Single versus multi-rail PC power supplies. In truth, it's actually pretty
simple. Don't worry about it. It doesn't matter. If that explanation is good
enough for you, click here to watch videos of my cats instead. If you'd like
to know why it doesn't matter, then you can keep watching this video. At the
most basic level, a power supply converts AC current from the wall to DC
current that your CPU and other components can use. And then that
octopus of wires carries 12volt, 5volt, and 3.3 volt current to your graphics
card, motherboard, and etc. Cool, Linus, but how do rails enter into it? Good
question. A rail is just a fancy name for a PCB trace inside your power supply
that the octopus wires are soldered to. A single rail power supply has all of
those external connectors essentially coming off of the same output. While a
multi-rail power supply has some, let's say a couple of your PCI Express
connectors running off of one and some others, let's say your EPS CPU connector
or your SATA connectors running off of other ones. Okay, so why would having
everything plugged into one spot be considered good? Great question again.
Basically, multirail power supplies had the misfortune of showing up at a time
when NVIDIA and ATI were both having like a, you know, junkwaving competition
to see who could build the fastest graphics card without much regard for
power consumption. And these early multi-rail units were sometimes designed
with an underpowered rail for the graphics cards or not enough PCI Express
connectors, which forced the user to use Molex adapters that were sharing with a
bunch of other stuff. either of which meant that the power supply would
overload a rail and simply shut off in the middle of an intense gaming session.
Lionus, that sounds terrible. I want a single rail power supply. Whoa, don't
get too amped up there, Whiz Kid. Good power supplies are all about going fast,
lasting a long time, improving efficiency, and looking good while doing
it right. Well, sure, but none of that stuff would matter one lick if they
weren't first and foremost about safety. Any power supply that you should be
using in a computer includes a variety of safety cutoffs that will detect
dangerous operating conditions and force a shutdown to protect the PSU, the rest
of your PC, and even your house. The main ones we're concerned with here are
shortcircuit protection and overcurren protection. The issue is that if a power
supply fails in some way that your shortcircuit protection doesn't catch,
overcurren protection is what will trigger your power supply to turn off. A
high-capacity power supply designed to deliver all of its power over a single
rail could melt away the insulation on its wires and cause a fire. Yeah, that's
tasteless, but deal with it before its overcurren protection was triggered. But
don't go throwing away your single rail power supply just yet. The chances of
all of that happening are really very small and funny story, but especially
nowadays, many power supplies marketed as single rail are multi-rail internally
anyway. So, it all comes back to what I said before. Don't shop based on how
many rails a power supply has because it doesn't really matter these days. The
way you should shop for a power supply is by reading a credible review site
like johnnyguru.com and finding a unit that meets your needs and performs well
with the features that you want. The number of rails doesn't make your PC run
cooler. It doesn't make it faster. And even if it did do any of those things,
many manufacturers are just making this all up as they go along. Anyway,
speaking of making it up as I go along, I've been doing sponsor spots for
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