motherboard — 8 pin CPU power connector has different form on one end
Asked
Modified
4 years, 6 months ago
Viewed
22k times
My motherboard requires an 8-pin CPU power cable to be connected, other than the 24-pin main connector. My PSU (which is modular) has the same exact 8-pin connector, under which it is written CPU. My PSU doesn’t have an 8-pin to 8-pin connector, but has instead an 8-pin to 4+4-pin. But as you can see in the images below, the shape on 2 pins are different.
Meanwhile the pins on the motherboard and on the PSU are the same.
Will this make a difference? Can I connect one end to the PSU or the motherboard without damage independently?
- cpu
- motherboard
- power-supply
- computer-building
5
I guess the upper pins (the terms «upper», «lower», «left» and «right» refer to your original photo) are connected with yellow cables and are supposed to transmit +12V. The bottom pins are connected with black cables and are designed for GND. Refer to the user manual of your PSU to confirm this.
The left connector (8) is the one you connect to the PSU. The right connector (4+4) is the one you connect to the motherboard. If you need to connect an 8-pin socket to an 8-pin socket, it shouldn’t matter though.
Note a beveled pin fits any socket type. By making the 4+4 part the way it is, they made it possible to connect the right connector:
- to a single 8-pin socket (that can also strictly fit the left connector, this is what you want to do, I believe),
- or to up to two separate 4-pin sockets (each can strictly fit the left part of the right connector).
In other words the right part of the right connector is universal all-beveled design, so it can be used as the right part or as a (standalone) left part.
2
Sign up or log in
Sign up using Google
Sign up using Facebook
Sign up using Email and Password
Post as a guest
Required, but never shown
Post as a guest
Required, but never shown
By clicking “Post Your Answer”, you agree to our terms of service, privacy policy and cookie policy
The Cables in Your PC’s Power Supply, Explained
So, you’re building a new gaming PC.
For a newcomer, it can be a daunting task. After all, there are many components, and if you don’t know what you’re doing, you can mess things up. As such, it’s important to get acquainted with all the components inside a PC, how they work, and what goes where.
Case in point: the power supply you just unboxed and the mess of cables coming out of it. What are all of these PSU cables and connectors, and what do they do?
20/24-Pin Motherboard Cable
Image Credits: CPU Medics
First, the cable that probably caught your eye the most is the wide 24-pin, whether you bought a modular or non-modular PSU. And that’s actually the most important cable.
This cable is the main connector that provides power to your PC’s motherboard. While it’s not the only connector your PC needs (other components will require additional power, as you’ll soon see), this is the main one in charge of delivering the correct voltage to your motherboard and, by extension, most of your PC’s components.
This includes your RAM, storage devices, PCIe devices without auxiliary power, and pretty much everything else in your motherboard.
You’ll normally find this connector sitting prominently around the edge of your motherboard. In older ATX motherboards, as well as lower-end ones, you’ll find that the main connector actually has 20 pins rather than 24. Likewise, some power supplies come with a 20+4 connector (with 4 pins that can be separated) instead of a straight-up 24-pin. This is because older PCs with lower power requirements can make do with 20 pins instead of 24, and power supplies have mostly stayed the same over the years (and not for lack of trying).
Power supplies are more or less compatible with older ones thanks to the ATX standard, and this has stuck around in the mind of some PSU makers. After all, old power supplies do die eventually, and when they do, the ability to use a new power supply can probably save it from ending up in a landfill.
4/8-Pin CPU Connector
Image Credits: Newegg
Then, we have the CPU connector.
The CPU is one of the few parts of your PC that needs auxiliary power on top of the power provided to your motherboard. The CPU connector is there to step in.
The CPU connector is normally found close to your PC’s CPU socket. Just plug it in after you’re done with your motherboard connector, and you’re good to go.
Depending on the computer, you might find this connector a little different. In lower-end PCs, you’ll find a 4-pin connector on your motherboard, which should be able to provide enough electricity for these lower-end chips. On mid-range and high-end CPUs, you can expect to find an 8-pin instead, giving enough power to almost every chip.
Almost always, your PC’s power supply will include an 8-pin connector that breaks in two, known as a 4+4-pin. This allows it to be connected to both 4-pin and 8-pin connectors—just put one of them aside if you don’t need to use it.
In some power supplies, you might find more than one CPU cable. Likewise, some motherboards might include an 8-pin and a 4-pin connector or come with a 12-pin instead.
While this is not the norm, some PCs need a lot of juice for the CPU, especially for folks who are into overclocking.
