12v rail

[estew33]

Hi All,
I was under the inpression that the xp ran off the 5 volt rail, I was informed on this forum, I was wrong it runs off the 12V rail. No problem or is it.
I was reading thru a thread one day, saw a remark that to oc the xpm you need a high 12V rail amperage, the reason given, it draws a lot of juice.
I have a 530 watt I think it is a fortron, with only 18 amps on the 12V rail. I have been looking for a PS with a decent 12V rail amperage,, it seems that they all have low amperage compared to the 3 and 5 V rail's.
Also the Pent IV runs off the 12V rail, and lot's of otherstuff I would assume.
Finally my question is, why is the amperage so low on the 12V rail compared to the 3 and 5 V rails.
All answer's and opinions more than welcomed
Thanking everyone in advance
Ed

 

[Sonic587]

Don't worry about amps if you have a 530watt Fortron (try and give us the model number, or identify it at Newegg.com
Fortrons are some of the highest quality PSUs money can buy. They are awesome and stable for OCing.

 

[pelikan]

I agree. My 350W fortron is very solid.

 

[wicktron]

Your Fortron 530w has adjustable pots inside. If you want to juice up your 12v rail, open it up and adjust!

 

[imported_zenwhen]

Anyone who tells you not to worry about the amperage on your rails is leading you down a sh!t creek. I really expected better from Anandtech guys in this thread.

What you want is an Antec TRUE series power supply. I would go with the 430W Truepower in your situation. It is in every way superior to anything Fortron has ever put out. They have bigger/better heatsinks, better amperage on every rail, and are backed by a reputable company. Everything in your system is going to be reliant on your PSU. You should be able to trust your PSU.

You can trust Antec.

Amperage is more important than the e-penis building wattage number on the outside of the PSU.

Saying a Fortron PSU is better than an Antec is like saying a pair of Logitech speakers are better than a set of Klipsch reference monitors.

 

[DaNorthface]

the antec true 430 has only 20 amps on the 12 volt line, the 2 amp difference isn't that big of a deal. His psu should work perfectly on his rig

 

[Shimmishim]

Originally posted by: zenwhen
Anyone who tells you not to worry about the amperage on your rails is leading you down a sh!t creek. I really expected better from Anandtech guys in this thread.

What you want is an Antec TRUE series power supply. I would go with the 430W Truepower in your situation. It is in every way superior to anything Fortron has ever put out. They have bigger/better heatsinks, better amperage on every rail, and are backed by a reputable company. Everything in your system is going to be reliant on your PSU. You should be able to trust your PSU.

You can trust Antec.

Amperage is more important than the e-penis building wattage number on the outside of the PSU.

Saying a Fortron PSU is better than an Antec is like saying a pair of Logitech speakers are better than a set of Klipsch reference monitors.

Uhh...

Yeah... IMHO, fortron is just as good as antec.

a while back when i first started o/c-ing, i switched out my psu as well and got a antec true 430 (and still running today with modded 3.3, 5, and 12 volt rails)...

however, i remember a guy posting a thread about the fortron / sparkle psu's and how solid their rails were under load....

the standard for a "good" psu is +/- 5% of the voltage.

the fortron/sparkle psu's are +/- 1%...

so if you're telling me that antec is better than 1% then yeah, i'll agree with you that antec is better but i highly doubt that it is...

fortron, sparkle, TTGI, antec all make quality psu's

 

[TGHI]

Woohoo for Aerocool!

http://www.ncix.com/products/index.php?sku=11811&vpn=AEROCOOL550W&manufacture=AeroCool

I like it!

 

[Mark R]

18-20A is a reasonably generous amount of power for the 12V line. It provides 216-240 W of clean 12V power. That's considerably more than most PCs (even enthusiast PCs) use in total.

You are unlikely to run into this limit unless you use a heavily OC P4 CPU with hyperthreading, and 3 or 4 high-speed (10k rpm or higher) hard drives.

If you insist on high power 12V lines, then enermax has always offered considerably stronger 12V lines than many other manufacturers. Even their 320W 'noisetaker' PSU has a generous 23A on 2 seperate 12V lines (12A for CPU, 11A for drives).

Fortron is one of the brand names of FSP group. Other brand names include sparkle power, powerman, trend and Aopen. They also OEM PSUs for PC power and cooling. They have an excellent reputation for quality and reliability, particularly among the server market.

Channel Well (CWT) OEM PSUs for Antec. They are supposed to be of good quality but they are not well known outside of the antec brand name.

 

[L00PY]

Originally posted by: Shimmishim
the standard for a "good" psu is +/- 5% of the voltage.

the fortron/sparkle psu's are +/- 1%...

so if you're telling me that antec is better than 1% then yeah, i'll agree with you that antec is better but i highly doubt that it is...

Actually, by this measure, Antec's is better than Fortron's. Fortron's +/- 1% is for the Line Regulation, not the Load Regulation. It's at load that most PSU's have +/- 5% for most of the rails.

