What do you think of 20pin to 24 pin PSU adapters?

[Anteries]

My current PC case is a Arctic Cooling Silentium T1 which has a built in power supply. The PSU is rated at 350 W. I bought a 20 to 24 pin adapter off eBay. I just wondered if anyone had any inside information as to whether they are safe. I'm looking to use a simple AMD integrated graphics motherboard.

http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/oth...s_2.html#sect1

[peterb]

Well the voltage is low, so there is no risk of electric shock. Current capacity could be an issue - but a 350W PSU isn't going to be able to deliver a lot of current and if the loading was that great a good (it IS a good psu?? - isn't it) should shut down, so I doubt that there is a safety issue with them. If the contact area is small there is a risk of overheating, but I think it would be minimal risk.

[ice_chill]

I used one on a Zalman PSU, they work like they should but the extra electrical resistance drops the voltage a bit.

Without the adapter my 12V line gave 11.86V
With the adapter it gives 11.72V

[Hawker1986]

Theres no reason you cant plug a 20pin plug into a 24pin motherboard header directly....

[Anteries]

Theres no reason you cant plug a 20pin plug into a 24pin motherboard header directly....

Really, I had no idea you could do that, I will have to do some Google searches. Incidentally I notice in your computer specification that you have a Silverstone 300 W, is that the fans less variety?

[Hawker1986]

Seriously its fine to do that, im doing that with a test rig ive knocked together with the oldest most rubbish PSU I had knocking about and a P35 mobo, works fine. No its not fanless I dont think, it came with my media centre case so its not a normal full size ATX one.

Hawker

[Behemoth]

You know in all the time I've been building modern PC's I would not have though you could do that with those, I shall remember that in future

[ice_chill]

Yes that's correct, you can run your PC with 20pin even if the motherboard is 24pin.
The extra 4 pins are there to provide extra power to the PCIe-16 slot, before the 24pin came around, motherboards with PCIe-16 slots had a molex socket where you would plug a molex connector to provide additional power.
If you are using intergrated graphics then the extra 4 pins won't make any difference.