Did Not Read Now Have No 4+4pin CPU +12V Can I Fix This?

[TheDutyPaid]

Hello all, this is fully my mistake and not the very good people at scan.

I wanted to rebuild a old Q6600 system I have and the old case and PSU had seen better days.
So I ordered a CiT Shadow Black Value Mid Tower Case with 500W PSU but I do not have a 4+4 CPU plug

The clear information on the page says.
20+4 ATX connection x 1
CPU 12V 4 pin x 1
SATA power x 2
Molex Power x 3
Floppy x 1

So what can I do? What is a cheap PSU on Scan with the leads I need. Can I make up a plug to and wire that on to the new PSU?

I am a bit angry at my self for a basic school boy error.

[malfunction]

What motherboard do you have? I didn't think 8 pin CPU headers were commonly required for desktop Core2 mobos - just the 4 pin ones...

Urk. Just clicked the link. £25 for a case and PSU? I would expect the case to slice your fingers and the PSU to create a small bonfire. I can understand not wanting to spend a lot on an old system but I wouldn't trust a £25 PSU, nevermind one that comes with a 'free' case included.

From a few mins of 'research' I'd probably suggest one of these - which actually aren't that much more than £25:

https://www.scan.co.uk/products/450w...-80-efficiency
https://www.scan.co.uk/products/430w...ps-haswell-rea
https://www.scan.co.uk/products/430w...mm-fan-atx-psu (probably a rebadge of the seasonic one, but a couple of quid cheaper).

...and can probably be trusted to actually deliver their quoted power ratings without dying and taking the rest of the PC with it.

Whatever you go for a bit of research is required, especially at the low end. I'd start with jonnyguru, hardware secrets, etc - somewhere that actually load tests the PSUs they review and has a peek inside them for build and component quality. You don't need to understand it all but, IMO, you can at least place some trust in them understanding what they are doing.

[DanceswithUnix]

With a quality PSU you can just plug the 4 pin plug into one end of the 8 pin socket, and all would be fine as long as you aren't going big overclocks and running SLI graphics cards (things that draw lots from the 12V line).

More of a question for me would be, do I want a cheap PSU like that anywhere near one of my systems? Probably not.

[scaryjim]

Firstly, I'll echo malfunction and say that I wouldn't trust a 500W PSU that came with a case for £25 all in - most cases start around £10, so that's really a £15 PSU. A 300W PSu at £25 might be good value, and 500W PSu at £15 is just going to be cheap and nasty. I wouldn't be inclined to use it at all.

That said: if you're determined to use the Cheap PSU of Death ( ) you should find that the 4-pin 12v connector should slot into one half of the mobos 12v connector,and I'd be inclined to try powering it up from that. A Q6600 should run fine with the power available from a 4pin connector, and many mobos will happily boot with a 4pin connector instead (in the same way that many mobos will boot with a 20pin main ATX power connector rather than the newer 24pin).

if it doesn't work, it'll only cost a few quid to buy an adapter to turn the 4pin 12v connector into an 8pin 12v connector. But I'll echo that personally I wouldn't put that PSU anywhere near one of my builds...

EDIT:

Just had a better look at the link. DO NOT put that PSU anywhere near your Q6600 build. Key specs: 32A on the +5v line, 28A on the +3.3v line, only 14A on the +12v line. It's an old design with the bias away from the 12v line, which was typical back in the Athlon and Socket 478 Pentium 4 days.

Any PSU that says "P4 ATX" on the side is not to be trusted. For any reasonably modern build - by which I mean anything since P4 - that power supply is effectively a 150W PSU; your Q6600 rig is going to pull the majority of its power off the 12v line.

Without knowing what GPU you'll be using it's hard to give you a good recommendation, but the absolute cheapest PSU I'd use off scan is this one: https://www.scan.co.uk/products/350w...mm-fan-atx-psu - and as it happens it has a 4+4 CPU plug so should meet your requirements, depending on GPU....

[peterb]

I have to concur with the previous posts - a case and PSU for £25 - smells of cheap and nasty to me. However you did say it was an old system you were re-housing, so if you go with that PSU, you may be doing a full system upgrade sooner than you expected.

PLEASE - spend a bit more on the PSU, it's an essential but often overlooked part of your system.

[TheDutyPaid]

Thanks for the quick input and feed back, The Spec of the old machine is Q6600, Asus P5K-E Mobo and Asus GTX 560 (1GB)

On a side note I used a Antec PSU Truepower Trio 650W TP3-650 from when the machine was new and the PSU always went pop when I was turned on, I never turned it off. But sometimes had to and it went pop. This is the second one of the same model as the first one went bang one day and gave no power. I have just checked the the one from the case by shorting the green and the black and it goes pop too. So using that PSU is out of the question.

