Two 12V connectors

[Its_MrMa]

Hi, i saw some pictures of the new z490 motherboards, and all of them have 2 12v connectors. Now, many psu in 70-100$ dollars range (like the corsair TXM) have only 1 12V connector. Are there any PSUs in this price range that have 2 12v connectors?

 

Thanks.

[mariushm]

There are lots of power supplies that have 2 EPS connectors. I'm not gonna do your homework. Even some 550w models will have 2 eps connectors.

Some power supplies will come with a 8 pin and a 4pin connector - you can plug the 4 pin into the 2nd 8 pin header and it will work.

Also, for A LOT of modular power supplies you can buy an extra EPS cable separately from companies like cablemod.com or others that make cables. 

 

Also, it's often not required to install BOTH 8 pin connectors, as most processors don't consume so much power to overload a single EPS connector. Using TWO connectors helps a bit, but it doesn't mean the computer won't work unless both EPS connectors are filled with cables.

 

[Jurrunio]

With 10900k 2 12V connector makes sense, so does going extreme OC. otherwise it's just to look good.

[Guest]

48 minutes ago, Jurrunio said:

With 10900k 2 12V connector makes sense, so does going extreme OC. otherwise it's just to look good.

More cables to the motherboard don't make it look good. 

 

1 hour ago, Its_MrMa said:

Hi, i saw some pictures of the new z490 motherboards, and all of them have 2 12v connectors. Now, many psu in 70-100$ dollars range (like the corsair TXM) have only 1 12V connector. Are there any PSUs in this price range that have 2 12v connectors?

 

Thanks.

That's odd.  It's probably only for overclocking.

 

All three of my Z490 boards have only one 8-pin connector, and that's all I use for both an i5-10600k and i9-10900k.  Works flawlessly.

[Jurrunio]

14 minutes ago, jonnyGURU said:

More cables to the motherboard don't make it look good. 

but more connectors do. At least the VRM on most Z480 boards can indeed exceed the limit of a single EPS12V 8pin now unlike the older chipsets in which you could blow the VMR up way before the cables even feel warm to touch.

[Guest]

41 minutes ago, Jurrunio said:

but more connectors do. At least the VRM on most Z480 boards can indeed exceed the limit of a single EPS12V 8pin now unlike the older chipsets in which you could blow the VMR up way before the cables even feel warm to touch.

When you say "look good", I'm assuming you mean aesthetics.  Neither more cables nor connectors (can't have one without the other) make a motherboard "look good".

 

Maybe you need to define what you mean by "looks good".  You mean by looks good as a marketing bullet point?

 

Like I said, I have three Z490 boards.  An Asrock, a Gigabyte and an MSI board.  Two i5-10600k's and one i9-10900k.  They all work flawlessly with a single 8-pin.  That said, none of them are overclocked.  But even if I did OC the i9, it's not going to need more than one connector as I see no drop in the +12V when under load.

 

When you have multiple connectors, they feed into the same planes on the motherboard.  So all you're going to do is reduce resistance, which will decrease the voltage drop, but that's only necessary if you actually HAVE a voltage drop.  It's when the voltage drops too low and the VRMs have to compensate that they tend to fail.

[Jurrunio]

42 minutes ago, jonnyGURU said:

When you say "look good", I'm assuming you mean aesthetics.  Neither more cables nor connectors (can't have one without the other) make a motherboard "look good".

 

Maybe you need to define what you mean by "looks good".  You mean by looks good as a marketing bullet point?

Yup, as marketing gimmick. Best for aesthetics will probably be a single cable with a 9AWG wire in it lol.

[Guest]

21 minutes ago, Jurrunio said:

Yup, as marketing gimmick. Best for aesthetics will probably be a single cable with a 9AWG wire in it lol.

16 to 18g is fine.

 

But there a lot of gimmicks out there.  Like Asus was bragging to me how their highend boards had solid pins for the EPS12V connector pins.  I kept explaining to them that it doesn't matter if the cable is only able to support so much power.  Especially if it's a modular cable.  Solid pins on the motherboard only means the connector on the PSU is going to heat up and melt the connector before the connector on the board melts!  LOL!

