PSU dual 12V rails, what is actually split?

[Dutch Guy]

When a PSU has dual 12V rails, does it automatically use both or are different connectors connected to the different rails?

 

[Dureth]

Generally the split is between the motherboard connector on 1 rail and all hard drives/pci-e 6pin on the other rail.

Someone please correct me if I'm wrong as I'm not 100% sure of this.

 

[Dutch Guy]

The reason I ask is because my current PSU started ticking and annoying me so I may need a new one soon, but I have a PCIe videocard with a normal molex and I thought that the PCIe connectors on some PSU were on a separate rail.

But if the split is between mobo and rest it shouldn't matter that I use a molex instead of the PCIe connector.

 

[Mole]

The split is between the motherboard 12V connector (4 pin one) and the rest, as far as I am aware. It is done to give supposedly 'cleaner' power to the motherboard and hence the CPU.

Everything else (PCIe, molex, etc. are on one rail). Worse case scenario is that if one rail is overloaded the PSU might automatically switch to combined mode and act like a classic PSU.

Martin

 

[Dutch Guy]

The split is between the motherboard 12V connector (4 pin one) and the rest, as far as I am aware. It is done to give supposedly 'cleaner' power to the motherboard and hence the CPU.

Everything else (PCIe, molex, etc. are on one rail). Worse case scenario is that if one rail is overloaded the PSU might automatically switch to combined mode and act like a classic PSU.

Martin

Thanks for the reply, so it really doesn't matter which molex/PCIe connection I use for the videocard which is good.