12v rails?

[Itronix]

Hello. If you have two 12v rails, one 18A and the other 16A, can you technically add them up to 34A if you want a graphics card that needs around 26-30A? The PSU would have a PCI-E connector. Thanks everyone!

 

[diduknowthat]

Sometimes, but not always. Sometimes the company gives you the max amps each rail can output, but not the combined 12v output on all the rails. In this case, you have to check how many watts the powersupply can put out on combined in all 12v rails. Then you take that wattage number and divide it by 12, which gives you the max amps on all the rails.

 

[Itronix]

Ok, thanks! It has 475.5 watt combined power, but 500w over all. By dividing 475w by 12, I end up with roughly 39.5 A. Sould this supply run a 8800GT or a 2900 HD 512mb? Thanks for your help!

 

[ceewi1]

You need to look at combined power over the +12V rails, not combined power over all the rails. There's no way that the total +12V output can be greater than the sum of the individual +12V outputs. What unit are we talking about here?