What do the rails in the PSU mean?

[carloboy]

Ive been overclocking for almost a year i know some stuff here and there, but i have no idea what the rails stand for or their uses.

Can anyone shed some light on this?

I got a barton 2500 m up to 2.4ghz but when i try to boot to 2.5 even with 1.875vcore it still reboots, im thinking this could be that the psu cant handle anymore. i got a 350antec, just bought a 485 watt enermax psu (Hot deal in the forum)

 

[Thegonagle]

"Rail" is just PSU lingo for each individually regulated output, ie, 3.3V, 5V, 12V, etc.

 

[aatf510]

I don't think you have a PSU issues there. I used a 330w enermax and I am still above to o/c my 2.8 Northwood to 3.2
It's probably your memory or your pci/agp clock

 

[carloboy]

hmm i'll check on that
i got a abit nf7-s rev 2, i think it should have a lock, not certain if its enabled right now.
havent overclocked the ram yet, still on default 3200 200mhz.

im just upping the multi for now because i got the cheap value kingston ram, dunno how much it would be able to take if oc's

right now its 12x200

oh about what Thegonagle said, if the positive 3.3, 12, 5 means output "rails" so i guess the ones with the negative signs are input?

the psu i bought was said that it doesn have a "-5v" rail, i dont know if that'll be important in the long run

 

[JimPhelpsMI]

Hi, Rails were the buss bars on the back of racks that held early Printed Circuit boards. The one I was most familiar with held 200 approximately 6"X10" plug in boards in 5 levels. The rails ran horizonally at each level and carried the system voltages and common. Jim