6/8-Pin PCI Express Cable (GPU Cable)
Image Credits: be quiet!/Aquatuning
Technically, all PCI Express power needs are already served by the motherboard connector. After all, if you put something like a Wi-Fi card there, it’ll work perfectly. However, some devices (most commonly GPUs) need extra auxiliary power on top of what the motherboard provides. This is where PCIe cables come in. These are sometimes called GPU cables since they’re mainly used by GPUs.
They’ll come in both 6-pin and 8-pin flavors and connect on top of a GPU. Depending on what GPU we’re talking about, you might make do with one single connector, or you might need two, or a whopping three, depending on the power requirements of the specific card. If the power requirements of a card aren’t fully satisfied, users might experience performance drops or even instability and frequent crashes.
Luckily, most power supplies, especially those with higher wattages, come with multiple PSU cables.
Other PSU Cables
While those are the three main cables you need to be aware of, there are some extra ones that you might or might not need depending on your use case. These are in charge of providing power to secondary components in your PC.
SATA Cable
Image Credits: Amazon
First off, we have the SATA power cable. These are still widely included in power supplies nowadays, and if the SATA name is giving you hints as to what it’s for, then your hunch is probably right. The SATA power cable is mainly in charge of providing power to a hard drive or another SATA drive directly from the hard drive. It’s not to be confused with the SATA cable, which is the actual connection between your hard drive and your PC—the SATA power cable provides power, while the SATA cable provides everything else.
Lately, SATA power cables have seen other usages as well.
For example, some computer cases with addressable RGB might come with a hub to connect all the leads from RGB peripherals, like fans. In that case, that RGB hub will likely be powered by a SATA power cable, even though it’s not a drive. It can be used as auxiliary power for many peripherals.
Molex
Image Credits: Barcex/Wikimedia Commons
Molex is largely retired these days, but there’s a chance you might still see it on older or lower-end PCs. Like SATA, Molex connectors are meant to provide you with auxiliary power. Molex connectors used to be present in everything from hard drives to case fans.
Over the last decade, though, Molex has largely disappeared. The reason? It’s generally regarded as an annoying connector to deal with, breaking easily and being overall unreliable. Those use cases that still need auxiliary, Molex-like power have since transitioned to SATA.
Know Your PC’s Power Supply
In order to be able to build your PC the right way, it’s essential for you to know what each power connector coming out of your power supply does, just like how it’s important to know how efficient it is.
Hopefully, with our explainer, it’s pretty clear now.
Processor frequency and its correct understanding
If we take the purely specific characteristics of processors, then the clock frequency is the most well-known parameter. Therefore, it is necessary to deal specifically with this concept. Also, within the framework of this article, we will discuss understanding of the clock frequency of multi-core processors , because there are interesting nuances that not everyone knows and takes into account.
For quite a long time, developers have been betting on increasing the clock frequency, but over time, the «fashion» has changed and most of the developments go to create a more advanced architecture, increase the cache memory and develop multi-core, but no one forgets about the frequency.
What is the clock frequency of the processor?
First you need to understand the definition of «clock frequency». The clock speed tells us how many calculations the processor can perform per unit of time.
Accordingly, the higher the frequency, the more operations per unit time the processor can perform. The clock frequency of modern processors is mainly 1.0-4 GHz. It is determined by multiplying the external or base frequency by a certain factor. For example, an Intel Core i7 9 processor20 uses a bus frequency of 133 MHz and a multiplier of 20, resulting in a clock frequency of 2660 MHz.
The processor frequency can be increased at home by overclocking the processor. There are special models of processors from AMD and Intel that are focused on overclocking by the manufacturer, for example, the Black Edition from AMD and the K-series line from Intel.
I want to note that when buying a processor, the frequency should not be a decisive factor in your choice, because only part of the processor’s performance depends on it.
Understanding clock speed (multi-core processors)
There are no single-core processors left in almost all market segments. Well, it is logical, because the IT industry does not stand still, but is constantly moving forward by leaps and bounds.
Therefore, it is necessary to clearly understand how the frequency is calculated for processors that have two or more cores.
While visiting many computer forums, I noticed that there is a common misconception about understanding (calculating) the frequencies of multi-core processors. I’ll immediately give an example of this incorrect reasoning: “There is a 4-core processor with a clock frequency of 3 GHz, so its total clock frequency will be: 4 x 3 GHz = 12 GHz, right?” — No, not so.
I will try to explain why the total processor frequency cannot be understood as: «the number of cores is x the specified frequency.»
