The pin out of a power supply unit (PSU) is relatively straightforward, with the additional two pins merely providing grounds for the array of 12 volt leads and accounting for this additional headroom makes sense because graphics cards with single 8-pin typically pull more power than those with single 6 pins in some cases. Even you'll find that a single six plus two pin header is actually daisy chained to another six plus two pin header meaning that all supplemental graphics card power is being fed down an often lower gauge of wire to handle the increased power draw. The power supply is designed efficiently, there's really no downside to this design so if your graphics card requires two supplemental eight pins to function you'll want to be sure that your power supply comes equipped with them.
If the card only requires a single six or eight pin you can leave any additional PCIe cables unplugged without issue. Also try to avoid adapters and splitters if possible especially with some of those higher end cards out there and just some friendly advice eight pin PCI power cables look awfully similar to CPU 8 pin EPS cables so be sure to identify which is which before attempting to shove something where it doesn't belong. CPU 8 pin cables will often have a split in the middle to accommodate for systems that accept only P4 but another way to reference it would be via the shape of each pin some are notched and some aren't and you really shouldn't be able to force these into their opposing headers anyway.
Next are SATA or Serial ATA power connectors these are 15 pin cables that are intended to power various storage drives including modern hard disk and solid state drives outside of M.2 these connectors are also used by various fan hubs controllers and RGB strips they're keyed on one side and thus can only be connected one way and much like the other cables we've already discussed again leaving any number of these unplugged is perfectly fine and lastly we have molex power connectors these chunky things right here these are a bit older more simplified than sadis consisting of just like literally four pins two grounds and single 12 volt and five volt leads.
Molex has taken a back seat in recent days thankfully the connector is far more primitive and a bit more difficult to manage at that still though you'll find a few peripherals relying on molex for discretionary power including D5 pumps which need the lower gauge wire for more reliable power delivery some older RGB strips and old fans in some cases may have molex connectors as well non-modular power supplies will often include these just to be safe because you don't want to need a molex connector and not actually have one and most people don't have adapters laying around but in any case they can often be omitted in modular units for most PC builds that would reduce clutter and again molex is shaped in such a way that cables will only connect one way so you don't really need to worry about wiring these backwards and sending five volts where 12 volts should be sent and that should take care of just about every connection associated with a conventional and modern power supply.
More information on determining what wattage power supply you'll need for your build which is another perfectly viable question a lot of people ask check out this video here it's also linked in the video description you can find reliable power supplies and various wattages by the way showcased in this video down below. Thank you all for watching if you have any additional questions be sure to leave those in the comment section consider liking this one subscribing and I'll catch you in the next one my name is Greg thanks for learning
"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enif you're wearing up your first power supply you might be a bit intimidated by uh well all of this and i get it installing the psu was one of the most confusing aspects of my first pc build as well there are connectors that look virtually the same there are some that are split in two so in this video we'll quickly and precisely run through what each cable does and where each should be connected stay with me activating windows is as simple as hopping on over to scdkey's vip site where you can purchase an oem pro key for a little over 10 us dollars use the secure payment method like paypal receive your key in a matter of seconds and activate your os here to remove that annoying watermark click the link below to get started and use my offer code gsl for a sweet discount so i understand this video will come across as a bit elementary but basic for those who have built pcs before but i've been putting more of these videos together lately because the pc gaming industry is growing at a very rapid rate especially now and when given the choice uh one should almost always diy save money and perhaps learn a thing or two and that's where these videos come in especially for those beginners now the power supply we'll be using for this demonstration today is a relatively cheap one is an evga 550 watt it's called a 550 in one pretty basic name it doesn't actually even have an 80 plus efficiency oddly enough you have to really dig deep to find the minimum efficiency of this unit which in the box actually it only says it on the box nowhere else not on the website anywhere uh it says it's above 75 so all right nonetheless many have been using power supplies like these without issue and it's probably one that you'll at least consider in your first 500 or so pc build unless you're going all out your first pc build costs like three grand okay probably don't want this you'll also notice that this unit has all of its cables hardwired to the brick itself thus classifying it as a non-modular power supply in the case of modular units you'll be able to pick and choose what you'd like connected which could spare you from a bit of clutter when building your pc and another thing you don't need to connect every available cable here right if you don't need you know four or five molex connections or sata connections you can leave these unplugged so just a rule of thumb going into this so you can either shove them into an empty spot of your case or leave them entirely disconnected from your unit if you have a modular supply this also by the way applies to pcie connectors and any other redundant cable but let's focus on each cable type what each does and where