20-pin to 24-pin converter

J

Jackal

Geek Trainee
I just learned that that power supply that is coming with the case I ordered, is a 20-pin PSU. The problem is that my A8N-SLI has a 24-pin connector on it. I know that there are 20-to-24 converters out there, but I need one fast and not from an online retailer. Does anyone know anywhere that sells this piece at a non-online retailer? >_>
 
there is a trick that allows you to use that PSU in a 24 pin mobo. DO THIS AT YOUR OWN RISK. I CANNOT BE HELD RESPONSIBLE FOR ANY DAMAGES. Take your 20 pin power plug from your power supply and align the latch side of the plug with the latch side of the connector on the mobo. move the connector to right-most pins (latch side at the top) and it should drop into place. in other words, pin1 should remain pin1, and there should pin four pins in a square left over on the opposite end. (the four pins near the IDE controllers should be empty) then your mobo should come to life.
 
I've lost my camera's cable... just picture this. the latch side of the connecter goes to the most left of the mobo connecter so that the right side (four empty pin sockets) should be empty. Yes, it was done safely and even published in a magazine.
 
You might check Radio Shack. I'm not sure if Best Buy or Circuit City would have them. I don't have CompUSA around me, but they might be another place to check. The local shop would be do-able as well.

However, the extra 4-pins are there relieve stress on the 12V line, and the extra adapter will add addtional resistance. Ideally, you should have a native 24-pin power supply, but if it's a good 500W with strong rails, then it can work fine. If you have an auxillary (aka the P4 power connector) 4-pin plug on the PSU, make sure that's plugged in as well. If you don't have that either, then I would highly suggest you invest in a new power supply that's more up to date.
 
Do you think a 18A on the +12V rail is sufficient to support a 7900 GT? >_> I don't think I'll be able to order another PSU any time soon, (Since my dad dropped about $1,400 on this setup already), so I think I'm out of the loop for a while. I'm afraid about using the ATX 1.3, (Mr. 20 pin here), connector, since I've heard mixed reports of it being fine but still a bit unsafe.

Edit: I would like to also mention... That I have an AMD Athlon 64 X2 4200+. I heard that having a 24-pin PSU is a MUST for dual core processors. Is this true?
 
18A would be fine if you were running a P4 or Athlon XP system and a GeForce 4 Ti card, but not with today's equipment. You'd want a 12V rail with 25-30+A to start with (either by a single 12V rail or through multiple 12V rails). To be perfectly blunt, you're very likely to have stability issues when you try and use that sucker like you're building it for. There's a major shift toward running off the 12V rail, and 18A is not going to be sufficient for a dual core CPU and a high-end video card.

24-pin is not necessary, BUT the extra 4 pins are there to help even out the 12V line. That's the reason we've had the shift along with the aformentioned change over to most of the parts running off the 12V.

With all that money spent on that system, you're downright foolish not to get a new power supply.

Here's some good ones:
-Tagan TG480-U22
-Enermax EG565P-VE
-Antec TruePower TPII-550
-Antec TruePower TPII-500
-OCZ PowerStream 520
-Fortron BlueStorm 500

Avoid anything by:
-Ultra
-Aerocool
-Coolmax
-Powmax
-Raidmax
-MGE
-Q-tec/Q-Technology
-If it came with your case
 
Rosewill is iffy. If you have to go that cheap, this is what I'd use. Rosewill seems to be the Newegg house brand, and generally, the house brands in general don't seem to be great. I haven't heard horror stories, but what I do hear is that Rosewill's quality control is all over the place. That may be a fine unit, but I'm not entirely confident on the company.
 
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