I think I may just swallow the cost and buy a 500w Corsair

The case is cheap but is in better shape then the Antec 900 case is now.

[malfunction]

It will undoubtedly be better than the PSU that came with the case but I would still do a few minutes of research on whatever exact PSU you're looking at - e.g. we all know Corsair make good stuff at the high end but going cheap with any brand doesn't guarantee a good PSU (e.g. at one point the lower end Corsair PSUs were only rated at full power at 30c).

Antec are a good case in point because (if memory serves) they started out making really good PSUs, gained market share then let quality slide, got a bloody awful reputation among enthusiasts and then built back up from there - as far as I'm aware their current PSU line up is considered to be decent quality but they definitely had a period of 'going pop'.

Edit:

I can't find a decent review of the CX500 V2 (presumably) but there are a few good reviews of the CX430 V2 out there that indicate it's a good PSU, despite the low temperature rating.

[scaryjim]

... The Spec of the old machine is Q6600, Asus P5K-E Mobo and Asus GTX 560 (1GB)

Plug all that lot into the PSU that came with the case and it will die the first time you fire up a game: it can't put out enough power on the 12v rail. My old rig (Q6600, P5N32-e SLI, 8800GTX) pulled almost 150W at idle, going up over 300W at full load!

... I used a Antec PSU Truepower Trio 650W TP3-650 from when the machine was new and the PSU always went pop when I was turned on ....

A lot of PSUs do that. On its own it's not a cause for concern. I had the same PSU when I built my Q6600 rig (they were popular back then ), and it did the same thing, but AFAIK it's still running to this day (I gave it to a friend who was in dire need about a year ago).

I think the GTX 560 is more power efficient than my old 8800 GTX, but I'd still allow for your rig pulling at least 250W when loaded up. That means that you definitely want to look in the 400W - 500W range to ensure you're providing enough power...

[malfunction]

For what it's worth the TDP of the Q6600 is 105W and the GTX 560 has a 150W TDP (Ti has either a 170W or 210W TDP):

http://ark.intel.com/products/29765/...z-1066-MHz-FSB
http://www.geforce.co.uk/hardware/de...specifications
http://www.geforce.co.uk/hardware/de...specifications

So at full load at stock (not that likely, but you'd get reasonably close) you'd be pulling at least 255W (315W if you have the 'bigger' of the two 560 Tis) - to paraphrase Jim - "Bang":

12V * 14A = 168W and that's IF you trust the PSU to be able to deliver its max rating on the 12V rail...

Forget overclocking. I understand it's not a linear relationship but let's keep it simple and say a 33% overclock (from 2.4GHz to 3.2GHz, pretty typical for a Q6600 if memory serves) causes a 33% increase in power draw even without higher voltage (pretty unlikely) and you're looking at 290W minimum (350+ with the 'bigger' 560 Ti).

...though, all that said (and the specs are legible in the photos at scan) maybe the case isn't shipping with such an outdated PSU now, it might be more like this one:

https://www.scan.co.uk/products/500w...erp-lot-60-bla

So it might be worth checking the sticker on the PSU itself. I still stand by my earlier comments - I wouldn't trust it to be anything other than junk at the price.

[EndlessWaves]

For what it's worth the TDP of the Q6600 is 105W and the GTX 560 has a 150W TDP (Ti has either a 170W or 210W TDP):

Only the early Q6600s had a 105W TDP, after the first six months or so the G0 stepping was released which has a 95W TDP (The Q6600 was popular for several years).

IIRC the combined power draw allowed through the 24-pin and 4-pin connector is just under 350W (28A I think) so any motherboard with an 8-pin connector is generally set up for a heavy power draw - generally due to overclocking if it's not a Dual CPU system.

[TheDutyPaid]

In the end I ordered a Corsair VS550 550W from Scan as in was to the Today Only specials saving a few quid. It also had the 2 x 6+2pin PCI-E Power needed to run the Asus without needing to add extra fly leads.

The case is a "fun" build. Only can with 6 of the 9 stand off's so I had been robbing the old Antec case.

I will use the PSU that came with my case for when I do my electrocleaning.

[TheDutyPaid]

The build is all finished, Corsair PSU is a nice bit of kit as you would expect and had all the leads needed.
Case was a bit of a battle on the tolerance front, but with a bit of fettling it all was good.

It will be used to play old games and to run my scanner which I can only get XP drivers for. Now, I can get back to scanning my typewriter manuals.

[peterb]

Actually that looks a not half bad case (which makes me shudder to think what the PSU was like ) but the Corsair PSU looks the part though.

Nice job, and thank you for posting the pics.