Question for the Gurus

1.) Some power supplies have SATA power headers, which have a 3.3v line. Others don't. Most SATA drives accept either type of header (old style or SATA power). And most boards come with SATA power to 4-pin adapters. So any way you look at it, there's no need to worry.

2. a) I'd love to give you a definative answer, the problem is that everyone rates their supplies differently. Since Fortron rates their supplies at 70% peak, a Fortron that says 14A on the line should output as much as an Enermax that says 20A. Etc. Just buy a good quality supply and don't worry about it.
b) True
c) My P4 2.6C ran fine at 3250MHz, with 2 hard drives, a bunch of SCSI drives, a SCSI controller, modem AIW 9600 Pro video card (highly overclocked), 1024MB of PC4000 at 2.85v, etc, producing huge heat (and therefore consuming huge power), on a Fortron 350W power supply. If you buy the 400W, it's overkill for most high end systems.

3.) Pin-Out is the header the cables for front USB uses. LOL on the gigabyte board discription, there is only 1 way to connect the front USB ports to the motherboard, and that's using cables to pins on the motherboard.


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Before i get into answering you questions...let me just say you have a pretty "lopsided system" i mean you have a $1000 cpu, the fastest ATA hard drive around and a mid range video card...it just seems silly to me...

1. SATA hard drives use a diffrent connector than standard ata hard drives use...many mobos come with molex (old style) to sata adapters.
2. A. A higher amperage is better...the 12v and 5v are among the most important but major fluctuations in any rail excluding maybe the -5v and -12v are bad for stability.
B. It depends on the motherboard diffrent mobos take the cpu voltage from diffrent rails...now days i beleive most mobos DO use the 12v rail to power the voltage regulators and thus the cpu...so yes that is a true statement for the most part.
C. I am 90% sure fortrons high end psus offer this, although i think this is MAJOR overkill for any single cpu mainboard, however i beleive it is to allow the hard drives, cdrom drives etc to run a diffrent rail than the mobo is using so that diffrent amounts of load will not cause their voltage to fluctuate...
3. I beleive this refers to the motherboard using a special connector for the internal usb ports...most cases and all mobos i have seen take advantage of this..basically it carries all of the signals that a standard usb port does just it has a diffrent pinout and connector style.

I would recomend that you take a look at epox's 4pca3+ mainboard which i found to be a very nice motherboard in both price and features (it includes ata to sata power converts btw). Also the latest fortron psu that i have delt with did have the sata power connectors. I personally would recomend a 350-400w fortron powersupply for your system. If for some daft reason you would like to spend more on an inferior psu from another brand look on the order of +400w.


If it isn't a P6 then it isn't a procesor
110% BX fanboy

damn u beat me!


If it isn't a P6 then it isn't a procesor
110% BX fanboy

Thanks for the help guys really appreciate it, and you gave me a good education.
Based on what I have read here and the reviews on the site I have narrowed it down to:

- Fortron Source 400W
- Zalman 400W

I'll go with whichever one is cheaper.
Thanks again!

Why are you spending $1000 on a processor and looking for the least expensive PSU? Seems nutty to me! The P4EE is really a waste of extra money for very little performance increase. If that's really want you want I wont argue with you, but I think if you really look into it, you'll find that you can get a comparable level of performance from a much less expensive CPU. (I guess it sort of depends on what you're doing with this computer too).