Which power cable do I use?

F

fortyways

banned
My motherboard has an 8-pin slot next to the motherboard (the thing that was introduced with P4 processors since they needed so much power).

But it came with a black cover over 4 of the pins, and it powers up fine with a 4-pin connector. However, I'm powering a lot of things through the motherboard (3 fans, an X-Fi sound card, a wireless network card, and my graphics card (no 6-pin PCI cable).

Should I switch over to the 8-pin? What is that really for? The 4-pin connector on my PSU is labeled ATX and the 8-pin is labeled EPS.
 
I'm pretty sure the other 4 pins are not completely needed, unless you're running a Core 2 Extreme processor or so. On another computer of mine, a Foxconn LGA775 motherboard with a Celeron Conroe 420, I have only plugged in 4 pins, and it works great and fine. No crashes nor BSODs yet, and I'm not expecting them :)

I would buy a 4pin to 6pin adapter for your graphics card however, as most cards, without them plugged in, downclock in speed, resulting in poor graphics performance and overall decreased quality.
 
My power supply has two 6-pin connectors, my graphics card just doesn't need one. It's in my sig.

So the 8-pin connector is just for demanding processors and overclocking, is that right? Does that connection affect only the CPU?
 
Probably does not. I doubt even a Quad Core needs it, probably for when power runs out even after the 12V connector. I doubt you'll ever need it.
 
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