General questions regarding motherboard power connectors

Tanyac · Sep 15, 2016

Hi,

Of late I've noticed some extra connectors on motherboards. My MSI X99A XPower AC has a 4pin connector next to the 8 pin connector. The manual doesn't explain what its for,

I'm only using 8 pins, as that is all my Corsair HX1200i has.

There is a side mounted molex 4 pin connector which is "for extra power for PCIe slots" on this and other motherboards I've had recently. Sometimes it's vertically mounted near the CPU.

When would I need that?

I have one GTX 980 Ti which has 2 x 8pin connectors on the card.

So do I need to use the molex connector as well?
Is it only needed for SLI'd systems?

Faux_Grey · Sep 15, 2016

Hi there.

Certain boards have an 8pin and a 4pin CPU power connector, depending on what CPU you put in, depends on which power connector you use.

The 8 pin will give more power/cleaner power for those that overclock.
No need to connect the other 4 pin.

The side mounted molex connector is used for delivering extra power to the PCIe slots, if you have a lot of high-powered cards that DON'T use external connectors like your graphics card.

So like, if you're running RAID cards, etc.

Tanyac · Sep 15, 2016

Faux_Grey :

Cool. So I can disconnect the cable from the molex connector then. I only have one GTX 980 ti and a USB 3.1 addin card.

Search

General questions regarding motherboard power connectors

Tanyac

Reputable

Faux_Grey

Faux_Grey

Honorable

Tanyac

Reputable

TRENDING THREADS

Latest posts

Moderators online

Share this page