Atx connector

Just bought a new motherboard and it has a 24 pin atx connector, this is new
to me can I use the 20 pin connector power supply with it, and what's the
advantage of the 4 extra pins? Thanks for any reply.

The full answer to this question is complex. The short answer is that
you can try to use only the 20 pin connector (check you manual), or you
can try a 20 to 24 pin adapater (they do exist), either or both may
work, but neither is the "right" answer.

There are no new voltages in the extra 4 wires, they are just additional
lines to carry additional current on existing voltages.

However, there are two issues:

First, it may be impossible to supply adequate current without the
additional 4 lines, and the system may be unstable if you attempt to do
that. This instability may be transient and not immediately obvious,
you may end up with a system that seems to work but that simply locks up
or "blue screens" from time to time for no obviously apparent reason.

Second, some of the newer motherboards and power supplies have "split
rails", especially on the 12 volt supply. Essentially, the motherboard
was designed for a power supply with two INDEPENDENT 12 volt power
supplies, one for the CPU and one for the fans and disk drives (which
use 12 volts to power motors). This is where you can into the biggest
trouble, because in such a system, if you use a 20-pin connector you may
not be powering one of the rails (part of the system .... sometimes the
CPU or video card) at all, and in other cases you are tying the two
rails together, which will usually work but which defeats the purposes
of what was a superior design. [Note, not all power supplies with
24-pin connectors have "split rails" either.]

Hopefully your motherboard manual can give you some guidance on whether
it's ok to use just a 20-pin connector. But the best answer is a new
power supply. Virtually all current production motherboards now have
the 24-pin power sockets.


lindy wrote:

Just bought a new motherboard and it has a 24 pin atx connector, this is new
to me can I use the 20 pin connector power supply with it, and what's the
advantage of the 4 extra pins? Thanks for any reply.