PSU Questions

[krash22]

So im running this rig at home and its not performing to its full potential.
Specs: P4 3.0GHZ 2MB lvl 2 Cache
2GB PQI DDR2 533 PC4200 [4x512]
PCI-e ATi X800XL
2x 200GB Maxtor HDD SATA 1.5 [ RAID 0]
1x Plextor DVD-RW

so you see i have a lot of power hungry components in this little box, all running of a 300w PSU with ONE 12 volt rail at 16 Amps

MY QUESTION IS [ help me Sane Man! ]
im going to buy a new case/psu [ micro atx desktop ] and i need to know if its better for me to get one with a PSU that has a SINGLE 35 amp 12 volt rail, or one that has TWO 12 volt rails, one at 16, and the other 18 amps. Both are 500w. this box is used for gaming and multimedia, and i think that if i get it running the way its supposed to, i might get a few more months out of it :nerd thanks in advance.

 

[Sane_Man]

So im running this rig at home and its not performing to its full potential.
Specs: P4 3.0GHZ 2MB lvl 2 Cache
2GB PQI DDR2 533 PC4200 [4x512]
PCI-e ATi X800XL
2x 200GB Maxtor HDD SATA 1.5 [ RAID 0]
1x Plextor DVD-RW

so you see i have a lot of power hungry components in this little box, all running of a 300w PSU with ONE 12 volt rail at 16 Amps

MY QUESTION IS [ help me Sane Man! ]
im going to buy a new case/psu [ micro atx desktop ] and i need to know if its better for me to get one with a PSU that has a SINGLE 35 amp 12 volt rail, or one that has TWO 12 volt rails, one at 16, and the other 18 amps. Both are 500w. this box is used for gaming and multimedia, and i think that if i get it running the way its supposed to, i might get a few more months out of it :nerd thanks in advance.

Hi.

Nothing to be gained by having dual rails for 12v, go for the single rail with the 35A.

Q: Hang on, isn't dual rails better as it gives me a cleaner supply of 'juice' to the cpu?
A: Generally no. Dual rails doesn't mean there completely seperate rails (its still only 1 12V power source)- you can measure the resistance between the 12V1 (molex) and 12V2 (atx12v) and it will still be a short. The only difference is 20A current limiters to comply with EU safety regulations, which are don't do a thing unless the 20A is reached. Critically, theres still only one regulator/set of filters for the 12V2 rails, so the cpu won't get any cleaner current, since its really only a SINGLE 12V rail from a user point of view (unless 20A is reached). Besides, the cpu isn't powered straight off the 12V rail, it's the motherboard that takes the dirty 12V and regulates it down to whatever the cpu needs (eg 1.4V), so a dirty input voltage isn't to be worried about (since the motherboard will clean it up).

http://www.overclockers.com.au/wiki/PSU_FAQ

 

[krash22]

my savior. wasn't sure because of all the periphs', but it totally makes sense. pretty sure its my gfx card slowing me down anyway, power hungry POS. THANKS SANE MAN

 

[Diezel]

You've got all that shiz running on a 300w? :wtf

 

[BigTim]

Aren't most standard outlets only 15 amp, anyway?

 

[Sane_Man]

Aren't most standard outlets only 15 amp, anyway?

The amps on the 12v DC lines is a max rating, not how many amps are actually being used. The PSU is a switching supply, that is typically 120v AC and 6-8 Amps input and 400-500W output. After calculating the Power Factor (PF) of the PSU to convert AC-DC, and the efficiency, you calculate how many watts are being used by each device inside the PC. Once you know the voltage, which is 12V, and the power, you can calculate the current.

Remember, you are using using 120V AC on the input and 12V DC on the output to calculate current or amps, so you need to keep that in mind.

 

[krash22]

You've got all that shiz running on a 300w? :wtf

i know, its so bad. when i went raid 0, one of the LEDs on the front of my case went out. k'mon its only an LED, those things use the smallest amount of power... ridiculous. also my framerate drops to aboooooouuuuut ZERO when playing hellgate. pissin me off... :nerd:nerd

 

[Diezel]

Aren't most standard outlets only 15 amp, anyway?

In older housing yes. In Modern housing most are 20-25. Kitchens and Garages can be up to 35amp :thumbup

 

[Samurang]

I'm surprised you're running that spec with a 300w PSU.

If you wanna play Hellgate, you're going to have to upgrade the whole system.

Sorry, my 2 cents.

Also, I do like Hellgate London, but it's full of bugs and runs very unstable for now, even on modern systems.