Single Rail vs Multiliple Rail [Answer inside!]

I just put up an ANTEC HCG-750 on ebay. It has 4 12v 40a rails with 12v output AT 750, not reduced like others in its class. Their 900 version only puts 850 on its 4 12v 40a rails, in comparison. I like both and are solid performers (at least they have been for me). They both offer separate/dedicated 12v 40a rails for PCI-e. and each rail has the ability to max out at 2 8 pin cards cabled in (for 4 8 pin cards). Nice units and pretty inexpensive.

With the 900 I just put i, I have no problem running 2 GTX 480s, a water pump, 12 fans, en external sata 3 drive, 1 HDD, an SSD and a light-up gaming keyboard. and overclocked cpu and both 480's oc'd, too. If i could, I'd run my blender on it too. LoL oh yeah, and my only LED, 1 blue one for my res.

Personally I'd rather see big units with a stack of 30a rails = Yep that would be nice. What kicks me is that they make it nearly impossible to see where they are splitting the power to those multiple rail power supplies and that makes it hard to put things where they would better be put onto the power rails.

The ANTEC docs are VERY specific as to which rail powers what and what the Watts/volts/amps are. I know not all are as handy or forthcoming, but mine comes in 12 languages LOL. I had a ThermalTake 600w POS PSU that didn't deliver close to that on the rails as advertised. it claimed 576 watts, 1 12v rail 36a, the other 24a. I switched from a GTX 460 to 480 and the damn thing kept shutting down. Hunka junka.

I think there's a nice review on the ANTEC HGC-900 (and maybe 750) on this forum.

Antec prints, on the PSU, what rails go where. It's pretty cool.

Yeah they do. They sometimes get a bad rap, but I think it really just comes from snobbery. Those who have had them can attest to their quality. Just because they don't cost top dollar, it has little bearing on its performance. Expensiveness , in my book, does not equate with excellence.

They do little things like tell you what their equipment actually does (all of it) and they don;'t omit or hide things from you (nearly every one of you people swear by Yate Loon, yet NOT ONE of you can tell me what ANY of their fans puts out in pressure - tell me what makes them better than any other fan?) Same goes for that gentle typhoon. there are much better fans out there, both more and less expensive yet you people would kill you mother upstairs from you in the basement to get one. Getting off the computers - The Humm-Vee was touted/dubbed the most advanced armored transport vehicle ever designed. Yeah, for Long island. Get that in the combat zone and it was ****.
it isn't what you are told, people (sheeple) it is what you know and learn from experience. if all you ever used was Yate Loon cuz some numbnuts told you to use it and you never tried or looked at anything else, you shortchange yourselves AND you do disservice to others in you insistence that it is the best you can get. The best defense I have heard was: All the other companies exaggerate their numbers for performance. Yep. But not Yate Loon OR Scythe. They are the pillars of truth.

Sorry about the rant.

I've never seen Antec get a bad rep?

Yate Loons are used because they're just so dirt cheap. They're not exceedingly great fans in anyway, they're very average, but they last long and their cheap. People get them for case fans, not as much for heatsink or radiator fans. There is plenty of independent, 3rd party testing that confirms the performance of the GTs. But again, they're not favorites for pure performance, they're favorites for having a great noise/performance ratio and making a somewhat lower pitch sound that is preferable to the normal sound signature of fans.

some antec's were MEH at best (neopower? Eco? I dont recall). JG dinged a couple of them in the past.

EarthDog said:

some antec's were MEH at best (neopower? Eco? I dont recall). JG dinged a couple of them in the past.

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ED,

They were the older Smart Power / Tru Power series which had a reputation for poor, cheap Fuhjyyu capacitors that would leak and bulge
prematurely. Antec corrected that and their tech support was excellent dealing with it. Went through two of them personally............

RT nailed the only bad rep I know of Antec wise.
Everything newer is at least decent, and the HCP series is excellent. The two units I've tested have been, as have the reviews I've read of the other sizes.

Bobnova said:

RT nailed the only bad rep I know of Antec wise.
Everything newer is at least decent, and the HCP series is excellent. The two units I've tested have been, as have the reviews I've read of the other sizes.

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I'd buy the Antecs reviewed on our list in a heartbeat. Initially we were really angry at Antec at the time but they stepped up and corrected it all I know of.
They sent out bigger and modular power supplys on many, many RMA's. Both of my RMA's were 10 days, coast-to-coast, door-to-door..

