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Having trouble installing a piece of hardware? Want to know if that peripheral is compatible with Linux?

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Old 04-08-2006, 07:40 PM   #1
sirius57
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Building my first box - Need advice


I finished mounting the cpu and cooler, memory, mounted the motherboard into the box, started connecting the plugs and found that the power supply (300 watts) that came with the pc box has a 20 pin plug and the Asus board (A8V-E SE) has a 24 pin socket (called the 24-pin EATXPWR in the user guide). It will fit the keyed connector, except that 4 pins are uncovered. The question is, do I need to swap out the power supply? I assumed since the pc box is configured to fit the motherboard form factor that everything should match.
 
Old 04-08-2006, 08:33 PM   #2
Brian1
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Looks like it will work fine but depends on the atached cards. Read this post to see what I mean. If it was me I would get a 24 pin power supply just to make sure the hardware has plenty of power.

http://hardware.mcse.ms/message163709.html
http://vip.asus.com/forum/view.aspx?...Language=en-us

Brian1
 
Old 04-09-2006, 10:15 PM   #3
sirius57
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Ok, I understand now. The box has an Asus A8V-E SE motherboard, AMD Athlon 64 3000+ processor and nVidia Geforce 6200 video card with quite cool (no fan). Is there a way to find out how much juice my video card uses so I can decide if I should upgrade the power supply (300 watts)?
 
Old 04-10-2006, 03:37 AM   #4
kniwor
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well that is a tough question... it depends a lot on what power supply u have...
if it's a good brand PSU it might be able to supple enough to power up ur system...

the 20 pin is not an issue... just leave the pins 11,12,23,24 empty, this can vary for motherboars... but the pin will fit in easily only in one way either leaving out 1,2,13,14, or 11,12,23,24... for most boards it will be later....

the best way is to connect everything, run ur system and run 3dmark 06 or something like this......

if the PSU is not enough this will not hurt your system... and u can get a new one....
 
Old 04-10-2006, 05:47 PM   #5
scagman
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If you live within the UK then you could buy a good 400w supply from Maplins which is on sale at around £25.00 at the moment. It has 24 pin power connectoras well as sata power connectors. It's a real bargain.
 
Old 04-10-2006, 08:31 PM   #6
sirius57
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Well, that makes me feel better. And I can always stress test it as suggested if I wanted to be positively sure the power supply was within limits. No, I am not in the UK, but will google search Maplins and see what they have in the universal mains voltage catagory.
 
Old 04-10-2006, 11:29 PM   #7
AwesomeMachine
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Cool Psu

Quote:
Originally Posted by sirius57
Ok, I understand now. The box has an Asus A8V-E SE motherboard, AMD Athlon 64 3000+ processor and nVidia Geforce 6200 video card with quite cool (no fan). Is there a way to find out how much juice my video card uses so I can decide if I should upgrade the power supply (300 watts)?
The PSU that comes with a case is usually a no name PSU. I never use those. They are too erratic. One of the voltages always runs on the low side. Antec makes good PSU's. They came out with a new line that has a 450W for about $80.00. With a computer system it goes in this order:

1 PSU
2 Mobo
3 processor and memory (you can more than double cpu performance depending on what memory you put in)
4 Everything else

Nothing works properly without good power. On my own computer I would never skimp on a PSU. They are worth the money for all the less problems you will have down the road.
 
Old 04-11-2006, 03:17 AM   #8
J.W.
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Check that the 24 pin connector isn't actually a 20 pin plus a 4 pin connector attached together - I'd be willing to bet that they are. If so, the 20 pin connector is for the mobo, and the 4 pin connector is for the video card (assuming it requires power)

I've got an Asus A8N5X mobo, and initially I figured that my PSU was totally incompatible due to the mismatch of the connectors. However, after close inspection I saw that my "24 pin" connector was actually two connectors
 
Old 04-11-2006, 08:24 AM   #9
kniwor
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Quote:
Originally Posted by J.W.
Check that the 24 pin connector isn't actually a 20 pin plus a 4 pin connector attached together - I'd be willing to bet that they are. If so, the 20 pin connector is for the mobo, and the 4 pin connector is for the video card (assuming it requires power)

I've got an Asus A8N5X mobo, and initially I figured that my PSU was totally incompatible due to the mismatch of the connectors. However, after close inspection I saw that my "24 pin" connector was actually two connectors

frankly i was never aware of this.....
afaik the 4 extra pins are not for graphics card... if the graphics card ever needs too much power it will have a power pin on it and u can directly connect it to PSU... like i had in my 6600 earlier..

the extra 4 pins are just for more reliable power supply, it is one and the same thing.... and this is also a very logial explaination to why almost all 24pin moboś will work with a 20 pin PSU...

furthermore... this 24pin thing was supposed so be just for more reliable power as i said earlier... but it turns out that many generic PSU manufacturers who give away a 24 pin psu will just split the rails into 2 and increase the number of pins... so it is no better than a 20 pin one...
 
Old 04-11-2006, 09:57 PM   #10
sirius57
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My connector is a solid 20 pin and a separate 4 pin that plugs into its own socket on the motherboard. The psu came with the box. It is rated at 300 watts. I am probably within its limits now (no extras), but power demand will probably grow with more devices that I plan to add and upgrades in the future.
 
Old 04-11-2006, 10:23 PM   #11
J.W.
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Quote:
Originally Posted by sirius57
My connector is a solid 20 pin and a separate 4 pin that plugs into its own socket on the motherboard.
Cool - separate them, and plug the 20 pin into the mobo. You're good to go.
 
Old 04-11-2006, 11:48 PM   #12
kniwor
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Quote:
Originally Posted by sirius57
My connector is a solid 20 pin and a separate 4 pin that plugs into its own socket on the motherboard. The psu came with the box. It is rated at 300 watts. I am probably within its limits now (no extras), but power demand will probably grow with more devices that I plan to add and upgrades in the future.

and that is called a 20 pin connecter.... a 24 pin one will have 4 MORE pins in it..... which can or cannot be seperate...
 
  


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