power supply cable

hey guys i was wondering what this cable is for (circled)

m1tk0 said:

hey guys i was wondering what this cable is for (circled)

Click to expand...

That is your ATX 12V cable and connects to your MB. If you MB doesn't have a plug for it then you don't need it. What MB are you using and I will tell you whether you need it of not and where to plug it in at.

my motherboard does have a plug for it but ive never plugged it in, what is it used for, do i need it?

my motherboard is an abit nf7-s

The ATX (20 pin) connector only carries one 12V line on it to power your MB with 12V. As demands for more power by Motherboards increased and the voltage needs shifted away from 5V. There was a need to supply it with more 12V power which would exceed the rated Amperage capacity of the single 12V line. (Which is what you are working on doing now). So they add the ATX 12V connector as a method of adding more 12V power to the MB.

I highly recommend you connect it ASAP.

Best case is your computer randomly reboots and starts to have power issues due to fluctuating power to your CPU and MB components.

Worst case you eventually could run the risk of overloading and thereby overheating that connector which could result in a meltdown of the ATX socket or a fire.

So just hook it up your MB will thank you for it.


Just FYI
The newer boards and thereby the power supplies have a 24 Pin connector which has an extra 12V,3.3V,5V, and a ground added as pins 11,12,23, and 24. They have also upgraded the ATX 12V connector to include even more 12V lines.

This is a good example of the newer standard here

i read in my friends mobo manual, its for the cpu power

i got that on my psu...but not on my mobo

NF7s have that power connector.

It supplies additional 12v power to the MB.

dittohead said:

i read in my friends mobo manual, its for the cpu power

i got that on my psu...but not on my mobo

Click to expand...

You are correct that is it's primary reason for it. However the CPU doesn't like 12V applied to it so that is where the MB comes into play.

cool
what are the cables, best way to describe them...theyre not as transparent as 4-pin molex, theyre solid plastics. similar to fdd cables...but more pins.

cheers

dittohead said:

cool
what are the cables, best way to describe them...theyre not as transparent as 4-pin molex, theyre solid plastics. similar to fdd cables...but more pins.

cheers

Click to expand...

Hmm my best guess is that you are referring to the 6 pin auxiliary connector found on ATX PSUs

It is not used anymore by any newer motherboards. It dates back to when RAM first made the switch to 3.3 Volts versus 5V previously this connector was added to supply extra current. It was usually found in Power supplies of 250 Watts or greater. Though you will notice it missing in all ATX 2.0 and later PSUs

Though it hasn't been used in years by the majority of computer users, and usually finds itself stuffed behind the Power Supply or MB tray. Since it was written in the ATX specifications if power supply manufacturers wanted to be able to state their PSUs were ATX compliant they had to have this cable.

OR

If you have a really old PSU that is powered on and off by a switch on a cable. and you have 2 of these type connectors and no 20 pin ATX connector then what you have is an AT PSU. These 2 connectors were what powered your MB before there was ATX. They could only be connected one way due to the raised tabs on the leading edge on each of the connectors were different. They looked identical you could tell them apart both by the tabs on the connector and the wire colors that each of them had connected to. They were usually plugged in adjacent to each other on the MB.