah voltage will fluctuate, this is do to the nature of digital/analog devices turning off and on. The fluctuation is further caused by the powersupply attempting to regulate the circuit, and caps discharging/charging (typically this is the purpose of capacitors to reduce a drop or rise in voltage). To further prove this, check your mobo around the processor, you'll see quite a few caps (small ones).

However, at a certian point the power drain will be overwhilming for the powersupply, and this will cause a lack of current to your devices. When this happens... you have a hard reboot.

Another thing that I didn't mention is the equipment that you are using to do your testing. Everyone has probably read the specs on what equipment is good and what equipment is bad. But you really don't know how accurate your equipment is. Altough there is a way to test how accurate your DMM's/voltage monitors are.

If you guys want, I'll make a post on how to test your equipment, properly, to show the true accuracy of the meter's.

Davis

PS: Brad was right, 4.94 volts is the 5v line. Components on a board will operate in a range of values around 5v. Just remember, the components on your mobo are all digital, meaning they run on discrete values of 1 or 0 (4.94 volts or zero), so it doesn't matter if it fluctuates a little, that's the beauty of digital.