I will give an example: “A pedestrian is walking along the road, his speed is 4 km/h. This is similar to a single core processor at N GHz. But if 4 pedestrians are walking along the road at a speed of 4 km / h, then this is similar to a 4-core processor at N GHz. In the case of pedestrians, we do not consider that their speed will be equal to 4×4 = 16 km/h, we simply say: «4 pedestrians walk at a speed of 4 km/h» .
For the same reason, we do not perform any mathematical operations with the frequencies of the processor cores, but simply remember that a 4-core processor at N GHz has four cores, each of which operates at a frequency of N GHz.
That is, in fact, the processor frequency does not change with the number of cores, only the processor performance increases. This must be understood and remembered.
Go to Article : main characteristics of processors (opens in a new tab)
Cores or threads: finding out which is more important for the processor Sergei Koval
([email protected])
Published: 16 February 2021
The descriptions of modern processors indicate the number of cores and threads. What do these numbers mean, what indicators should be guided by when buying a processor.
The specification of each processor necessarily contains information about the number of cores and threads.
The rules “the more the better” have not been canceled in this situation, but let’s find out in which tasks virtual cores can give a significant performance boost, and in which they will remain useless.
Why does a processor need multiple cores?
The processor is the computing center of any computer, tablet, smartphone, and even a game console. It is the processor that receives user commands entered in various applications and programs, processes them and distributes tasks between other system nodes — a video card, RAM, a solid state drive.
That is why the processor is the brain center of each computer, responsible for its computing abilities and speed.
The first processors were single devices that received commands and executed them in strict order. One core allowed you to choose a processor when buying only in terms of frequency. And the lack of performance at first was compensated by the creation of two- and multi-processor configurations.
In such assemblies, the user’s input commands were processed by the first processor, and the remaining operations, if possible, were evenly distributed among the others. To build such systems, dual-processor boards or multi-socket configurations were used.
As the next step, the manufacturers created a multi-core architecture that allows to place several computer centers on the area of a seemingly small microchip, which in fact were independent processors. So two-, four- and eight-core devices appeared on sale, which processed several streams of information at once.
Later, in the Pentium processor line, Intel introduced the technical ability to execute two instructions per clock with one core, which marked the beginning of a new era in computer technology — processor hyperthreading. And now the company’s specialists are actively working on a new technology for implementing four threads on a single core, and in the near future such processors will be presented to the public.
How cores and threads differ
The core is an independent computing unit in the processor architecture, capable of performing a linear sequence of tasks over a certain period of time. If you load one core with several task sequences, then it will alternately switch between them, processing one task from each thread. On a system scale, this slows down programs and services.
A thread is a programmatically allocated area in the physical processor core. This virtual implementation allows you to share kernel resources and work in parallel with two different instruction sequences. Thus, the operating system perceives the thread as a separate computing center, therefore, the kernel resource is used more rationally, and the calculation speed increases.
Should we expect a doubling of performance?
The virtual division of the processing power of the processor into threads is called hyperthreading. In practice, this is not a physical increase in the number of cores, therefore, the computing potential of the processor remains constant.
Hyperthreading is a tool that allows the processor to more quickly execute operating system commands and allocate computing resources.
Thus, doubling the number of threads relative to the cores can increase the efficiency of the processor by performing multiple tasks simultaneously on each core. But the increase, even according to the assurances of the market leader in the production of Intel processors, will be within 30%.
But you should not worry about the increase in power consumption and excessive heating. Since the virtual separation is performed in production, the company has calculated all the operating parameters, such as power and TDP, specified in the specification.
What to choose: cores or threads?
Since the cores are the physical «think tanks» involved in calculations, they are responsible for the overall performance of the central processor. Therefore, the number of cores, and also the frequency of the processor, determines its performance.
But the number of threads also deserves attention. Let’s look at an example:
A dual-core processor with two threads is loaded by the operating system with four parallel sequences of instructions, for example, from open games and programs. The commands will remain in the four «queues», and the cores will alternately perform calculations from each. At the same time, the performance of the kernel is often excessive for processing one instruction. Therefore, part of the computing potential of the core, and hence the processor, will remain in reserve.
If we take a similar processor with two cores, but for four threads, then all four queues will be activated simultaneously, loading the cores to the maximum. Consequently, tasks will be solved faster, and downtime of computing power can be avoided.
In practice, this gives us the opportunity to run several programs at the same time: work with documents, listen to music, chat in instant messengers and search in the browser.
