PC blew 15A breaker, options?

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klepp0906

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The PC is in a bedroom so their isn't much sucking on it except the PC. It spiked around 2000w at the wall when it blew it. I was running heaven benchmark trying to find the upper limit to my oc when it shut down.

Previously my psu was shutting off beforehand and I had to pick up a 2nd one. Now I'm AOK power wise but my circuit isn't. God forbid summer was here and I had to plug in the AC unit :p

Anyhow, after going downstairs I have a spare 30A breaker that is one of the double ones and a 20A that is hooked up but goes out to the garage (not used and won't be for awhile, someone broke in and ripped out all the copper wire)

I assume my wire is a large enough gauge as the size going to the 30s and 20s is the same as what's going to the 15. (Course this could mean it's all undersized but I'm making a judgement call lol)

Should I use the spare 30A or is that a problem waiting to happen? Swapping the 15 with the 20 safer? I imagine if my PC runs all but the most stressful situations ok on the 15, the extra 5 from the 20 should be ok?

Last time I build a quad sli rig, ever! Money pit >.<
 
YOU CANNOT SIMPLY SWAP A 15A BREAKER WITH A LARGER BREAKER.

That cannot be overstated enough.

The breaker size should be related to the size of the conductor, length of wire and any number of factors. If it's a 15A breaker, it's a 15A breaker for a reason. Don't fuck with it if you don't know what you're doing lest you start an electrical fire!
 
Zangmonkey said:
YOU CANNOT SIMPLY SWAP A 15A BREAKER WITH A LARGER BREAKER.

That cannot be overstated enough.

The breaker size should be related to the size of the conductor, length of wire and any number of factors. If it's a 15A breaker, it's a 15A breaker for a reason. Don't fuck with it if you don't know what you're doing lest you start an electrical fire!
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Fully agreed. This is a recipe for a fire.

Get an electrician to run a new 20A circuit with the proper 20A wire (in the USA most likely 12-2 - these days it will be a yellow cable since the cables now have a standard color.).
 
What color is the wire? Should say on the wire in the wall what Amp it is.. I have a detecated 20a outlet for just my server rack down stairs and it was fine running my server, dual video card gaming rig, my projector, 2 cable boxes and my reciver.. I think you would be fine on just 20a. Just make sure the wire you have will handle 20a because if not it will over heat and might cause a fire , since from what it sounds like you will be pulling the full 20a at times.. Also be careful messing with 20a or 30a will fry your butt lol..Oh and it only set me back like 180 bucks for the detecated outlet 20a..
 
15A breaker? So I reckon you have a AWG 14 cable, that is good for 20A at 75ºC.
If you put 30A, you could have 29A going through the cable that only supports 20A, so yes, it's an accident waiting to happen.

Could you see what cables do you have in your bedroom?
 
I would call in someone that knows what they are doing. How old is the house? How old is the electrical in the house? Check both at the breaker and pull out the outlet a little (with the breaker off) - what do the wires look like? If the breaker and the outlet have yellow Romex (12 gauge) you should be safe to swap with a 20 amp, but since you are about to swap a 30 amp breaker into it I would still call someone who knows what they are doing. If your breaker trips at 20-30 amps but your cable only supports 15amps the cable will literally get red hot and ignite whatever is near it.

Also, how do you know it spiked to 2000 watts? Was it just the computer or do you have a kill-a-watt hooked up to the surge protector/power strip?
 
To me its a little scary that you even have spare 30A breakers in your box. These should be used only for a device like an AC unit, dryer, water heater ... There normally should not be extra 30A breakers in your box.
 
HeavensCloud said:
Also, how do you know it spiked to 2000 watts? Was it just the computer or do you have a kill-a-watt hooked up to the surge protector/power strip?
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Also, if you were drawing 2000 watts and your 15A breaker didn't trip then you should replace the breaker with another, functioning 15A breaker...
 
Just want to reinforce what others have said about staying within the limits of table 310.16 (for 20A, at least 14 awg if 75C rated conductor temp, not more than 30C ambient).

If you don't know what that table is, or how to ID your conductors, should definitely hire an electrician. Not just for fire safety reasons, NEC violations will be a problem if you ever sell the house or get inspected after permit work.

I wouldn't automatically assume that what is already hooked to those 20A and 30A was sized correctly either. I don't do residential anymore, I do commercial automation/integration now, but I still run into the occasional undersized conductors now and then. Even my own house's detached workshop feeder was undersized, which supposedly "passed" inspection when we bought it.
 