When I went through reviews of PSU's for my system, I found a lot of bad ones for the ANTEC's, in general. Once you get a bad rep, you are never gonna shake it. Or it is hard to. The reviews I relied on were ones that actually went into great detail. PSU's seem to be glossed over by some sites and, ultimately, end up trashing them.

As for fans, you guys don't see it, but there are blinders. an nearly ALL the sites it is the GT or Yate Loons (and yes, they are cheep and decent producers - i have a couple slims, myself), almost to exclusivity, that are offered up to people looking for advice. It isn't a bad thing, but when I offered up an alternative I was beset upon by a few for my lack of discretion, however, ultimately, one of the guys, a very well respected member with longtime standing and experience, actually looked into the fan I proposed over the stock and said he was mistaken about his impression due to the manufacturer and conclude it was an excellent replacement for the stock fans on my rad and was better performer and cheaper than the GT's, if a TAD bit louder. Another nice 120 fan, if you are into quiet and performance is the enermax magma. 1500 rpm, 69 cfm, 18db at speed, 1.4 pressure, and 7 bucks at tigerdirect. All that but it is rated at 100k hours and 85 degrees sustained operating temps. pretty impressive. They aren't rated quite as close on cfms for the GT equivalent, but they are a 1/2 to 1/3 the price and are readily available at your local fry's or what ever other local computer enthusiast store in your area. AND they are always in stock. No waiting months and months to get one.

This is a PSU thread, not a fan thread.

a four and a half year old thread and i learned a lot, thanks!!!

The way I see it is this, it isn't getting older, it is getting better

Okay hope someone sees this post here if not I might need to make a thread, time constraints on buying lol.

Ive read through the first page and it was very informative but Im still a little fuzzy on the amp rating with a PSU with more than 1 rail. Do I have to raid the design docs on every psu im looking at to find the amp rating on each rail? I got a gtx 280 coming in the mail and that little power suck wants 40 amps, and Im trying to find a good Psu that can output that on the pcie for a decent price ( like 80 max)

Anyway, some sales on PSU's on newegg right now want to snag one just not sure what.

My main system is a single rail so I havent had to think about this before but a lot of the options im pulling up for this build are double railed.

The amp rating is on the box/website pictures. Single/double rail is not somthing to worry about.

FOr the system in your signature, I would get a Corsair 750TX v2. You dont remotely need 1KW of power for your setup.

EarthDog said:

The amp rating is on the box/website pictures. Single/double rail is not somthing to worry about.

FOr the system in your signature, I would get a Corsair 750TX v2. You dont remotely need 1KW of power for your setup.

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Lol well overhead room my system is fine its this cheapy mid end Im building,
I was confused about the amps being split up between the multiple rails. Are you saying the amp rating will be the same on each 12v rail?

EDIT: ok Im seeing now amp rating is different on each rail. Having a hard time finding one that supplies 40 amps though (or more for comfort)

Usually multi-rail PSUs have a max rating for each 12V rail, then an overall wattage rating for those rails combined. For example, 12V1 = 15A and 12V2 = 18A, but overall wattage on the 12V rail could be 360W. That means only 30A total can be on the 12V rails from 360W/12V = 30A. So, if 12V2 is pulling its max 18A, then that mean 12V1 will only pull 12A max.

Also, the GTX280 alone uses 236W or ~20A at stock, not 40A.

MattNo5ss said:

Usually multi-rail PSUs have a max rating for each 12V rail, then an overall wattage rating for those rails combined. For example, 12V1 = 15A and 12V2 = 18A, but overall wattage on the 12V rail could be 360W. That means only 30A total can be on the 12V rails from 360W/12V = 30A. So, if 12V2 is pulling its max 18A, then that mean 12V1 will only pull 12A max.

Also, the GTX280 alone uses 236W or ~20A at stock, not 40A.

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Thank you it all makes sense now!
Newegg and sources on the net were saying 40 amp. Which seemed high but I knew the older cards can really drain energy.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814130753&name=Desktop-Graphics-Cards
Thats the specific card Im getting ^^

The 40a is for the full system as a CYA from Nvidia, it takes in account the CPU power and such and then assumes you're buying off-brand PSUs that can't cough up anything close to their rating without going BAM.
Not that they're exactly clear about this, that would make it too simple

Anyway, you're on the right track now, hopefully I haven't confused matters!