What's the deal with the additional power connector?

Your-Amish-DaddyYour-Amish-Daddy The heart of Texas
edited December 2007 in Hardware
I keep seeing these on newer boards, mainly those with the 8-pin. What are they for, and are they required if you have the 8-pin power?

Comments

  • RyderRyder Kalamazoo, Mi Icrontian
    edited November 2007
    What additional power connector are you referring to and on what board?
  • ThraxThrax 🐌 Austin, TX Icrontian
    edited November 2007
    Motherboards? Auxiliary power; 24pin is incapable of supplying the necessary power. See the EPS12v power spec.
  • Your-Amish-DaddyYour-Amish-Daddy The heart of Texas
    edited November 2007
    No I mean the molex thingy, sorry. Wasnt' too clear on it. I know about the EPS12V thing, I'm seeing Core2 boards with the 24+8, then four more by the PCI/E slots.

    Like on this one
  • RyderRyder Kalamazoo, Mi Icrontian
    edited November 2007
    Yea, the Molex is there to provide extra power to that side of the board and possibly the Vid cards.

    Traces can only be so long and so thick now days so by placing a power connector on the opposite side of the board they can get power where they need to have it.
  • Your-Amish-DaddyYour-Amish-Daddy The heart of Texas
    edited November 2007
    Well, Why not put the power connectors in the right places? Now if I get a new board I have to plug THREE things for power into it? Man that's ridiculous.
  • BuddyJBuddyJ Dept. of Propaganda OKC Icrontian
    edited November 2007
    Because sticking a huge ass power plug in the center of the mobo looks ugly, and creates clearance, layout and airflow issues. Let the engineers do their job and get used to it. ;)
  • Your-Amish-DaddyYour-Amish-Daddy The heart of Texas
    edited November 2007
    I'm just complaining because I'm getting old and my medication stopped helping with my crazy-issues. It's cool I don't mind. Thanks for the info.
  • mmonninmmonnin Centreville, VA
    edited November 2007
    I'd like to see anyone design a board with all the power entering at one point on the motherboard. Why not connect power close to where it is going to be used to reduce noise and other problems.
  • Your-Amish-DaddyYour-Amish-Daddy The heart of Texas
    edited November 2007
    That's been my point from the start..
  • MAGICMAGIC Doot Doot Furniture City, Michigan Icrontian
    edited November 2007
    Your Amish Daddy wrote:
    That's been my point from the start..

    Get on it then.
  • Your-Amish-DaddyYour-Amish-Daddy The heart of Texas
    edited November 2007
    You might wanna take these wise words to heart.
    "Light travels faster than sound. This is why some people appear bright until you hear them speak. -Alan Dundes" And so I don't get banned, I shut up and let you think of how stupid you just sounded.
  • ThraxThrax 🐌 Austin, TX Icrontian
    edited November 2007
    You must be of very short stature on the webternets, because low-flying interwibble sarcasm just went soaring over your head.
  • Your-Amish-DaddyYour-Amish-Daddy The heart of Texas
    edited November 2007
    Oh please master. Elaborate the sarcasm that I obviously missed!
  • KwitkoKwitko Sheriff of Banning (Retired) By the thing near the stuff Icrontian
    edited November 2007
    Discussion finished. Both of you go back to your rooms.
  • LeonardoLeonardo Wake up and smell the glaciers Eagle River, Alaska Icrontian
    edited November 2007
    Alright, back to the thread. YAD, I looked at the Biostar board you linked. I'm hoping that was just an example to illustrate the power plug-ins you were discussing, and not a board you were considering buying. That's probably the most screwed up layout on a motherboard I've ever seen. You could scarcely pick a worse location for the 24-pin ATX connector - you would be drawing the large cable bundle right across the CPU heatsink. And the northbridge cooler is sandwiched right between the main PCI-e connectors. The auxiliary MOLEX is flush with the primary PCI-e. Biostar engineers must have designed that board while drunk. The only power connector on that board that makes sense is the EPS-12V.
  • Your-Amish-DaddyYour-Amish-Daddy The heart of Texas
    edited November 2007
    Yeah, I'm not gonna buy it, but it was an option. I'm just looking for something that will take only what it needs and nothing more. If you got any recommendations, I'm all ears, and I'd like to get both dual core and FX support, just incase I decide to pick up a 62 or something. And I'd like to be able to recycle my Gemini 2, so it's gotta be a vertical bracket mount like that one, with some distance from the memory for heat pipe room.
  • LeonardoLeonardo Wake up and smell the glaciers Eagle River, Alaska Icrontian
    edited November 2007
    What features do you need on the board? I'm sorry, I'm tired and I don't want to re-read the whole thread. What processor and chipset are you looking for? If you want stable high performance and minimalist features, I'd go with the Abit IP35-E. If you need SLI, dual Gigabit LAN, Firewire...