What the heck you only live once. Run a dedicated 10 Gauge solid conductor circuit to that plug. Add a separate grounding rod for it. Make sure the circuit is protected by both a GFCI and an AFCI 30 amp circuit breaker. That plug should be able to handle your SLI beast. :D Might as well add an additional PSU to your RIG as well. ;)
 
Do you enjoy hearing yourself talk? We told you in the other thread you were on a 15A breaker and quad SLI titans were going to trip it. Why was this thread even necessary? FFS
 
dook43 said:
Do you enjoy hearing yourself talk? We told you in the other thread you were on a 15A breaker and quad SLI titans were going to trip it. Why was this thread even necessary? FFS
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He also said he was running 4 monitors a tv, a cable box, a router, a cordless peripheral base, speakers, a laptop and a fan on that circuit. So I'm guessing he took all that off now? :rolleyes:
 
Personally I'd opt to run a 240v line for the PC vs rewiring for a 30amp circuit. PSU's also operate more efficiently @ 240v
 
yea its killing me. I just tripped the protection on 1 of my PSU's that's hoooked up ONLY the the titans. It spiked to 1900 by itself (from the wall) Im gonna have to split the titans 3 on 1 psu and 1 + pc on the other psu. They aren't even on water yet. This is retarded.

the circuit is no longer blowing, I swapped the 15A w/ a 20A. seems to have done the trick. All the wires going to the breaker box are black.. I could tell the wire on the 15 is just a tiny smidgen smaller than the wire on the 20. Likely 1 gauge stepping obv. This should be safe'ish?

I cant really afford an electrician but when I can I will be definitely running some 220v plugs for my pc. Hoping if I get one of these PSUs running in OC mode (1650w) instead of 1500w I can squeeze by with just one psu.

Sigh. My power bill is gonna be atrocious.

whoever asked for pics, nothing special. Had to skimp on things such as the case in order to afford the good parts :p Even had to skip on waterblocks for now on the cards. When its done ill get some pics up though.. for now its all crammed into a 7 year old mid tower (lian li pc60b or something close)

lots of cutting and screwing :p one rad mounted to the top of the case on the outside another rad on the back.... all cooling the cpu for now, waterblocks for 4 gpus isn't cheap :(

anyhow.... I should be ok on a 20A just don't go any bigger? or?
 
All I can say is... someone doesn't have their priorities in the right order.
 
klepp0906 said:
yea its killing me. I just tripped the protection on 1 of my PSU's that's hoooked up ONLY the the titans. It spiked to 1900 by itself (from the wall) Im gonna have to split the titans 3 on 1 psu and 1 + pc on the other psu. They aren't even on water yet. This is retarded.

the circuit is no longer blowing, I swapped the 15A w/ a 20A. seems to have done the trick. All the wires going to the breaker box are black.. I could tell the wire on the 15 is just a tiny smidgen smaller than the wire on the 20. Likely 1 gauge stepping obv. This should be safe'ish?

I cant really afford an electrician but when I can I will be definitely running some 220v plugs for my pc. Hoping if I get one of these PSUs running in OC mode (1650w) instead of 1500w I can squeeze by with just one psu.

Sigh. My power bill is gonna be atrocious.

whoever asked for pics, nothing special. Had to skimp on things such as the case in order to afford the good parts :p Even had to skip on waterblocks for now on the cards. When its done ill get some pics up though.. for now its all crammed into a 7 year old mid tower (lian li pc60b or something close)

lots of cutting and screwing :p one rad mounted to the top of the case on the outside another rad on the back.... all cooling the cpu for now, waterblocks for 4 gpus isn't cheap :(

anyhow.... I should be ok on a 20A just don't go any bigger? or?
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When you burn your house down I hope no one dies.
 
Tsumi said:
All I can say is... someone doesn't have their priorities in the right order.
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why would you even say that? not sure how my breaker blowing and me buying gpu's before water blocks has anything to do w/ my priorities but... apart from the obvious (you don't even know me) .... I think my priorities are just fine. Just because they may or may not be different than yours.. doesn't make them in disorder.

while im here, does a power strip have any bearing on efficiency or draw? I obviously have quite a few things to plug in from the cable box to each monitor, the router, pc speakers.. 2 psus.. so while the power strip and the psu are in the wall, im looking to lower the amperage any way I can. When I get water blocks and I increase the cards voltage and OC its only going to go up, and while im sure the 20A gives some headroom, id rather not push it for obvious reasons.

