A brief explanation of 12v PSU rails

[Derrick]

http://mygaming.co.za/news/hardware/...explained.html

Single vs. Multiple 12v rails explained, cutting through the bull...

[HavocXphere]

Nice article.

[Jase]

... so essentially cut through the bull, just get a 1000W well known brand name. That makes things easier for me!

[Peon]

I was told yesterday to get a modular power supply for my high end 1366 board. Apparently normal psu's cause glitches and stuff when the whole current isint split.

Any comment?

[Isengard]

I was told yesterday to get a modular power supply for my high end 1366 board. Apparently normal psu's cause glitches and stuff when the whole current isint split.

Any comment?

Modular has nothing to do with the way the power is split over the rails, it just allows you to unplug power cables that you aren't using to minimise clutter.

BTW great article, I found it very informative and enlightening.

[czc]

I was told yesterday to get a modular power supply for my high end 1366 board. Apparently normal psu's cause glitches and stuff when the whole current isint split.

Any comment?

I don't see how a modular PSU would stop glitches. All I can see it doing is making cable management in your case easier.

[Voicy]

The term 'Rails' is a marketing gimmick.

All it is, is a multi-channel PSU. If you've ever built a power supply from scratch before you'll realise all they did was duplicate the regulator circuit after the bridge rectifier (ac->dc converter stage)

So if capacitors start leaking in the one circuit/channel, it doesn't directly affect the other ... opposed to splitting parallel feeder cables from the same output circuit.

Bottom line is, the transformer only gives out X amount of power, no matter how you draw from it. There's no dark magic inside. Sadly.

This is essentially a DC power supply in its simplest form:



All that these fancy PSU's do is create another smoothing/regulator channel. I must say I like the idea, because if one channel goes, you can still power another one ... and you are less likely to have harmonics filter through. Still, grossly overpriced for components that you can buy for 50c a piece.