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1200w Antec x2 not enough? please help

C

christian655321

n00b
Joined
Dec 6, 2012
Messages
13
Hello,

So I decided to add another GTX480 to my setup and it seems I have run into a power issue. I am hoping that you guys could share some insight and assist me figuring out why this is happening.

Computer will work fine except when all three graphics cards are at 100% utilization for a random amount of time. Then all of a sudden my power to the PC will shut off and then come back on about 2 seconds later.

I have each power supply connected to its own battery backup, I will list out all of my components below. Once strange thing that I noticed was that on the LCD screen of the UPS it says ZERO load for one PSU , and the other one has a load. Before the power goes out an alarm will sound on one of the UPS's indicating overload 124%. I have tried taking the UPS out of the equation and power still goes out. I have tried switching outlets and even using 1 outlet from each wall - same results. It is my guess that somehow my PC is only using 1 of the power supplies. I have tried moving the video card power around to evenly distribute the load also.

anyone have any ideas for me to try? or guesses as to why I only have load on one PSU and not both?



2x Cyber Power 1500va Battery Backup

2x Antec 1200w PSU

Add2PSU connector
http://www.legitreviews.com/article/1698/1/

2x DVD
2x OCZ vertex 256GB
2x WD RED 3TB
2x WD Black 2TB
1x Hitachi 3TB

3x Nvidia 480GTX

1x HighPoint RocketRAID 640 PCI-Express 2.0 x4 SATA III (6.0Gb/s) Controller Card

2x Xeon 5620

32GB RAM

2x Swiftech MCP655
Nominal Voltage 12 V DC
Operating Voltage 8 to 24 V DC
Nominal Power (@ 12 V) 24 W
Nominal Current (@ 12 V) 2 Amps

12x KDE 1212 PMS 3-6A
Size, mm...........120mm x 120mm x 38mm
Voltage............................... 12 volts DC
Current................................ 0.56A
Watts................................... 6.80
RPM .................................... 3000
Flow CFM (Max)................... 107
Noise (dBA)......................... 41.0

14x of Logisys 120mm Quad Blue LED Fan
Specifications:
Dimensions:120x120x25m
Air Flow:69.15CFM
Speed:2400RPM
Power:4.8W
Noise:39.29dBA
Voltage:12VDC
Current:0.4A

4x Black Scythe Kaze Master Pro 5.25 Inch 6-Channel Fan Speed Controller
http://www.scythe-usa.com/product/acc/077/km03_detail.html
DC Input
5 V or 12 V (From PC Power Supply Unit)
Fan Adjustment Range
3,7 V (±10%) ~ 12 V (±10%)
Fan Channel
6
Maximum Fan Ampere per Channel
1 Ampere (= 12 W max.)

1x EVGA SR-2 Mother Board
http://www.evga.com/Products/Product.aspx?pn=270-WS-W555-A2
 
Things I will try today,

I am going to take the add2psu out of the equation and use a normal Y splitter, just to see if that makes any difference or give load to one of the PSU's

Also I will check the power connectors on the MB that are for aux power, and make sure those are connected to the second power supply.

I will test both power supplies with a tester to see if all rails are working correctly and providing enough power.
 
Also, could you give us a list of exactly what components are attached to each PSU? I am just guessing here, but It could be that one of the PSU's does not have enough or any load on the +5v +3.3v rails, and that is why it is powering off. This is just an idea.
 
Hello,

okay so this might come in handy for anyone using mutlitple power supplies. There were 2 problems. One, the power was not evenly distrubuted amongs the PSU's, easily remedied by placing all the Drives, Fans, Pumps, Video cards on one PSU and the Motherboard on the other PSU. I now have a 60% \ 50% split at full load even when OC'ed.

The Main problem is that on a restart, one of the PSU's was not coming on or not delivering any load. On a cold boot it was fine, (LCD display on battery backup would show load) but the battery backup plugged into PSU#2 was showing ZERO load. I will contact the manufacture of the Add2psu device and see if they can fix that on the next version of the device. At full load my system was pulling 1800 watts between two 1200 watts PSU's. If it were not for a battery backup with LCD display showing load values I would not have been able to fix this anytime soon.

So any one using a Y splitter or other device to turn on your 2nd power supply , be sure it actually is on by measuing the load it is pulling. Here is the wierd thing about all of this, my computer can still function on restart, so the 2nd psu may be turning on but not delivering and load. This is why it was hard to detect there was a PSU issue. When the load goes beyond 1200watts my system would shut down or brown out for about 2 seconds, then come back on.

In summary, if you are running 2 PSU's make sure they are both actually delivering a load.
 
Glad you got it fixed! That setup sounds like one beast of a system. Any chance we could get some pictures of it?
 
r0owt1.jpg
 
with a cold reboot, PSU1 and PSU2 share load evenly - restart fails to make 2nd psu deliver any load what so ever.

1p9eu9.jpg
 
for whatever reason, on my setup, the add2psu device fails to activate the 2nd power supply on restart and requires and cold boot in order to make it work correctly. Also when shutting down it fails to turn off the 2nd psu, and you have to manually turn the power back on , and the back off - in order to get both psu's to switch off.
 
new discovery,

found out that when my system is first turned on only 1 PSU works, until you turn it off and then back on again, then they both will be working. I decided to replace the add2psu device and try the pigtail method again. will update once I have done so.
 
Wow haha, this is quite the setup. *just read through your post* and am happy to find out you found the solution to your problem.

Question though, what made you decide on a third 480? Surely at this point you must be seeing vastly diminishing returns on tri-sli? Ehh, it's probably a cheaper upgrade for you so I can see why you'd do it. Personally I'd opt for a 7970/680 CF/SLI setup as an upgrade rather than another 480, but nonetheless, excellent system!
 
will upgrade to Nvidia 7x when it is released later this year, I went with a 3rd 480GTX because it was only 150.00 with VGA water block, so I couldn't pass that up. I am working with add2psu to try and figure out the issue.
 
Thank god that's over...I was thinking about posting... but...eek...lol... Thanks @Paul

Anyways, It's pretty apparent that OP's computer needs 2 PSUs (or 2 of OPs PSUs at least...), It's quite the beast of a computer. Nice build BTW, And im glad you got a handle on the situation. You'll be happy when you get a new setup of some newer power efficient cards that should be able to be handled by one of those PSUs.

Cheers. and Happy folding, which i hope is for The [H]orde BTW ;)
 
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