Someone I talked to irl also mentioned older breakers can trip early so that may have been what was happening as well. Either way this thing sucks power like I never thought a pc could. With summer around the corner, running an ac unit atleast off this rooms breaker is going to be impossible now. At that point it will be time to get Central air installed or get an electrician to rip my walls apart and do his magic.
 
Everyone has been warning you about getting the electrical system professionally checked out, and you decide to just Leroy Jenkins it. That's what I mean by having your priorities out of order.
 
notarat said:
When you burn your house down I hope no one dies.
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Don't think anyone will, seeing that when my pc is drawing that kind of power I am at home using it. Also never heard of someone burning their house down via PC gaming but im sure that would make the news lol.

way to be melodramatic guys. Im grateful for the concern but apart from someone just mentinong a few posts back that the wire used for 15A squeaks by on 20A (I think it was 14ga but it may even be 12ga) I really don't think im in the realm of blowing things up?

Plus that kind of draw only happened during a 15m benchmark run.. although as I mentioned earlier, once I add water to the cards I guess that "buffer" wont be around any longer.

Perhaps I should go down there and feel the wire once in awhile.. make sure its not glowing red or smoking the insulation O.O

either way, makes me ponder how other people are running overclocked quad SLI rigs without issue? I was under the impression all homes are wired with 15A breakers? apart from appliances etc.

(220v line is on my to do list come tax time that's for sure, dunno what size breaker that uses but I should be far within those guidelines)
 
Then pull a Titan and wait until you finish your electrical upgrades. That would be the logical thing to do.
 
Do not swap breakers. That defeats the purpose of circuit protection. It would allow the conductor(wiring) to heat up to the point of starting a fire. This requires very basic electrical knowledge to understand. Just run a high rated drop cord from another circuit in your house and hook a second PSU up that way that supplies power to two titans that is rated high enough for it. That is a perfectly safe option. Remember not to have a dumb animal around that chews drop cords either BTW. Remember to make sure that other circuit is rated high enough to handle the task of those two other titans with all other things in that other circuit powering up at the same time to avoid any problems in the long term.
 
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Tsumi said:
Everyone has been warning you about getting the electrical system professionally checked out, and you decide to just Leroy Jenkins it. That's what I mean by having your priorities out of order.
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lets try WWYD (what would you do?)

your sitting at home and you finally get your rma'd parts back. you've been working on assembling this pc for months but bad luck and bad parts has left you unable to "really" use it up until now.

you are dialing in your overclocks preparing to game for the first time in ages when you suddenly find out your pc blows your breaker. What do you do?

Just say aww shucks and wait till a few weeks after Christmas when you have a spare 200-300-500 dollars to give to an electrician to run a larger wire/breaker? or swap for the next size up (5a) difference to give you the tiny bit of overhead you need?

its not a tiny investment, my wife would shat if she knew I was spending that kind of money just to stop a breaker from tripping. Not to mention I assume they have to break into the drywall here or there to do it which means more $$ to a taper to fix the walls then more $ for paint.. And why go through all that trouble when it could likely use updating in certain areas anyhow, only to have to do it again in the future?

Im going to have all my wiring gone through (house is 50 yrs old) but that kind of money isn't part of my life atm. (just finished a ~5 yr battle w/ cancer, no insurance or Medicaid brought us to the brink of financial ruin)

So long story short - I am hoping 5A difference isn't like immediate immolation and is within the realm of "not safe, but people do it"

Also why im looking for suggestions as to how I can lower the draw by a meaningful amount. Or is my only option for that basically unplugging things and moving them to a different outlet? It starts to get silly when you realize you have to run extension cords to different rooms to run your pc. No one expects to have to have a darn dryer outlet to run a desktop...
 
I wouldn't have spent the $4+ thousand on the Titans without making sure I can run them safely first.
 
DaedalusHelios said:
Do not swap breakers. Just run a high rated drop cord from another circuit in your house and hook a second PSU up that way that supplies power to two titans that is rated high enough for it. That is a perfectly safe option. Remember not to have a dumb animal around that chews drop cords either BTW. Remember to make sure that other circuit is rated high enough to handle the task of those two other titans with all other things in that other circuit powering up at the same time to avoid any problems in the long term.
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by drop cord you mean a temporary outlet that just runs off one of the larger circuits? then run the psu to that?

if it works the way im envisioning, the issue is my breaker box being downstairs and my pc being upstairs. The psu comes with a monster cord to handle a 220v outlet but if I ran an extension cord (silly as hell but I guess if im in immediate danger) those aren't rated for that kind of power so that would defeat the purpose wouldn't it?

again this is assuming im understanding what your suggesting correctly. I don't have much electrical experience other than hooking up car stereos and hot vs ground im a noob in that area.

if you guys honestly believe im in immediate danger I guess I should switch them back and find another way though.

