Power supply molex connections

[TheChamp1000]

I have just taken delivery of a new tagan 680w superock psu that I will use in my new pc build.
Having a look at it and comparing it to my tagan 480w psu I noticed that the molex pins inside seem to move around inside the plastic connector.

On my tagan 480w the plastic connector seems more solid and the pins held in place inside the plastic very solidly.
Is it just a difference in quality of the plastic connectors or should the pins not move about?
They don't seem too straight but seem to plug in okay if that makes sense.

I am going to try the psu out on my other systems however I have a really old system

asus a78nx
athlon xp 2400+ processor
6600 gt gfx card


would it be okay to try it out on that system or would that cause any problems?

I will also try it out on a dual core rig also available to me.

[peterb]

Just not such good quality connectors. (Actually, some movement can be a good thing as it allows the pins to self align with the sockets however be careful that the pins are connected properly, in extreme cases, if they are very loose, they can connect down the side of the socket, rather than the centre (if you see what I mean) which is unreliable. However I should stress that that would be an extreme case and very unlikely to happen in practice.

[GoNz0]

it seems to be the norm these days, maybe the older stiffer ones were more prone to snapping the plastics when things were not inline ?

[pipTheGeek]

I have found several PSU's now with loose pins in Molex connectors. It has never caused a problem except once when one of the pins (actually a socket as it is attached to the PSU) pushed out of the connector block instead of mating with the other connecter. Caused a bit of confusion about why a drive had stopped working until I noticed it.

[Sputnik]

I think it is better if the pins move in the plastic housing, As others have said at least it allows them to align with the pins. The important thing is the terminals are a snug fit on the pins.

I can only assume if you manage to fit them so the device pins are between the terminal and the plastic housing of the plug - You must have been too 'ham fisted' with it.

I think the best one I've seen was someone who manged to get a VGA lead from a monitor plugged in to a graphics card 180 degrees out, He bent a few pins in the plug doing it.

[peterb]

<-----snip

I think the best one I've seen was someone who manged to get a VGA lead from a monitor plugged in to a graphics card 180 degrees out, He bent a few pins in the plug doing it.

Best misalignement I saw wa on a floppy disk - the plug was displaced by one pin. The giveaway was when nothing started and smoke started coming out ogf the case. Investigation showed that the wiring insulation had melted and the conductors had fused together.

The interesting bit came when the replacement PSU arrived - the keyway on the FDD had been damaged bythe first misconnection, and the same mistake was made again - but this time it was a decent PSU and it just shut itself down - no damage at all, and when the problem was corrected, the machine started up without any hitches.

Lessons (re) learned :- check plug connections carefully, and don't buy cheap and nasty PSUs!

[how1]

Ones that are a bit more 'Free' moving are so much better.

[Funkstar]

Best misalignement I saw wa on a floppy disk - the plug was displaced by one pin. The giveaway was when nothing started and smoke started coming out ogf the case. Investigation showed that the wiring insulation had melted and the conductors had fused together.

I once managed to connect a molex to an old Sony CD-R the wrong way round. Cheap PSU and cheap old CD-R. It just went 'pop' and the magic blue smoke came out

[Sputnik]

I once managed to connect a molex to an old Sony CD-R the wrong way round. Cheap PSU and cheap old CD-R. It just went 'pop' and the magic blue smoke came out

That is because your 'ham fisted'

A bad workperson always blames the tools or materials

[TheChamp1000]

Thanks for the input guys. I was not sure if the unit was okay or not because of what I felt were poorer connectors.

I have powered the dual core rig no problems with it and was trying to see if it could power my old athlon xp machine with an asus a78nx motherboard.
Everything seems to be getting powered but nothing loads up on screen, it's just blank.
The asus board only has 20 pin connector and no p4 socket unlike the dual core mboard which is 24 pin and has the p4 socket.

I suppose it is an old motherboard but I thought it would power it none the less.