Question about rails

[aggiestudd07]

Is it better to have a single 12V rail or multiple 12V rails?

I read on newegg in a product description recently (tried to find it but i couldnt, i think it was a pc power and cooling 1kW psu) that it is better to have only 1 12V rail, but that just seems to go against my logic and reasoning.

 

[jonnyGURU]

Can't generalize that.

It really depends on who makes the PSU, how the rails are distributed, etc.

 

[aggiestudd07]

i am talking about the difference between pc power and cooling and coolermaster, both very reputable manufacturers. pc power and cooling offers a single 12V rail and coolermaster offers 6 12V rails. which one would be better, more reliable, easier to install (in reference to multi-gpu systems)? what are the differences?

 

[jonnyGURU]

Ok.. If you put it up against those two...

Cooler Master distributed the rails correctly. Good even balance across connectors. So in their case I would say a multi-12V rail is good because it offers the "safety" one would expect from rail limiters while not causing your PC to shut down in the middle of Crysis.

PCP&C, on the other hand, screwed up their early multiple +12V rail offerings by putting all of the PCIe connectors on one rail which caused problems for those with 8800 GTX SLI. Instead of correcting the problem, PCP&C went to single +12V rail and wrote marketing fluff in an attempt to cover up the mishap.

Judge a PSU by it's over all performance. Not by it's number of rails. Single +12V rail has it's merits as do split +12V rail. Whether the +12V rail is split or single should be the least of your concern.

 

[ALL4AMD]

there are pros and cons to both. i prefer the large 12v rail.