Power supply and Circuit breaker question.

Recently my computer started tripping the circuit breaker (20amp), and I couldn't figure out how or why.

I took every single other item out of the plugs on that circuit except the computer (just the tower itself) . The power kept tripping.

So I replaced the surge protector, with a high end one, and now the computer itself just shuts off (only when I'm doing something intensive with the computer)...it doesn't trip the circuit anymore.

I just recently added 3x 580's to my system and that is the only other variable.

I am running a 1200watt PSU which may or may not be enough juice is now what I'm thinking.

My specs are 990x @ 4ghz,
Asus Rampage Extreme III,
24gb ddr3 @ 1600 (corsair vengence)
H50 with TWO silverstone 120mm fans (always at max) and works better than my old/newer h70.
3x EVGA Superclocked 580's
1 Asus Bluray burner,
4x Intel ssd ,
2x WD hdd (7200 rpm)
1 system fan 140mm (thermaltake level 10 stock fan)

I had the electrician come out and check the circuit and even replace the plug outlet, still having problems

Now I've tried using online CPU calculators, but all of them I find really suck, Nvidia's website says that 3x 580s pull 732watts under load, and Anandtech and Bit Tech says that my CPU at stock speed pulls 231watts, and mine is at 4ghz. So before we talk about the H50 and HDDs and SSDs were already at 963watts.

Is this 1200watt PSU not enough?

Neweggs calculator says that I am using 1398watts but I can't imagine this being correct.

Also I keep reading that you technically can't even get 1500watts from a 20amp breaker.

Are you sure that you have a dedicated 20a solely for that outlet?

Are you plugging ONLY the PC and nothing else (monitor, printer, speakers, etc) into that outlet?

Is this 1200watt PSU not enough?

http://www.jonnyguru.com/modules.php?name=NDReviews&file=print&reid=45
it is probably a matter of wiring it correct for such a vast configuration.

there are very good reasons why all the info varies, on thier opinion of what you need. the total watts isnt everything, where those watts are can be way more important. but you have a supply that is designed for a few video cards, it is just a matter of aligning all the power sucking thing to the right connection points.
also there is INITs the hard fast power consumptions at turn-on, caps for instance have to be "filled" and hard inits of all the devices which are hopsefully somewhat staggered.

the calculator you need is Your Brain , analising the "rail" thingies, and working out the best pattern. Mabey pulling ONE video card out, till you get the first pattern worked out and 100% stability. then re-analising what you got, and where the last one should be connected.

normally i could think of a pattern that i would use, but the information is thick, sooo dont expect that you will grasp it right away, but i think understanding the PSU itself is where your answers lay.

As to the wall power going out, it is a hefty spike , and surge only protectors are not what most people think they are. you could read the specs on the surge protector but then you got rid of the junk there soo, that part should be worked out.

Sometime people underestimate the extra power consumption of increasing the voltages also. when you increase the voltage on "gate" items the amperage across it is not linear, it is not logrythmatic either but it does ramp up Very quickly, As you increase beyond what might be concidered "spec" for the gates. not MAX spec , but beyond the "normal spec".
Sooo lowering your overclock wont do spit for power consumtion for testing, but lowering your voltage can reduce the amps needed to the cpu. Of course to lower the voltage your going to have to lower your overclock :-( but unless you do lower it a BIT, i think your going to make this harder than it has to be.
How these calculators can analise the needed power consumption based on Speed? is a mystery, a good calculator should be including the voltage your pushing into the cpu, and various efficency losses along the ways.

how many time do you see an extreeme overclock that also has 3 video cards in there without a secondary power supply (which can cause one more issue)

after you get 2 done, then 3 then raise the voltages slowly Then.
.

The PSU should be fine. I've seen that one pump out 1500 watts without complaining.

Make sure there's NOTHING on that line. It sounds like there's something on the breaker you're not aware of. Sometimes breaks are for whole rooms, half of two rooms, etc.

Chances are you're pulling close to 1200 watts. So 1200 watts / 110 volts = 10 amps for the computer. I'd say 13amps due to the inefficiencies that PSUs have. Is the strip you got rated for that?

Let's say you really ARE pulling 1400 watts from the PSU, and then try and figure in the inefficiencies: 1400 watts + 20% / 110 volts = 15.27 amps.

So you'd be coming close to the limit of the breaker. You shouldn't be tripping it though, unless you had something pulling power that you weren't aware of.

Exempt said:

I am running a 1200watt PSU which may or may not be enough juice is now what I'm thinking.

Click to expand...

You have zero reasons to assume that. Then convert that assumption into a fact.

A computer typically consumes about or less than 200 watts. At most, it might peak to 300 or 350 watts. A tripping twenty amp breaker means consuming more than 3000 watts. What is hotter than a clothes iron? What computer heats a run faster than an electric space heater?

The only useful answer requires basic facts be provided and then replies with numbers. Any useful answer came with the above numbers. Those numbers say why many posted assumptions just do not make sense.

First: is it a conventional circuit breaker, a GFCI, or an AFCI?

Agghhh after much turmoil and some serious moments of despair then triumphs... I have corrected the problem.

So last night I pull out the 1200 watt PSU and smell something horrible, burnt plastic , I put in a new spare 850 watt PSU and take out two vid cards, and the system wont post. I use a power supply tester and it says that even though the plug is partially melted (the 24 pin mobo plug!)...it is working just fine.... hrmmm I think, then it has to be the mobo that went bad.

Today I went out and bought a new Asus Rampage Extreme III (same mobo I had) and a new Thermaltake Toughpower 1200 watt (4 SLI supported) PSU.

I plug everything in, hit the power button, everything flashes and then...nothing.

I take each component out and start from one piece at a time....nothing.

