Here’s what you need to know about power connectors

ATX12VO

The ATX connector was born from the hand of Intel in 1995 and has gone through several revisions. Recently, Intel decided to go further and developed the ATX12VO connector, designed to reduce consumption. The number of pins is reduced to less than half compared to the 24-pin ATX connectorby removing the 3.3V and 5V rails.

This connector has only 10 pins, requiring the motherboard to have voltage converters. It has the particularity of having a +12 VSB pin which is reserved for the power switch. Additionally, it has three DC +12V1 pins which supply 12V and need to be converted to the necessary voltages.

4+4 pin EPS

Power connector or connectors responsible for supplying power to the processor. We say connectors, because some high-end motherboards require up to two of these connectors.

It is usually a 4+4 pin connector, 4-pin-only connectors are deprecated. It is because the modern processors have high power consumption and often require all 8 pins. It not only powers the CPU, but also the elements it integrates such as graphics, memory controller, etc.

These connectors began to be used with Intel Pentium IV processors and are still used today.

SATA Power

Let’s go with the connectionr used in SATA hard drives modern, HDD or SSD. Although it was created for storage units, now it is also used for LED controllers, liquid coolers, etc.

Something quite peculiar about this connector is that offers voltages of 3.3 V, 5 V and 12 V. It also has the particularity of not being a balanced connector, but rather of having a particular design. if we see it looks like an elongated “L”, allowing only one type of installation.

It should be noted that there are several unusual variants of this connector. One special for laptops and another for SAS hard drives that carry power and data together in the same room.

6+2 pin PCIe

This connector is mainly used for graphics card power supply. This is used when the graphics card has a consumption greater than 75W, i.e. the power that can be supplied by the PCI-Express connector on the motherboard. Note that some high-end or overclocked motherboards may require one of these 6-pin PCIe connectors.

The PCI-SIG standard stipulates that the connector 6 pin PCIe can offer a maximum power of 75W and the connector 8 pin PCIe to offer 150W.

We must point out that the 2 extra pins do not add power Additional. What these two connectors do is add the “detector wire” function. It acts as a kind of sensor, which allows that when the demands of the graph increase, the power supply can give a more precise control.

We have to say that this the function is already deprecated, not being currently necessary to control voltages adequately. What is done by manufacturers is to assign it as a negative pin to make the graphics card work that if it didn’t exist the graphics card would not be able to boot.

12VHPWR connector

it’s a cone

created by Intel and used by NVIDIA for your RTX 30 Seris graphics cards. When it’s supposed to be yousaturated with PCIe 5.0, it’s not unique to this connector, but it does require PCIe 5 certified power supplies. replace 4+4 pin PCIe connectorsoffering a single connector that can provide more power.

Modern graphics cards typically have two or three 8-pin PCIe power connectors. That means up to 450 watts of power, plus the 75 watts offered by the PCIe x16 port. The 12VHPWR connector want to fix this problem with a single connector 12 pins which should simplify everything.

This connector offers several features. The first thing is that it allows four powers, starting with the 150 wattsPassing by 300 wattsthem 450 watts

4 pin Molex (obsolete)

Something very interesting about this four-pin connector is that its name is incorrect. really sound name is peripheral connector, although it is usually referred to as a Molex connector. The “popular” name of this connector is due to the fact that it was designed by Molex Connector Company, just like the other power connectors. Although it is not entirely correct to call it Molex, the truth is that it does not matter, it is accepted as such.

That four-pin Molex connector is falling out of favor. Originallyespecially, was used with the mechanical hard drives based on the IDE data connector. toohas not been used a long time for other items such as liquid cooling or RGB lighting. On some older motherboards it was even used to power PCIe ports or as an additional power supply on older motherboards for overclocking. It is currently mainly replaced by the SATA power connector.

4 pin floppy disk (obsolete)

Currently, if not on very old computers, it is (almost) impossible to see in modern power supplies. The Floppy connector was primarily intended for disketteras and in some specific cases it was used for fans, but nothing else.

This connector is quite curious, because Floppy is not its correct name either. really sound the correct denomination is FDD, but since it was used for floppy disk drives, the Floppy name stuck. You will also be known as bergcompany that designed this power connector.

Technically, this connector is exactly the same as the IDE, but in a more compact version.