Should I remove the cap covering the other 4 pins or just be happy with the default 4 pin power supply. By the way what is the function of the other pins.
Im not sure why they had a cap on just 4 of the 8 pins.. but I just pulled it off and plugged in all 8 because I assumed it required them. You could be unstable with only 4 of the 8.
The eight pin socket on the motherboard is for use with Intel extreme processor. ex. QX9650.
The extra socket on the motherboard is placed close to the voltage regulators for the cpu. The socket was introduced for the extra power demands of the Pentium 4. The socket earned the moniker P4 because it has four pins and it was used for the Pentium 4 cpu.
The socket was expanded to eight pins for the higher power demand for the Intel extreme series processors.
If you have an ATX12V 2.2 generation powersupply it should have a 4 + 4 pin power connector to subjectively meet the EPS12V standard.
EPS12V is a standard used for server powersupplies.
If you have the EPS12V secondary connector on your powersupply you might as well use it. If you only have the P4 secondary connector leave the dust cap on.
I'm surprised your motherboard wasn't supplied with a 4 pin to 8 pin adaptor cable.
