I have a Gigabyte GA-P55A-UD3 motherboard and my problem is with a 8 pin connection. I have plugged in one of the 4 pin connectors but the other 4 pin connector attached to it doesn't fit in the port shown below. Is this a problem or is it meant to be like this? The PC is running fine, I'm just wondering if I'm doing something wrong
if the 8 port are beside each other and not seperated you need a 8 pin, not a 4 pin. If it required 2x 4 pin, they would be seperated.
What he's saying is that his power supply (much like the one in my other rig) has the ability to separate the 8-pin 12v cable into two 4-pin 12v cables, so you can still use the PSU with older hardware that only required 1x 4-pin 12v cable. Do you have a picture of the PSU connectors? Usually they're made to interlock with each other so you can plug them both into an 8-pin header.
Sorry if my wording was a bit ambiguous. It's impossible to get a good look at the wires without removing the motherboard (as it runs behind), but I found a picture online. Here's the page I found it on. http://www.playtool.com/pages/psuconnectors/connectors.html#eps4plus4 My connector is the 4+4 pin +12 volt power cable. The motherboard manual doesn't say whether its ok or not to just leave one 4 pin connector in. Since the other connector is carrying the correct voltage I could plug it in safely (right?), but I'm confused as to why the PSU manufacturer would make the connector like this?
it physically doesn't fit? as in, there is a square pin where there is a 5-sided hole? or do you just mean that there's a stray chunk of plastic blocking a hole? if there's a square pin for a round hole, you're probably plugging in the wrong connector. if all the pins match the shape of their corresponding sockets, then just take a knife and trim until it fits. plugging in just the 4-pin may or may not work depending on your mobo, but it won't fry anything. give it a try.
My evga board had this similar setup, and it was 'recommended' to have a 8pin connection, but it didnt really 'need' it. I have been using my PC in that state (OC'd too) for the past 2+ years without an issue. Finding a 8pin PSU that would actually work with it was a pain and expensive ( didnt do it naturally). I dont know why they even had it setup for it like that, cause it works fine without it. Hope that helps
I would NOT trim any power cable to make it fit, thats just asking for problems. If it dont fit, dont make it fit. IMHO
I mean one of my 4 pin connectors has 4 curved holes instead of 2 curved/2 square. But apparently it will still easily fit if I try, according to other people's experiences. After much googling the consensus seems to be I could just use one 4 pin connector. My system is running fine (it's also overclocked), but some people are saying if the processor is drawing a lot of power it can overheat the 4 pin connector and possibly melt it, which is why it's recommended to use all 8 pins. I'm hesitant to try forcing the other in because as I said my computer is running fine, but at the same time I'm worried long term I might be doing damage. Anyway thanks for your responses, I think I'll try connecting all 8 pins and hopefully everything goes okay.
I had the same situation. I guess you need to have a PSU with 8pin specifically for the motherboard. I ended up just plugging the 4pin in and everything has been fine since.
as i've alway read it the addational '4 pin' is for heavy cpu power, ie. heavy overclocking, is this the case with your rig? I ran my mobo without it for about 6 mounths woth no ill effect
If you're running it fine right now, I don't think you will have any issues... Pete, my Classified must be made for 'extreme' cpu power... It's got 2x 8-pin 12v connectors!
I was able to run my EX58-UD5 with only the 4-pin connector so i'd say you're good to go untill you get around to upgrading your PSU. I think the manual also says that it's okay to do this.
My Asus P6TD Deluxe had a cover on the 2nd 4-pin section of the 8 pin socket on the motherboard. Its probably there for if your running overclocked CPUs and multiple GPUs and thus sucking more power from the motherboard.
Just to follow up, it was very easy to push the connector in and the computer did not explode. In fact I've been able to further overclock my core i5-750 from 3.67GHz (175*21) to 3.89GHz (185*21) without increasing voltage. This wasn't stable a week ago so either this has helped or I've done something else in the past week to the computer.
