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# of 12volt rails needed
- Thread starter YoMoma
- Start date
Ice Czar
Inscrutable
- Joined
- Jul 8, 2001
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- 27,174
you "need" a single steady source of +12V
you might choose a scheme that breaks the +12V into multiple rails to ensure its steady and isolate other loads from creating transients
and obviously one that meets your current and future connector compatibility needs
pretty much everything is running on +12V these days except the PCI bus and RAM
if the rig in question is your sig you should state so and add anything else that would be drawing power including the size and speed of fans
you might choose a scheme that breaks the +12V into multiple rails to ensure its steady and isolate other loads from creating transients
and obviously one that meets your current and future connector compatibility needs
pretty much everything is running on +12V these days except the PCI bus and RAM
if the rig in question is your sig you should state so and add anything else that would be drawing power including the size and speed of fans
jonnyGURU
Technical Marketing Manager at Corsair Memory
- Joined
- Apr 9, 2005
- Messages
- 4,845
You don't necessarily need more than two 12V rails, no. With the right power supply, you may not need more than one! (In the case of a TurboCool 510, for example.)
What Ice is saying is that you may "need" one 12V rail, or two, or three or four.
More rails is going to split components up across more rails. But it's not like a quad rail is going to be more advantageous than a dual rail in your particular build. You could go either way and be fine. As long as the power supply is supplying plenty of juice on the combined 12V rails.
And just to head the next question off at the pass, power supplies with multiple 12V rails are engineered to put the juice where you "need" it. So it's not a matter of needing a power supply that has more than one 12V rail. I've had people ask how they can plug each of their PCI-e cards onto a different rail, and unless you have a PSU like the NeoHE you can't pick and choose this, nor do I think it's wise to second guess engineers and start playing musical power connectors.
What Ice is saying is that you may "need" one 12V rail, or two, or three or four.
More rails is going to split components up across more rails. But it's not like a quad rail is going to be more advantageous than a dual rail in your particular build. You could go either way and be fine. As long as the power supply is supplying plenty of juice on the combined 12V rails.
And just to head the next question off at the pass, power supplies with multiple 12V rails are engineered to put the juice where you "need" it. So it's not a matter of needing a power supply that has more than one 12V rail. I've had people ask how they can plug each of their PCI-e cards onto a different rail, and unless you have a PSU like the NeoHE you can't pick and choose this, nor do I think it's wise to second guess engineers and start playing musical power connectors.