 

[Jurrunio]

24 minutes ago, jonnyGURU said:

16 to 18g is fine.

need more if there's only 1 wire

 

24 minutes ago, jonnyGURU said:

 

But there a lot of gimmicks out there.  Like Asus was bragging to me how their highend boards had solid pins for the EPS12V connector pins.  I kept explaining to them that it doesn't matter if the cable is only able to support so much power.  Especially if it's a modular cable.  Solid pins on the motherboard only means the connector on the PSU is going to heat up and melt the connector before the connector on the board melts!  LOL!

I have a question for this, does hollow pin really cost that much less (even in mass production scale) than solid pin? to me it sounds like making it hollow is extra work and wont recoup that by using less material.

 

and I guess hollow pins can melt if you pull enough current to max out a 16 gauge wire?

[Guest]

52 minutes ago, Jurrunio said:

need more if there's only 1 wire

Only one wire?  What are you talking about?

 

Who has an 8-pin EPS12V connector pulling from only one wire?  At the very least, a modular PSU will have three +12V and three ground wires for PCIe.  Then I would hope they use 16g.  If they're using four +12V and four ground like Corsair and Seasonic, then 18g should be fine.  I want to see this EPS12V connector with "one wire".

 

53 minutes ago, Jurrunio said:

I have a question for this, does hollow pin really cost that much less (even in mass production scale) than solid pin? to me it sounds like making it hollow is extra work and wont recoup that by using less material.

No.  A "hollow pin" isn't "made into a hollow pin".  It's hollow because it's "rolled" material.  Like taking a sheet of steel and making it into a roll (only on a much smaller scale).  You then have to cut and peel back the tang (tang? locking tab, I guess?) used to lock the pin into the connector.

 

And, obviously it goes without saying, you can't have a solid pin be a female interface. 

 

1 hour ago, Jurrunio said:

and I guess hollow pins can melt if you pull enough current to max out a 16 gauge wire?

Jet fuel can't melt steel beams.

 

What happens is the pin gets so hot that it melts the connector around it.  Then you hope that the manufacturer used a UL 94 approved connector material.

 

[Jurrunio]

3 hours ago, jonnyGURU said:

Only one wire?  What are you talking about?

 

Who has an 8-pin EPS12V connector pulling from only one wire?  At the very least, a modular PSU will have three +12V and three ground wires for PCIe.  Then I would hope they use 16g.  If they're using four +12V and four ground like Corsair and Seasonic, then 18g should be fine.  I want to see this EPS12V connector with "one wire".

crap I forgot bout ground, then 2 wires then, less wires better to look at

 

tho I guess it will be a workout to bend such cable in a case.

 

3 hours ago, jonnyGURU said:

No.  A "hollow pin" isn't "made into a hollow pin".  It's hollow because it's "rolled" material.  Like taking a sheet of steel and making it into a roll (only on a much smaller scale).  You then have to cut and peel back the tang (tang? locking tab, I guess?) used to lock the pin into the connector.

 

And, obviously it goes without saying, you can't have a solid pin be a female interface. 

oh

 

then what's 

5 hours ago, jonnyGURU said:

their highend boards had solid pins for the EPS12V connector pin

referring to?

 

3 hours ago, jonnyGURU said:

Jet fuel can't melt steel beams.

 

What happens is the pin gets so hot that it melts the connector around it.  Then you hope that the manufacturer used a UL 94 approved connector material.

I dont think the metal casing added to EPS12V sockets on high end boards meet this standard?

 

you can see what I'm talking about in the "power design" section of the Z490-E. suspiciously only the 8pin has the metal casing, 4pin doesn't which is odd when you would assume all 6 pin pairs of wires to handle the same current when they are all occupied.

[Guest]

1 hour ago, Jurrunio said:

crap I forgot bout ground, then 2 wires then, less wires better to look at

I still don't know what you're talking about with "two wires".  Are you talking about when someone uses an old and/or cheap PSU that doesn't have the EPS12V connector and they use a Molex to EPS12V connector?  

 

1 hour ago, Jurrunio said:

then what's 

referring to?

