Dual Rails vs. Single Rail?

[mondschatten]

That may be true, but I do not see where Mozzartusm says anything like that regarding the video card. Perhaps he believes it is already understood. I look forward to his next post, as many others I have read believe quite the opposite. That is likely what Beliar was referring to (powerful video cards on the same rail as the chip and MB) and it is not foolish to worry about that when the rail is only rated at 15 or so amps.

However, it could be that this is not how the dual rail is set up. In which case, I would tend to agree that dual rails are great and a smart addition to the ATX standard.

 

[mozzartusm]

I hope this helps. I am going to try to keep this as factual as I can and hopefully keep my bias from clouding the issue.

Lets start out with the basics: Watts, AMPS, VOLTS, RAILS.

A RAIL is going to be a delviery vehicle. A rail is the system that is responsible for delivering or carrying electrons from point A to point B. The ones we are most familiar with are the +12v +3.3V and +5V rails. Each of these are to some extent seperate in that they are each seperate pipelines that deliver their own repective power.

How do AMPS fit in to the Pic? The more AMPS the better your supply or flow of power/energy/electrons. So AMPS are very important due to the fact that when you multiply the number of volts(V) and the number of AMPS(A) you get your number of Watts(W). W = V * A or a 12V rail that has 15AMPS has a total output of 180 Watts. OR 12V*15A=180W this of course would hold true for each seperate rail.

For comparison I will use the ANTEC TRUE550W and the Thermaltake 680W Split rail. I know that there is a difference in total Watts, however the number of watts is not the issue so keep this in mind. The Antec has a single +12V rail with 30AMPS so we plug the formula 12V*30A=360WATTS The Thermaltake split rail has +12V(1)*15A=180W +12V(2)*15A=180W +12V(3)*8A=96W for a total of 456WATTS

Ok guy's im not even close to the end but I need a break so here is the first part. I will post the next part in about 30 mins. Someone double check my math please

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[mondschatten]

Well, I was looking forward to reading Mozzartusm's post on dual rails, but he must be busy. Anyhow, I decided to go with the Enermax (EG495P-VE SFMA Noisetaker 485W 20+4 PIN ATX +12V ver 2.0) PSU. It is dual rail and they seem rather solid at 18A apiece.
Also, I found this one at 3Gplaza.com for $87. That's a pretty good deal, considering it tends to go for $105-$110. Here's the link: <A HREF="http://www.3gplaza.com/estore/control/Computer3G/productdetails?id=34336 " target="_new">http://www.3gplaza.com/estore/control/Computer3G/productdetails?id=34336 </A> .

Thanks, again, to all who posted.

<P ID="edit"><FONT SIZE=-1><EM>Edited by mondschatten on 02/25/05 03:26 AM.</EM></FONT></P>

 

[jammydodger]

I still dont understand exactly how the dual rail bit actually works? Are some molex connectors attached to one rail and others to the second? Is it that motherboard that gets the second rail?

 

[mondschatten]

You know, that's a good point. I believe that both are true or, at least, are true if you hook up the connectors correctly. I am hoping the PSU's manual gives me more information about that. Some people have posted that the dual rail effect is lost if you aren't careful about which molex connectors go where. Hopefully, someone will post a definitive answer on this.