I reset BIOS...nothing

At this point I'm thinking the entire system was shorted and hosed...

I swap BIOS chips from old mobo into new mobo...and it turns on, but doesnt POST, and doesnt give me any POST diag beeps.

I put the new Bios back into the new mobo, and press power....system turns on but now shows a bright red LED that the manual signifies that "the CPU is dead". Once again I'm super bummed my new 990x is now literally a wafer.

Then I decide to read the PSU instruction book....I know right, who does that????

The PSU shows that each video card MUST use two separate power rails to EACH card. So on the GTX 580, it has a 8 pin and a 6 pin per card, which means that each of those pins must be on a completely different cable, and each CARD must be on a totally separate rail...even though they provide cables that could connect the two with a single cable.

So I wire it up..and voila POST and success even though the stupid red LED was supposed to signify that the CPU was dead...obviously it wasn't!

Bad thing is that the PSU I bought has wickedly short cables so they dont reach around the back in my Thermaltake level 10 case, so I have to get a new 1200+ PSU that has much longer cables, right now the computer is open and I cannot shut the doors to the PSU or the components compartment.


As for the other questions and comments, I am running absolutely nothing else on the entire circuit, solely the computer tower, the 3x LCDS are on another circuit (2 circuits to the one room).

The power strip is an HP / Monster cable up to 6k joules , up to 15 amps ..which is typical.

Spending hours and hours replaying each variable over and over in my head I could backwards engineer what happened.

For some reason on the old mobo a singular pin on the 24pin connector cable became excessively hot, to the point where it melted the PSU plastic. The heat did not at that point though short the PSU nor the Mobo, it just tripped the circuit. The old power strip had done it's duty and protected the surge/short and died. When I bought the new power strip and the computer would shut off, the Mobo was on it's last leg, and melted the plastic, causing the PSU pin inside the 24pin cable to not be able to make metal to metal contact, hence the system shut down and would not turn back on.

Talk about a stressful day, I was thinking I literally had fried 3x EVGA superclocked 580s, my rampage extreme III mobo, 24gb of ram, SSD's, 990x CPU, I was totally in the dumps lol!

Melted plastic seems to be happening with 3 way SLI a lot. Pumping almost 200 watts down the PCI lane. Each lane gets 75 watts from the board, and then you have the CPU, RAM, Chipset, blah blah blah.

Glad you got it figure out!

Yes this was bugging the hell outta me, I just ordered another Corsair 1200 watt, this thermaltake 1200 watt's cables are much much to short for my case.

Sadly the Corsair only uses a single 12v rail for the whole setup, I'm no electrician but having 3+ rails makes me feel safer...but oh well....

Next week I'm adding another GTX 580

Exempt said:

The PSU shows that each video card MUST use two separate power rails to EACH card. So on the GTX 580, it has a 8 pin and a 6 pin per card, which means that each of those pins must be on a completely different cable, and each CARD must be on a totally separate rail...even though they provide cables that could connect the two with a single cable.

Click to expand...

Contact on each pin inside each connector is only rated for typically 6 amps. With insufficient power cable connections, too much power through any connector pin will cause overheating and melted plastic.

Overheating also means insufficient voltage. So a CPU light was also reporting accurately. The CPU failed due to a resulting insufficient voltage.

By using a multimeter, then all this would have been immediately obvious. Just another reason why a power supply tester is a useless tool.

Power strip did nothing. If a surge existed, then power supply (or motherboard) is permanently toasted; never works again. Surges occur typically once every seven years. And would have been indicated by other damaged household appliances. Surges do not cause melting.

Find which color wires are closest to melted plastic. That would be a voltage that did not have enough wires between the supply and load. That was trying to push too many amps (more than 6) through too few connector pins. Would be quickly identified by using a multimeter before melting occured.

circuit breakers

Exempt said:

Recently my computer started tripping the circuit breaker (20amp), and I couldn't figure out how or why.

I took every single other item out of the plugs on that circuit except the computer (just the tower itself) . The power kept tripping.

So I replaced the surge protector, with a high end one, and now the computer itself just shuts off (only when I'm doing something intensive with the computer)...it doesn't trip the circuit anymore.

I just recently added 3x 580's to my system and that is the only other variable.

I am running a 1200watt PSU which may or may not be enough juice is now what I'm thinking.

My specs are 990x @ 4ghz,
Asus Rampage Extreme III,
24gb ddr3 @ 1600 (corsair vengence)
H50 with TWO silverstone 120mm fans (always at max) and works better than my old/newer h70.
3x EVGA Superclocked 580's
1 Asus Bluray burner,
4x Intel ssd ,
2x WD hdd (7200 rpm)
1 system fan 140mm (thermaltake level 10 stock fan)

I had the electrician come out and check the circuit and even replace the plug outlet, still having problems

Now I've tried using online CPU calculators, but all of them I find really suck, Nvidia's website says that 3x 580s pull 732watts under load, and Anandtech and Bit Tech says that my CPU at stock speed pulls 231watts, and mine is at 4ghz. So before we talk about the H50 and HDDs and SSDs were already at 963watts. Someone said that the circuit breakers at the side of my house, inside the panel maybe the problem. Is the wattage through the line too much? I need to make sure the psu I get won't blow a fuse or put too much strain on the breaker.

Is this 1200watt PSU not enough?

Neweggs calculator says that I am using 1398watts but I can't imagine this being correct.

Also I keep reading that you technically can't even get 1500watts from a 20amp breaker.

Click to expand...

Have you tried calling the circuit breaker company and asking them? They usually have that information on hand. Those cpu and video card are very power intensive, it's better to go over than under. Do you have an air conditioner on the same line to your circuit breakers?