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Single versus multi-rail PC power supplies. In truth, it's actually pretty

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simple. Don't worry about it. It doesn't matter. If that explanation is good

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enough for you, click here to watch videos of my cats instead. If you'd like

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to know why it doesn't matter, then you can keep watching this video. At the

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most basic level, a power supply converts AC current from the wall to DC

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current that your CPU and other components can use. And then that

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octopus of wires carries 12volt, 5volt, and 3.3 volt current to your graphics

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card, motherboard, and etc. Cool, Linus, but how do rails enter into it? Good

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question. A rail is just a fancy name for a PCB trace inside your power supply

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that the octopus wires are soldered to. A single rail power supply has all of

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those external connectors essentially coming off of the same output. While a

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multi-rail power supply has some, let's say a couple of your PCI Express

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connectors running off of one and some others, let's say your EPS CPU connector

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or your SATA connectors running off of other ones. Okay, so why would having

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everything plugged into one spot be considered good? Great question again.

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Basically, multirail power supplies had the misfortune of showing up at a time

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when NVIDIA and ATI were both having like a, you know, junkwaving competition

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to see who could build the fastest graphics card without much regard for

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power consumption. And these early multi-rail units were sometimes designed

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with an underpowered rail for the graphics cards or not enough PCI Express

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connectors, which forced the user to use Molex adapters that were sharing with a

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bunch of other stuff. either of which meant that the power supply would

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overload a rail and simply shut off in the middle of an intense gaming session.

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Lionus, that sounds terrible. I want a single rail power supply. Whoa, don't

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get too amped up there, Whiz Kid. Good power supplies are all about going fast,

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lasting a long time, improving efficiency, and looking good while doing

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it right. Well, sure, but none of that stuff would matter one lick if they

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weren't first and foremost about safety. Any power supply that you should be

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using in a computer includes a variety of safety cutoffs that will detect

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dangerous operating conditions and force a shutdown to protect the PSU, the rest

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of your PC, and even your house. The main ones we're concerned with here are

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shortcircuit protection and overcurren protection. The issue is that if a power

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supply fails in some way that your shortcircuit protection doesn't catch,

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overcurren protection is what will trigger your power supply to turn off. A

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high-capacity power supply designed to deliver all of its power over a single

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rail could melt away the insulation on its wires and cause a fire. Yeah, that's

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tasteless, but deal with it before its overcurren protection was triggered. But

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don't go throwing away your single rail power supply just yet. The chances of

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all of that happening are really very small and funny story, but especially

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nowadays, many power supplies marketed as single rail are multi-rail internally

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anyway. So, it all comes back to what I said before. Don't shop based on how

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many rails a power supply has because it doesn't really matter these days. The

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way you should shop for a power supply is by reading a credible review site

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like johnnyguru.com and finding a unit that meets your needs and performs well

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with the features that you want. The number of rails doesn't make your PC run

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cooler. It doesn't make it faster. And even if it did do any of those things,

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many manufacturers are just making this all up as they go along. Anyway,

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speaking of making it up as I go along, I've been doing sponsor spots for

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audible.com for a long time now. They're the longest running sponsor of

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Techquiki, and for that, I'm extremely grateful. But aside from the bullet

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points that I have to hit for dimm sponsorship bucks, I want to address the

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most common complaint I hear about audiobooks. I'd rather just read it. I

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can do it faster that way. That's a very valid point, but Audible has some

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experiences that simply aren't the same in book form. Billy Crystal's own

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reading of his still fool in a memoir about his career and aging just isn't

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the same as lifeless text on pages. Now

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that I'm 65, I think in the year 2038 I'll be mostly

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dead or as Miracle Max and a Princess Bride would say, slightly

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alive. And it's content like that that makes Audible great. You don't have to

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choose reading or listening. There are certain things that work better on one

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versus the other, and you can enjoy both. But I guess I better do the bullet

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points anyway. Audible.com is the place to go for audiobooks. They've got over

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audiobooks. If you try it out today, you can get your first one for free. So,

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head on over to audible.com/techwiggy to learn more.

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It's also linked in the video description. Guys, like this video if you liked it. Dislike it if you disliked

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it. Share it if you thought it was somehow useful or someone should benefit

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from it somehow. Please share the video. And as always, don't forget to subscribe

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