From the actual manufacturers, the top of the line Fortron FSP550-60PLN has a +5% - 4% for the 12V. The top of the line Antec True550 has a +/- 3%. (The Sparkle FSP530-60GNA is also +/- 5%.

But why let the actual specs get in the way of a good argument, eh?

 

[Sonic587]

Originally posted by: zenwhen
Anyone who tells you not to worry about the amperage on your rails is leading you down a sh!t creek. I really expected better from Anandtech guys in this thread.

What you want is an Antec TRUE series power supply. I would go with the 430W Truepower in your situation. It is in every way superior to anything Fortron has ever put out. They have bigger/better heatsinks, better amperage on every rail, and are backed by a reputable company. Everything in your system is going to be reliant on your PSU. You should be able to trust your PSU.

You can trust Antec.

Amperage is more important than the e-penis building wattage number on the outside of the PSU.

Saying a Fortron PSU is better than an Antec is like saying a pair of Logitech speakers are better than a set of Klipsch reference monitors.

I really love it when people attack other's opinions when they don't know jack about what they are saying. Are you an Antec employee? Because no one mentioned them before you, and now you are accusing us of saying Fortron is better than Antec? :disgust: Did you look at what PSU he has? Wanna take a look at this review? Watch any PSU with FSP in the model name. Those are all made by the FSP group AKA Fortron, Sparkle, AOpen, ect. Make no mistake, their PSUs are right up there with Antec in the top 5 manufacturers. Both companies put out some fantastic units. I've seen people run dual Athlon MPs off of 300 watt sparkles. Or how about pelican's impressive system? It's only a 2.8Ghz XP... If amps meant everything, we'd all be buying those $20 el cheapo 550watt PSUs. :thumbsdown:

As for what wicktron mentioned, be VERY careful opening your PSU. Not only does it void your warranty, but there is the very real possibility of getting shocked or killed if you touch the wrong component.

 

[Shimmishim]

Originally posted by: L00PY

Originally posted by: Shimmishim
the standard for a "good" psu is +/- 5% of the voltage.

the fortron/sparkle psu's are +/- 1%...

so if you're telling me that antec is better than 1% then yeah, i'll agree with you that antec is better but i highly doubt that it is...

Actually, by this measure, Antec's is better than Fortron's. Fortron's +/- 1% is for the Line Regulation, not the Load Regulation. It's at load that most PSU's have +/- 5% for most of the rails.

From the actual manufacturers, the top of the line Fortron FSP550-60PLN has a +5% - 4% for the 12V. The top of the line Antec True550 has a +/- 3%. (The Sparkle FSP530-60GNA is also +/- 5%.

But why let the actual specs get in the way of a good argument, eh?

lol.... i should have clarified

either way both psu's are awesome... that's the point i was trying to get at

 

[thelanx]

The 12v rails usually have lower amps than the 3.3v and 5v rails simply due to power = voltage x amps. So the psu is still putting out a lot of power through the 12v rail, but since the 12v has a higher voltage multiplier (12), the amps is lower.

 

[L00PY]

Hrm, I forgot to tack a smiley on at the end of my last post. . .

Anyways, unless you run into stability issues, you really don't need to upgrade your current PSU. And this applies whether you're overclocking or not. Just to another data point out there, I'm able to overclock my mobile 2400+ XP to at least 2.4 GHz (RAM limited ) at 1.65V with the 240W PSU that came with my mATX Silverstone case.

Be sure to take what you read online in these posts with a grain of salt -- everyone (myself included) likes to hype what they've got in their system and bash stuff they've never tried or had and isolated bad experience with.

 

[ponyo]

Originally posted by: L00PY
Hrm, I forgot to tack a smiley on at the end of my last post. . .

Anyways, unless you run into stability issues, you really don't need to upgrade your current PSU. And this applies whether you're overclocking or not. Just to another data point out there, I'm able to overclock my mobile 2400+ XP to at least 2.4 GHz (RAM limited ) at 1.65V with the 240W PSU that came with my mATX Silverstone case.

Be sure to take what you read online in these posts with a grain of salt -- everyone (myself included) likes to hype what they've got in their system and bash stuff they've never tried or had and isolated bad experience with.

couldn't have said it better myself.

 

[SinfulWeeper]

Originally posted by: L00PY
Hrm, I forgot to tack a smiley on at the end of my last post. . .

Anyways, unless you run into stability issues, you really don't need to upgrade your current PSU. And this applies whether you're overclocking or not. Just to another data point out there, I'm able to overclock my mobile 2400+ XP to at least 2.4 GHz (RAM limited ) at 1.65V with the 240W PSU that came with my mATX Silverstone case.

Be sure to take what you read online in these posts with a grain of salt -- everyone (myself included) likes to hype what they've got in their system and bash stuff they've never tried or had and isolated bad experience with.

Agreed, but that small of a PSU is not good enough for my needs .
But if his 12v rail is worrying him, then by all means his worries are ANSWERED

On my next list of things to get