n00b PSU/Mobo question

[DaBeeeenster]

Right. Got my new machine up and running; got a new Tagan 480W PSU and NF7-S. Anyway, I have the main Power connector plugged into the mobo, but I see that there is a secondary (4 pin, square) plug and socket. What is it? Should I connect them together?

[twistedturq]

The 4-pin is used with P4 boards mate, so dont worry about it for your NF7-S board

[mr_anderson187]

i always wondered wot that was too, lol, ya learn sumthin every day.

[DaBeeeenster]

wtf? Why do they then stick a connector on the (AMD) mobo???

[Big RICHARD]

I think it's to allow extra megahurtz during overclocking on the NF7s by providing more voltage to the cpu as required. I think it gives more stable voltages for overclockers.

[DaBeeeenster]

So I should plug it in?

[Flash]

Its to stabilise the 12v rails mate plug it in

[mr_anderson187]

i got an asus a7v8x-x with 1700+ @2.1ghz, i got one of these little 4 pin jobies, should i also plug it in?

[skattrd]

As Flash said its alledgedly to stabilse the power - personally I'd plug it in, it won't hurt

[Zathras]

Plug it in you softy. Mine's plugged in and working fine. IIRC the manual mentions this connector does it not? WDYM, you don't RTFM?

[Capt Doufos]

If you have the socket plug it in! That's why they bothered to put the socket there in the first place!

[Rob]

They're right... Mines plugged in and aint nothin fizzing here

[steve threlfall]

Plug it in...

Mine has been plugged in since day 1- i had no idea it was for p4 mobos. Its not like it can hurt things anyway so just plug it in to keep things tidy

[Capt Doufos]

It was originally seen on P4 Rambus boards, they also used an additional connector which was used if you had alot of peripherals/Hardware plugged in. HD's/USB/Opticals etc.

It's called a P4 +12v connector, but I imagine the likes of Abit and Asus found a positive use for it on their socketA boards.

[SilentDeath]

Its called the p4 conenctor, for some unknown reson. The acctuall connector is made/designed by molex and theres nothing special about the wires, just ordinary 12v and ground.
the ATX connector onnly has one 12v wire, on most psu's its rated to about 9A which isnt very much. By adding the p4 connector you can get upto 27A. This also depends on the connectors pin ratings (which im not sure of).
If you went over the ratings all that would happen is your cables get hotter, the insulation melts (when it gets very hot) and then you will get a fire risk.

On nf7-s im not even sure if the traces from the conenctor are acctually connected to anything, wouldnt be suprising anyway...

[kushtibari]

I've always run my NF7S v2 with it plugged in. I read somewhere it allegedly gave greater stability when overclocking. I don't know if thats true but straight out the box it went to 220fsb or so and has always been exceptionally stable and that must be close to a year now.