Motherboard's EPS12V male connectors having solid pins.  That's why I said:

 

6 hours ago, jonnyGURU said:

Like Asus was bragging to me how their highend boards had solid pins for the EPS12V connector pins.

boards = motherboards.  The male connector.

 

1 hour ago, Jurrunio said:

I dont think the metal casing added to EPS12V sockets on high end boards meet this standard?

 

you can see what I'm talking about in the "power design" section of the Z490-E. suspiciously only the 8pin has the metal casing, 4pin doesn't which is odd when you would assume all 6 pin pairs of wires to handle the same current when they are all occupied.

The UL 94 is a rating for flammability for the plastic connectors.  Not the metal pins.  It basically tells you if the plastic busts into flames vs. melting and dripping molten plastic onto other parts vs. just melting.

 

 

[Jurrunio]

12 minutes ago, jonnyGURU said:

I still don't know what you're talking about with "two wires".  Are you talking about when someone uses an old and/or cheap PSU that doesn't have the EPS12V connector and they use a Molex to EPS12V connector?  

I'm talking about getting rid of EPS12V connector and use 1 thick wire for 12V, 1 thick one for ground.

 

13 minutes ago, jonnyGURU said:

Motherboard's EPS12V male connectors having solid pins.  That's why I said:

 

6 hours ago, jonnyGURU said:

Like Asus was bragging to me how their highend boards had solid pins for the EPS12V connector pins.

boards = motherboards.  The male connector.

yeah, then what does past Asus boards use before solid pin? the female part is on the cable right?

 

20 minutes ago, jonnyGURU said:

The UL 94 is a rating for flammability for the plastic connectors.  Not the metal pins.  It basically tells you if the plastic busts into flames vs. melting and dripping molten plastic onto other parts vs. just melting.

What they've done on their new boards (only 8pin socket, not 4pin socket) is to add a metal casing outside the EPS12V socket, inside is still black plastic. I guess these two (UL94 rating + metal casing) means melting the connector is less tragic?

[Spotty]

26 minutes ago, jonnyGURU said:

still don't know what you're talking about with "two wires".  Are you talking about when someone uses an old and/or cheap PSU that doesn't have the EPS12V connector and they use a Molex to EPS12V connector?  

They're talking about a hypothetical different standard of cable to replace EPS12v and instead of having 8 wires on the cable it would only have 2 wires using thicker gauge. Less wires = more aesthetic being the thought behind it I believe

[Guest]

2 hours ago, Spotty said:

They're talking about a hypothetical different standard of cable to replace EPS12v and instead of having 8 wires on the cable it would only have 2 wires using thicker gauge. Less wires = more aesthetic being the thought behind it I believe

That's dumb.  Since you're not going to be able to run anything more than a 16g cable from a modular PSU, I'm not even going to entertain that idea.

2 hours ago, Jurrunio said:

I'm talking about getting rid of EPS12V connector and use 1 thick wire for 12V, 1 thick one for ground.

Like I said, if that's fiction, it's not worth talking about.

 

2 hours ago, Jurrunio said:

yeah, then what does past Asus boards use before solid pin? the female part is on the cable right?

A hollow pin.  Rolled, just like the female pins.  You still need some sort of "locking tab" to hold the connector to the board.  EVERYONE uses hollow pins.

 

2 hours ago, Jurrunio said:

What they've done on their new boards (only 8pin socket, not 4pin socket) is to add a metal casing outside the EPS12V socket, inside is still black plastic. I guess these two (UL94 rating + metal casing) means melting the connector is less tragic?

I have no idea what that's supposed to accomplish.

 

Bottom line is, ANY cable is as weak as it's weakest point.  So even if you have a UL 94 rated connector with a metal housing around it, if you plug in a cable with a connector that's not UL 94 rated, it's STILL going to catch fire.

 

Pardon me, but the amount of incompetence that exists in this industry is still astounding to me.

 

[Its_MrMa]

16 hours ago, jonnyGURU said:

All three of my Z490 boards have only one 8-pin connector, and that's all I use for both an i5-10600k and i9-10900k.  Works flawlessly.

oh, ok. best mobo for a 10600KF? i'd like a lot the z490-f, it looks so good...