For those who think a single 1500w is enough for quad sli with these cards... guess again. No matter what anyone says, ive went through 3 of them thinking they were bad but my breaker tripping is the final proof.

I can only test 1 psu at a time but im going to assume both of them combined are spiking up to ~2500w and that's without too large of an OC. (custom bios but no water)

Also worth mentioning its a couple hundred watts lower if its not furmark or ffxiv benchmark (those suck more power than 3dmark or any gaming ive done by quite a bit. still more than 1 psu can manage though)
 
Tsumi said:
I wouldn't have spent the $4+ thousand on the Titans without making sure I can run them safely first.
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read all the info online. everyone says you can run them with one 1500w psu np. Not been my experience. Wouldn't have known until I got to that point for one. Kinda makes your remark moot and sounds spiteful.

I guess you are saying you would have spent a few grand to update your electrical for your next pc build? If that's the case your either full of it or full of a heck of a lot more $$ than I am. I saved a long time for this build, bought each card 1 at a time, and if I would have gone about rewiring my house I wouldn't have had the computer to begin with lol.

fwiw my last pc which was a i7 950 and 4 gtx480's at the end of its upgrade cycle (before building this one) was ran with everything else in the room the same..add in a window AC unit with no problems. Never blew the breaker once. Not sure how much power a window AC uses, but its generally accepted to be quite a bit. Apparently not as much as a couple titans though :(
 
klepp0906 said:
by drop cord you mean a temporary outlet that just runs off one of the larger circuits? then run the psu to that?

if it works the way im envisioning, the issue is my breaker box being downstairs and my pc being upstairs. The psu comes with a monster cord to handle a 220v outlet but if I ran an extension cord (silly as hell but I guess if im in immediate danger) those aren't rated for that kind of power so that would defeat the purpose wouldn't it?

again this is assuming im understanding what your suggesting correctly. I don't have much electrical experience other than hooking up car stereos and hot vs ground im a noob in that area.

if you guys honestly believe im in immediate danger I guess I should switch them back and find another way though.

For those who think a single 1500w is enough for quad sli with these cards... guess again. No matter what anyone says, ive went through 3 of them thinking they were bad but my breaker tripping is the final proof.

I can only test 1 psu at a time but im going to assume both of them combined are spiking up to ~2500w and that's without too large of an OC. (custom bios but no water)

Also worth mentioning its a couple hundred watts lower if its not furmark or ffxiv benchmark (those suck more power than 3dmark or any gaming ive done by quite a bit. still more than 1 psu can manage though)
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A drop cord is slang for extension cord. Get one rated for 20A which would be 10 gauge and go for outdoor rated IMO. You could run it through the ceiling of the lower level to use the circuit below with that extra PSU. Something like this if you needed 100 ft: http://www.bizrate.com/utilitech-100-ft-10-gauge-2730561263/shop. I know it would look unprofessional but it would get the job done safely. You may only need 40 ft, I don't know how high your ceilings are.
 
klepp0906 said:
lets try WWYD (what would you do?)
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I'd install a dedicated 230V outlet just for the rig. Then again I know the code, and have the ability to do this stuff. The code is there for a reason - that extra 5A can make a big difference.

Be advised that due to the breaker swap, you may have just voided any home insurance. If the house burns and the insurance people see that breaker's been messed with, you're not going to be very happy. Assuming you make it out of the house in time. The fire will start where the heat builds up most... that may or may not be where you can put it out yourself.

My next priority would be to get that 10 gauge extension cord. Do not run it through the ceiling... that's a code violation, at least up here.
 
The wire size is NOT the only thing you have to look at. You have to also look at the length of the wire.

If you are not completely sure you are running 12GA or larger wire, you do NOT want to put a 20A breaker on it unless the length of the complete run (all outlets included) is less than 56 feet.

See here for a calculator to tell you what size wire you need to run.

http://www.csgnetwork.com/wiresizecalc.html
 
i think the drop cord idea is not a good idea. I think the most affordable and effective circuit would be a dedicated 120v 30amp plug with proper grounding and the gfci/afci protection. a separate isolated ground would be sweet but more pricey and not absolutely needed.
 
