Power supply 12v rail amp requirements

[eddyrol]

Hi folks, I'm a noobie building my first gaming PC. I just purchased the OCZ GameXStream OCZ700GXSSLI ATX12V 700W Power Supply 100 - 240 V. The rails are 18amps, but I just read that some of the newer video cards seem to require 20 - 28 amp on each rail.

Should I return this PSU? Also, I f I should RMA it, I still couldn't find any PSU with dual rails or more with 30amps.

Does anyone know of any?

Any info/advise would be apprecieated.

Thanks!

 

[PurdueRy]

When they say 20-28 Amps they mean a single rail PSU. That one is most likely massive overkill for whatever system you have.

It will be fine.

 

[MagnusTheBrewer]

Welcome, relax and, take a deep breath. The PSU you have will work fine for just about any configuration you are likely to build. The GPU's that suck a lot of juice have two connections to the PSU thus the ability to exceed the amps on any one rail. I do advise that you determine exactly what your setup is going to be before buying any more components.

 

[DrMrLordX]

Dude that beast has 4 12v rails at 18a each. You don't have anything to worry about man, unless you need all your power delivered on one rail or something.

What kind of system are you powering with that PSU?

 

[eddyrol]

Hi, thanks for all the replies. Probably correct that this PSU is overkill and I should carefully select and match my components PSU and Video card. FYI: the following quote from the PSU's review from a buyer prompted my concern, Thanks> :

Cons: Doesnt power my new Radeon x1950. It turns out the newest cards that are coming out require 25 - 30 amps on each 12v rail. When i installed this, i got the graphics card error beeps from my motherboard and got no picture on my monitor. Looking inside i saw the low power LED lit up on the graphics card. I installed my old PSU which had 26A on the 12v rail and all was well again, which is still lower than the 30A requirement on my particular card, but it seems to be enough to run for now.

 

[akshayt]

No card should require more than 20-25A that tooonly on a single rail. The rest is for the rest of the system. I am not even sure whether something takes as much as 20-25A on any rail.

 

[Bobthelost]

Originally posted by: idiot on newegg(presumably)
Cons: Doesnt power my new Radeon x1950. It turns out the newest cards that are coming out require 25 - 30 amps on each 12v rail.

It turns out that you don't need to know what you're talking about to put a review up on newegg. :rolleyes;

NOTHING, i say again NOTHING requires 25-30A on a 12V rail. This will become obvious after a second when you realise that 25A = 300W and 30A = 360W. Since the highest powered cards draw about 150W you may be catching onto the core of my objection. The X1950XTX is less power hungry than the 7950GX2, which can be run on a good 400W PSU.

You've already got the OCZ so there's no point in ranting about wasting your money, it'll be fine for anything you care to throw at it.

 

[eddyrol]

Originally posted by: Bobthelost

Originally posted by: idiot on newegg(presumably)
Cons: Doesnt power my new Radeon x1950. It turns out the newest cards that are coming out require 25 - 30 amps on each 12v rail.

It turns out that you don't need to know what you're talking about to put a review up on newegg. :rolleyes;

NOTHING, i say again NOTHING requires 25-30A on a 12V rail. This will become obvious after a second when you realise that 25A = 300W and 30A = 360W. Since the highest powered cards draw about 150W you may be catching onto the core of my objection. The X1950XTX is less power hungry than the 7950GX2, which can be run on a good 400W PSU.

You've already got the OCZ so there's no point in ranting about wasting your money, it'll be fine for anything you care to throw at it.

 

[eddyrol]

Bobthelost, thanks for quick reply and info. Lesson learned.

Thanks again!