PSUs - what effect does the number of 12v rails have?

RichDuffy

RichDuffy

RichDuffy

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I'm looking to get a new PSU, as it would appear that my current Paxpower 460W one can't cope with the extra load of the HD-DVD drive I'm trying to add to it (what happens is that the PC powers on, the fans start up, then after about 4 seconds it all goes off - if I'm wrong about it being the PSU at fault, please tell me quickly before I buy one!)

I see lots of people recommending Corsair PSUs in various threads, but also people saying that multiple 12v rails are good. Yet the Corsair ones only have one 12v rail.

With me not even knowing what a rail is, this is pretty puzzling. Can anyone help me understand and make the right decision here? Cheers.
 
The amount of rails doesn't matter greatly for most people. The term refers to individual lines of power i.e. the rails are split up so that you can have different power hungry components each with their 'own' supply of power. It actually makes little difference for most uses and many PSUs will combine the rails if too much power is taken by any single rail.

Corsair are still a good choice if you need a new PSU.
 
Thanks for that - so if you have mutiple rails, you have to be careful to split the load evenly... That might be my problem. Trouble is, I only have one other spare molex and it's miiiiiiiiiles away from the new drive. I don't think I can re-order things well enough to make it work.

So I'm left with either needing a molex extension cable (cheap) or a PSU (comparatively pricey)... and will need to be placing an order either way. Hmmmm. Reckon there's any chance I can persuade OcUK to shove a cable in an envelope and put a couple of stamps on it, so I don't have to pay for a courier for such a small item?
 
Shipping costs £2.49 apparantly so it will be RMSD or similar.

It is better if you can split the load to do so. If you want to check if it is that the PSU can't cope with the new drive then you could perhaps take off your overclock for the moment and see if that makes any difference.
 
Okay, I've had more problems of the same type even once I unplugged the drive - took a lot of power cycling and several CMOS clears before I could get it to boot again - at which point I decided to run stock on everything (except graphics which I reduced to 650/700). So now I'm keen to get a new PSU no matter what.

Can anyone tell me what the pros and cons of the different Corsair series are? I'm looking at the TX 650W but I can see there are HX ones as well, and they seem to be more expensive. Is the TX fine?
 
The TX series are pretty decent, they are made by CWT for Corsair, the HX series are made by Seasonic and that is the main reason for the difference in cost along with the fact that the TX series is not modular. Both come with a 5 year warranty so if you are on a limited budget and/or don't need modularity the TX series will do fine.
 
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