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2500W on Quad SLI Titans? lmfao

Those cards can not draw more than 300W through the PCI-express x16 lane, 6 pin pcie connector and 8pin pcie connector. Combined they're rated at 300W. 300W * 4 = 1200W not 2500W.

Maybe you should have spent more time planning this build instead of just winging it.
 
15 minutes is more than enough time for something to heat up and start a fire. Hell I got my battery cables on my truck pretty hot after cranking it for a minute cuz I flooded the damn thing, and that is with proper cables, but it's my wheelin rig so I don't care so much, but this is your house man. Put it back to 15A and don't mess with it.
 
This is a joke right?

Right?

I mean come on. This guy.

It's got to be a joke, or an outright lie.
 
For argument's sake, let's say they were able to run on one 1500w PSU.

Let's also be generous and give that PSU 90% efficiency at 100% load.

1500 watts DC is 1666 watts AC at 90% efficiency. 15 amps at 110-120V is 1650-1800 watts. You should have realized you were dangerously close to the limit there.

Let's also say you have a 27" 1440p monitor (because, let's face it, you're not running quad Titans on a single 1080p monitor). The Dell U2713HM uses 42-100 watts. Or 3 23" monitors at 20 watts each is 60 watts. You are now at 1700 watts.

Let's not forget speakers too. A rather cheap and anemic Logitech 5.1 system consumes up to 75 watts. That puts you right up against the 1800 watt limit of 120VAC, and considering voltage is never completely stable, you're way over the 1650 watt limit at 110VAC.

Then you have lights, heat loss due to resistance of the wires, etc.
 
Skillz said:
2500W on Quad SLI Titans? lmfao

Those cards can not draw more than 300W through the PCI-express x16 lane, 6 pin pcie connector and 8pin pcie connector. Combined they're rated at 300W. 300W * 4 = 1200W not 2500W.

Maybe you should have spent more time planning this build instead of just winging it.
Click to expand...

Pic related, OP's rig

u3kdjCl.jpg
 
Skillz said:
2500W on Quad SLI Titans? lmfao

Those cards can not draw more than 300W through the PCI-express x16 lane, 6 pin pcie connector and 8pin pcie connector. Combined they're rated at 300W. 300W * 4 = 1200W not 2500W.

Maybe you should have spent more time planning this build instead of just winging it.
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may i point you to my other thread with a screenshot? that was with my old single psu and I tripped the shut off on it short of blowing the breaker. That didn't happen until it hit 2000w from the wall but it was running the entire pc.

once I got the 2nd psu, no more tripping of the prot but I can make you look silly if its really necessary? many people with a lot of electrical knowledge in this thread, perhaps they can tell you what it takes to blow a 15A circuit.

or you can brush up on your reading comprehension. First and foremost, if you think these cards can only pull 300w your incorrect to put it nicely. 2nd my board has aux power for the pcie slots, 3rd, the 2500w is the entire pc under stress which I can prove w/ ss if you'd like, but it will be 2 separate shots, one for the psu w/ the 4 cards, one for the psu with the pc+peripherals.

I guess I could be making it up cause it makes me cool to blow breakers and such... perhaps in your world. It wouldn't take much time to google and see some people have a single titan pulling over 400w but I digress.

Ironic my 4 titans that can only pull 1200w can restart my psu on command by opening furmark @ 4k reso with an OC on them O.O

ughg how aggravating. Love being called a liar by people with no clue, the epitome of frustrating lol. I assume you have a rig similar to mine then?

Anyways, moving on. I was unaware that changing a breaker can void your homeowners. They are certainly reaching nowadays eh? That's practically criminal. They have no problem taking the money for 30 years and not having people use it 1 time though. grrrrumble.

I thought the extension cord to a larger plug wasn't a bad idea but for now all seems well. albeit perhaps temporary.

I appreciate all the input though, didn't realize changing the breaker was as big of a deal as it was. I have used larger fuses for a variety of reasons (and smaller) in vehicle fuseboxes and assumed it was the same.
 
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here ya go. quick 30 seconds.. they spike higher but wanted to make a quick point. There is > 300w to each card to disprove your dimwitted attempt to discredit and almost 2000w from the wall on just the psu powering the 4 titans. I can let it run for 10m and push the oc a bit higher and show you the exact numbers I quoted but I think I made my point.

and before you reply about the accuracy of supernova, its already been tested against a 300 dollar main meter and the main meter actually registered about 40w higher than what supernova was registering and that was only at lower wattages, higher was more accurate.

 
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