Need new PSU dual rails or not?

[MustISO]

I'm looking for a new PSU. I tend to have 4 or 5 HD's in my machines, so I was thinking that dual rails would not be a good idea. I'm not really sure how many amps the HD's use.

My machine consists of:
P4 3.0
1GB RAM
2 optical drives
4 or 5 HD's (7200 RPM)
5 80MM fans
ATi 7000 video card
3 PCI cards.

 

[GalvanizedYankee]

Intel is backing away from the spec that limits the 12V line to 20A.

This is not an attemp at being rude. Do a search of *dual 12V rails*here at Anandtech.
There have been a number of threads on this very topic.
IMHO, there is not reason whatsoever to spilt the 12V line for a stand alone PC.
Marketing had on vender offering *QuadRails* 🙂


Galvanized

 

[MrDudeMan]

Originally posted by: MustISO
I'm looking for a new PSU. I tend to have 4 or 5 HD's in my machines, so I was thinking that dual rails would not be a good idea. I'm not really sure how many amps the HD's use.

My machine consists of:
P4 3.0
1GB RAM
2 optical drives
4 or 5 HD's (7200 RPM)
5 80MM fans
ATi 7000 video card
3 PCI cards.

dude even 2d on the 7000 sucks. you need to get a DX9 capable video card STAT.

 

[MustISO]

I know the video card sucks, this is just my web surfing PC.

GalvanizedYankee, I've read a lot of posts on here, hardforum and another site and I'm still kind of confused about whether the non-CPU rail will have enough power for all my drives.

 

[Operandi]

Originally posted by: MustISO
I know the video card sucks, this is just my web surfing PC.

GalvanizedYankee, I've read a lot of posts on here, hardforum and another site and I'm still kind of confused about whether the non-CPU rail will have enough power for all my drives.

Most (almost all) dual rail PSU have both of their 12v rails driven from the same source, not two independent rails. Basically internally there it's one 12v rail, the outputs are just limited to specific amperage as a safety feature.

for example the new Antec Neo HE has three separate 12v rails that are all driven from the same source. Total there is 25 amps of available 12v power, and each rail as max rating of 20 amps. As long as no one rail exceeds the 20A max the power can be split among the three rails any number of ways.

 

[MrDudeMan]

Originally posted by: MustISO
I know the video card sucks, this is just my web surfing PC.

GalvanizedYankee, I've read a lot of posts on here, hardforum and another site and I'm still kind of confused about whether the non-CPU rail will have enough power for all my drives.

you must do some hardcore web surfing to need a 3.0ghz p4 and 1gb of ram...

 

[GalvanizedYankee]

Originally posted by: MustISO
I know the video card sucks, this is just my web surfing PC.

GalvanizedYankee, I've read a lot of posts on here, hardforum and another site and I'm still kind of confused about whether the non-CPU rail will have enough power for all my drives.

Even though most will bad mouth PSU calculaters, this one, though dated will give you a decent ballpark idea. The HDDs are more dependent on the 5V line than the 12V line.

Takaman's is simple and to the point. No vender trying to sell something ;-)
I've never done it but some will delay HDD start-up so as to not over load the PSU at boot. Ie, starting them in sequence. There is a term for it but memory fails me at this time.
Keeping them spinning is nothing compared to spin-up.

Galvanized
I only have two storage drives in my comp.

 

[MustISO]

Thanks for the great info guys, this helps a lot.

you must do some hardcore web surfing to need a 3.0ghz p4 and 1gb of ram...

This used to be my old game machine a year ago. It's also used for CD/DVD ripping.