Computer

Here’s what you need to know about power supply connectors

24 pin atx connector

ATX12VO

The ATX connector was born from the hand of Intel in 1995 and has had several revisions. Recently Intel has decided to go a step further and has developed the ATX12VO connector, designed to reduce consumption. The number of pins is reduced to less than half with respect to the 24-pin ATX connectorremoving the 3.3V and 5V rails.

This connector has only 10 pins, forcing the motherboard to have voltage converters. It has the peculiarity of having a +12 VSB pin that is reserved for the power switch. In addition, it has three +12 V1 DC pins that supply 12V and must be converted to the necessary voltages.

motherboard atx12vo connector

EPS 4+4 pin

Power connector or connectors that have the mission of powering the processor. We say connectors, because some high-end motherboards require up to two of these connectors.

It is usually a 4+4 pin connector, 4-pin-only connectors are deprecated. This is because the modern processors have a high consumption and often require all 8 pins. It not only feeds the CPU, but also the elements it integrates such as graphics, memory controller, etc.

These connectors began to be used with the Intel Pentium IV processors and are still used today.

eps connector 4+4 pins

SATA power

Let’s go with the connectionr used in SATA hard drives modern, either HDD or SSD. Although it was created for storage units, it is now also used for LED controllers, liquid coolers, etc.

Something quite particular about this connector is that offers voltages of 3.3V, 5V and 12V. It also has the peculiarity of not being a symmetrical connector, but rather it has a particular design. if we see it looks like an «L» lying down, allowing only one type of installation.

It should be noted that there are several unusual variants of this connector. A special one for laptops and another for SAS hard drives that carry power and data together in the same piece.

sata power cable

6+2 pin PCIe

This connector is mainly used for graphics card power supply. This is used when the graphics card has a consumption that exceeds 75W, which is the power that can be supplied by the PCI-Express connector on the motherboard. Note that some high-end or overclocking motherboards may require one of these 6-pin PCIe connectors.

The PCI-SIG standard states that the connector 6-pin PCIe can offer a maximum power of 75W and the connector 8-pin PCIe offer up 150W.

We must emphasize that the 2 additional pins do not add power additional. What these two connectors do is add the sense wire function. It acts as a kind of sensor, which allows that when the requirements of the graphic increase, the power supply can give a more precise control.

We have to say that this function is already deprecated, not currently being necessary to control the voltages adequately. What is done by the manufacturers is to assign it as a negative pin so that the graphics card works, otherwise the graphics card could not boot.

8-pin PCIe connector

12VHPWR connector

this is a cone

created by Intel and used by NVIDIA for your RTX 30 Seris graphics cards. While it is meant to be usated with PCIe 5.0, it’s not unique to this connector, but it does require PCIe 5 certified power supplies. replace 4+4 pin PCIe connectorsoffering a single connector that can deliver more power.

Modern graphics cards typically have two or three 8-pin PCIe power connectors. This means a power supply of up to 450 watts, plus the 75 watts offered by the PCIe x16 port. The 12VHPWR connector want to correct this problem with a single connector 12 pin which should simplify everything.

This connector offers several peculiarities. The first thing is that it allows four powers, starting from the 150 wattsgoing through the 300 wattsthe 450 watts and reaching the 600 watts. Theoretically this connector, in the future, could support about 1000 watts.

12VHPWR graphic card gpu connector

4-pin Molex (deprecated)

Something quite interesting about this four-pin connector is that its name is incorrect. really his name is peripheral connector, although it is usually referred to as a Molex connector. The “popular” name of this connector is due to the fact that it was designed by Molex Connector Company, just like other power connectors. Although it is not entirely correct to call it Molex, the truth is that it does not matter, it is accepted as such.

This four-pin Molex connector is falling out of favor. Originallyabove all, was used with the mechanical hard drives based on the IDE data connector. alson has been used for a long time for other elements such as liquid cooling or RGB lighting. On some older motherboards it was even used to power PCIe ports or as supplemental power on older motherboards for overclocking. It is currently mostly replaced by the SATA power connector.

molex

4-pin floppy (obsolete)

Currently, if it’s not on very old computers, it’s (almost) impossible to see in modern power supplies. The floppy connector was mainly intended for floppy drives and in some specific cases, it was used for fans, but little else.

This connector is quite curious, since Floppy is not its correct name either. really his correct denomination is FDD, but since it was used for floppy drives, the name Floppy stuck. You will also be known as bergcompany that designed this power connector.

Technically this connector is exactly the same as the IDE, but in a more compact version.

floppy power connector

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