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5v, 12v, 3.3v what does it all mean

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TerroH8er

Member
Joined
Oct 16, 2002
Hey.. i'm just posting here cause I'm curious as to what these rails actually do? Sure, it's best to have the "tighest" tolerances, but what do these control ? What are the advantages of having the tighest rails? I'm pretty sure I know that the 3.3v controls drives and fans n stuff. I also heard that on an AMD system (what I run) the 5v rail is more important than the 12v rail. Why? Also, what's the difference between -5, -12, etc, and +5, +12, etc in MBM?

I just figured it would be something nice to know.
 
The biggest advantage of having the tightest rails is being able to say, "I have the tightest rails" without lying.

I thought that drives use +5V for their electronics (either directly or indirectly) and +12V moves the heads and motors. +3.3V is for some chips on the mobo and PCI & AGP slots, but most use +5V.

Older mobos get the CPU voltage from the +5V and hardly use the +12V at all, but newer mobos with the 4-pin connector power the CPU mostly from the +12V.
 
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