researching PCIE 5.0 and ATX 3.0 power supplies with 12VHPWR connector and the issue of adapters came up with 2, 3 or 4 or PCIE plugs being combined into a single 12VHPWR and that made me wonder - what if those PCIE are on different rails and you combine them ?
well after doing the research it shouldn’t be a concern but i came across this writeup:
( second post / response )
and that explanation was so much better than all the others i seen that i had to share it …
basically my concern was what if the 2, 3 or 4 PCIE plugs have slightly different voltage ? well the answer is it shouldn’t be the case for a variety of reasons explained in that link …
and in practical terms it means i don’t have to delay my build until good PCIE-5.0 / ATX 3.0 power supplies hit the market to be future proof because quality adapters plugged into quality older power supplies should work pretty much as well …
also Nvidia dude showing the adapter actually said the adapter is ACTIVE with a chip in it, so it literally talks to the four plugs, analyzes the information from them and then presents the result to the graphics card over the sense pins on 12VHPWR which should pretty much obviate the need for a new PSU …
once again: quality adapter with quality older power supply should be about as good as a new power supply with actual 12VHPWR plug …
this is important because the power supply is one of the few components in a computer system i consider an INVESTMENT. processor, motherboard, ram and especially graphics are all disposable. after 5 years those components will lose most of its value while a quality power supply can still be valuable even after 10 years …
in fact all my power supplies are over 10 years old because i over-provisioned them by a factor of 4X and they are all still working fine …
but this only applies unless there is a change in standard … and in fact there is …
but fundamentally as long as you have a fuckload of clean 12V amps properly configured and with proper adapters you will probably be fine …
DON’T QUOTE ME ON THIS !
probably won’t go all-out on power supply this time around like i always did in the past getting only the biggest and baddest ones on the market … the change in standard WILL of course cause these power supplies to lose value faster even if they can be adapted, so it makes no sense to invest in the most premium ones available …
but bigger and more premium power supplies ARE in fact higher quality as evidenced by the fact that all my computers are still stable running on 10 year old power supplies … would they still be running today if they were less premium units ? i don’t know.
anyway unless you’re overclocking and / or running multiple sockets or GPUs you don’t need a super premium power supply but there is definitely a difference in build quality as well as voltage regulation, efficiency and acoustics as you go up the power supply food chain …
though keep in mind a more efficient 1600W power supply will not be any more efficient than a 800W power supply while driving a 100W load … power supplies only reach max efficiency at around 40-50 percent load so if you’re running a 1600W power supply with 100W load you’re wasting its efficiency potential …
so yeah it’s hard to say really if a good PSU is an investment or a waste of money especially now with the new ATX12VO standard coming …
it’s going to really hurt going with less than top of the line power supply but i may have to do it …
on the other hand - if i can’t invest in a power supply - why not get a fucking Dell already ? what’s the point of building a disposable computer when Dell is happy to make one for you …
i’m not sure i can deal with this …