    Is this a find features first and ask about price second? Will use an existing power supply? What connectors does it have? Do you already have a PCIe video card?
  • Your-Amish-DaddyYour-Amish-Daddy The heart of Texas
    edited November 2007
    Price really doesn't bother me. I know quality costs. I'm just looking for a standard full sized ATX board, atleast 3 PCI slots, hopefully I can do better than 4 sata, and I wouldn't mind gigabit lan. I've got an Epox NForce4-MF4-J3 which is great, but if Epox isn't going to make boards anymore...I'm not gonna stick around. There has to be enough room for my Gemini 2 on it, which has a small footprint on the board, and maybe the PCIe 16 above everything else on the board just incase I wanna get a dual-slot card. Don't need no SLI/Xfire, because I believe that no game should need two cards to play well. Also, and this is a big must. IT MUST HAVE SATA IDE EMULATION!! I can't stress that enough. I don't have room in my case for a floppy to do the f6 raid crap. That's about it. Seems like a big list, but I think it's quite meager.
  • LeonardoLeonardo Wake up and smell the glaciers Eagle River, Alaska Icrontian
    edited November 2007
    Consider the Abit IP35-E. I've got two of them both very stable and each overclocking a Q6600 by 1GHz. One sports a Zalman 9700 NT, which is big, and the other has a Tuniq Tower 120, which is very big. There is plenty of room around those heatsinks. It's a full sized ATX designed for demanding use, yet it's very affordable. It's high quality, just that you don't have to blow chunks of money for stuff you don't want, like RAID, 2d PCI-e video slot, and Firewire. Three standard PCI slots. The only drawback for me is that it's only got four USB ports. For my main computer, that would not be enough. (but I've got USB expansion slot brackets in my parts bin) In my opinion, nothing can beat this board in it's price class. For overclocking, there are boards that are nearly $200 more that don't perform any better. I know you aren't necessarily interested in overclocking, but a good overclocking reputation usually means the board has solid traces, capacitors, and voltage regulators. If you need more features, consider then the Abit IP35 (not 'E'), IP35-Pro, or one of the Gigabyte P35-DS3 series. I've got the Gigabyte GA-P35-DS4 R2 and love it. There are some fine Asus P35 boards as well, but I haven't kept up with Asus lately. In my opinion, you can get much more board for your money with Abit or Gigabyte.





    Take a look.
  • Your-Amish-DaddyYour-Amish-Daddy The heart of Texas
    edited November 2007
    And THAT is what Willis was talking about. Nice. Now maybe you could pick an AM2 board for my AM2 system since the board is crap?
  • LeonardoLeonardo Wake up and smell the glaciers Eagle River, Alaska Icrontian
    edited November 2007
    Wish I could help you there, YAD, but I haven't kept up with AMD boards...since nForce 2.
  • deadlock-777deadlock-777 britain
    edited December 2007
    yep the gigabyte ga-p31-ds3l only£50.00.in custom pc it took mb s four times its price apart and has a great oc bios.1 2140 dual core and oc the core to 3ghzand you got a £120.00 cpu for £100.00 with mb.a great first pc
  • HW_HackHW_Hack North of Kalifornia
    edited December 2007
    RyderOCZ wrote:
    Yea, the Molex is there to provide extra power to that side of the board and possibly the Vid cards.

    Traces can only be so long and so thick now days so by placing a power connector on the opposite side of the board they can get power where they need to have it.

    Yes this is the reason for not having a centralized power connector - the other is that a standard PC MB only has four layers signal-power-ground-signal. So this also forces localization of power connectors. Four layers is the cost sweet spot.
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