PC-Powersupply-can the voltage readings of the rails give information about...

[Leland_Gaunt]

..the state (of decay/life expectancy)?

Hello gentlemen.
I just discovered on HWINFO (a software for reading out all kinds of temps and sensors on you GPU and mainboard) that it shows the voltage thats currently on your 12V, 5V and 3,3V rails.
I was wondering if these numbers can give you any information or warning that your PSU might be going downhill. Maybe putting some stress on the system and wathcing the 12V rails?
They are read out by a nuvoton chip on the mainboard. I would guess they are reasonable accurate.
But i have no idea, maybe this idea is total nonsense and all PSUs spit out stable 12V-values until someday the PC wont turn on anymore.
My system is somewhat modern, except the PSu which is 10 years old. Its decent quality and never really gets rocked by the system, it doesnt even reach 40% load und the most
demanding usecases.

I suppose if these readings are of any actual use and benefit, i would have heard probably, but i had to ask anyway, it would be so cool if they help in some way.
greetings fro Germany(not my fault)

[Kim Christensen]

But i have no idea, maybe this idea is total nonsense and all PSUs spit out stable 12V-values until someday the PC wont turn on anymore.

I think that this would be the case most of the time. More useful info would be fan speeds and CPU/GPU temperature. Those would be more likely to show degradation before failure or sub optimal airflow.

[EPAIII]

Or install sail switches by the fans.

[tom66]

Probably not, the main types of failures of a power supply would be semiconductors (main transistors) and the electrolytic output capacitors.  The latter might cause a decrease in output voltage, but it can't be guaranteed that would be detectable by a single ADC channel before it begins to cause faults.