More than 1 type of ATX power supply pin out?

[Richard Lewis Haggard]

Is there more than 1 ATX power supply pin out? The reason I ask is because I built some ASUS P4B motherboard based systems a couple years back and put 350 watt ATX power supplies into them at the time. I had reason to upgrade the PS to 500 watt units and bought some that said that they were ATX power supplies - but they don't fit. The plug that goes to the mother board is slightly larger and has an extra pair of pins on it. What power supply should I have gotten?
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Richard Lewis Haggard

 

[delluser1]

Not really more than 1 type of pinout , just different versions of the ATX spec.
Your P4B only requires a 20 pin main connector, many modern power supplies come with a 20+4 pin connector to be able to accomodate the older ATX specs.
As long as there's clearance on the board you can use the 24 pin without fear.
Here's a link that may help;
http://www.playtool.com/pages/psuconnectors/connectors.html

 

[Richard Lewis Haggard]

So you think I have a new ATX power supply that has 4 more pins than are on the older ASUS P4B motherboard and that it should be possible to use the power supply anyway? As soon as I saw that the motherboard power connector had fewer pins than the power supply, I did not attempt to make the connection. In the brief amount of time I spent in disbelief before engaging in a meltdown, it looked to me like they were slightly different sizes as well. I will go back and look closer.

Or maybe there is a cable adapter that will do the trick?
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Richard Lewis Haggard

Not really more than 1 type of pinout , just different versions of the ATX spec.
Your P4B only requires a 20 pin main connector, many modern power supplies come with a 20+4 pin connector to be able to accomodate the older ATX specs.
As long as there's clearance on the board you can use the 24 pin without fear.
Here's a link that may help;
http://www.playtool.com/pages/psuconnectors/connectors.html

 

[delluser1]

Adapters work, if you want to spend the money
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16812270169

 

[False_Dmitry_II]

Yeah, like he said it's only worth using one of those if the extra 4 pins have no room to just sit there.

 

[ram1009]

It's also possible to use the 20 pin power connector from an older PSU on a MB with a 24 pin connector. I wouldn't recommend doing so though on a high powered computer which should have a larger supply to begin with.

 

[Richard Lewis Haggard]

Thanks. It turns out that I got lucky on this. The new power supply has 24 pin socket, 4 of which are removable so it will fit the MB without significant trouble.

Thanks guys!