each connects to your system starting first with the largest connector more than likely the 20 pin or you've probably heard it called the 24 pin there's an extra four pins tacked on here what does this do well this cable is in charge of delivering power to your motherboard and its peripherals the extra four pins you may see dangling next to the 20 pin head are there to provide additional power to your pcie slots which are these things here this cable is vital in modern conventional computers and needs to be connected the header will look something like this and is often found on the right side of most atx motherboards itx and smaller boards may have this positioned elsewhere due to space limitations they may even come with adapters but both 20 and 24 pins are keyed and clipped so they can only be secured one way just align the clip side with the notch on the connector next we have the p4 cpu 4 pin or 8 pin eps this connector is specifically in charge of providing power to your cp or the socket which will not function without it and depending on your motherboard specification it'll either accept a single four pin a single eight pin an eight pin and a four pin or dual eight pins this is gonna be a bit of a confusing point here it's easy to understand why so most modern boards will accept at least a single eight pin right but some higher end boards have an additional four pin tack beside it or an additional eight pin so you could have an a plus four or an eight plus eight for cpu power however unless you're into some like heavy duty overclocking connecting just the eight pin will suffice basically this cable will supply up to 155 watts and this cable will supply up to 235. you can actually connect just a four pin to an eight pin connector by the way though you shouldn't you should always try to connect the full eight if your power supply provides it most affordable cpus won't pull any more than around 150 watts on their own but you wouldn't want to overload the single cable or risk system instability this evga 550n1 splits the 8 pin eps into two 4-pin counterparts which can be connected together in a motherboard cpu8 pin header it's also notched and keyed only one way so mind the orientation next up we have pcie connectors see most decently powerful graphics cards will consume at least 100 watts of power or more under load and the power sent to the card through the pci slot via the 24 pin caps out at around 75 watts so to account for this delta power supply vendors added supplemental pci power cables that look something like this often you'll see a cluster of 6 pins and a daisy chain a 2 pin off to the side the pin out is relatively straightforward here as well with the additional two pins merely providing grounds for the array of 12 volt leads and accounting for this additional headroom makes sense because graphics cards with single 8 pins typically pull more power than those with single 6 pins in some cases even you'll find that a single six plus two pin header is actually daisy chained to another six plus two pin header meaning that all supplemental graphics card power is being fed down an often lower gauge of wire to handle the increased power draw the power supply is designed efficiently there's really no downside to this design so if your graphics card requires two supplemental eight pins to function you'll want to be sure that your power supply comes equipped with them if the card only requires a single six or eight pin you can leave any additional pcie cables unplugged without issue also try to avoid adapters and splitters if possible especially with some of those higher end cards out there and just some friendly advice eight pin pci power cables look awfully similar to cpu 8 pin eps cables so be sure to identify which is which before attempting to shove something where it doesn't belong cpu 8 pin cables will often have a split in the middle to accommodate for systems that accept only p4 but another way to reference it would be via the shape of each pin some are notched and some aren't and you really shouldn't be able to force these into their opposing headers anyway but i'd still like to point it out in case you're having difficulty getting things to slide in next are sata or serial ata power connectors these are 15 pin cables that are intended to power various storage drives including modern hard disk and solid state drives outside of m.2 these connectors are also used by various fan hubs controllers and rgb strips they're keyed on one side and thus can only be connected one way and much like the other cables we've already discussed again leaving any number of these unplugged is perfectly fine and lastly we have molex power connectors these chunky things right here these are a bit older more simplified than sadis consisting of just like literally four pins two grounds and single 12 volt and five volt leads molex has taken a back seat in recent days thankfully the connector is far more primitive and a bit more difficult to manage at that still though you'll find a few peripherals relying on molex for discretionary power including d5 pumps which need the lower gauge wire for more reliable power delivery some older rgb strips and old fans in some cases may have molex connectors as well non-modular power supplies will often include these just to be safe because you don't want to need a molex connector and not actually have one and most people don't have adapters laying around but in any case they can often be omitted in modular units for most pc builds that would reduce clutter and again molex is shaped in such a way that cables will only connect one way so you don't really need to worry about wiring these backwards and sending five volts where 12 volts should be sent and that should take care of just about every connection associated with a conventional and modern power supply more information on determining what wattage power supply you'll need for your build which is another perfectly viable question a lot of people ask check out this video here it's also linked in the video description you can find reliable power supplies and various wattages by the way showcased in this video down below thank you all for watching if you have any additional questions be sure to leave those in the comment section consider liking this one subscribing and i'll catch you in the next one my name is greg thanks for learning\n"
