Can I power a Xeon E3-1231V3 with a single 4 pin

[Arucad]

Simple enough
Eventhough there are two 4pin connectors on the motherboard, can I supply enough power through only one of them?

[Electronics Wizardy]

Yep, if it posts, its fine. The e3 1231 v3 is a low power chip(mine is about 60w max)

[Arucad]

Just now, Electronics Wizardy said:

Yep, if it posts, its fine. The e3 1231 v3 is a low power chip(mine is about 60w max)

yeah I know it's low power, but I don't know how much power can I get from a single 4pin

[79wjd]

Yes, although it begs the question if you SHOULD. If your PSU only has a 4 pin EPS cable it might not be of any decent quality....

 

What PSU and GPU do you have? 

[Arucad]

PSU is 280W FSP (taken out of a i7-2600 system)
GPU is an old FirePro, powered only through the PCI-e

[STRMfrmXMN]

7 hours ago, Arucad said:

PSU is 280W FSP (taken out of a i7-2600 system)
GPU is an old FirePro, powered only through the PCI-e

Whoa whoa whoa you're powering an i7 with a PSU that doesn't have an 8-pin CPU connector?

 

Although you'll be fine to power it for the time being you probably are using a garbage PSU, especially if it's of that low wattage and from FSP.

[gamerking]

7 hours ago, Arucad said:

Simple enough
Eventhough there are two 4pin connectors on the motherboard, can I supply enough power through only one of them?

have a bag of marshmallows ready since that psu is S*it . short term a few days max ant worth blowing the cpu+MB from a crap psu . also no 8 pin no use mainly .

[Arucad]

I'd like to note that this PSU was taken from a OEM PC (Lenovo) that has a motherboard with a single 4pin powering the i7-2600 that is in it. 
I read that the i7-2600 consumes more power than the Xeon and it's been working for years without problems. I think it should be fine.

[Arucad]

Okay, it turned out that the PSU's cables are way too short, since it's designed to be at the top of the case.
Both 24pin an 4pin cables are not long enough (by far) to reach their designated spot.

On the test boot tho, it posted and everything was fine.
We ordered another PSU tho, can't deal with short cables.

[Eraldoe]

I'm afraid many posters in this thread have spent far too long around the marketing hype and extreme high end. A single 4 pin ATX12V connector should handle up to around 190W (the connector itself - how much that PSU supplies is obviously going to be less). If you have a CPU which doesn't use much power a single 4 pin is perfectly acceptable. Look under the hood in tons of business PCs with i7s and lo and behold - a 230-300W PSU with a single 4-pin ATX12v. It's not sacrilege as these people are saying, it's pretty much the norm. Your super deluxe extra mega extreme ultra edition motherboards include multiple ATX12v connectors mostly "for the lulz" -  connecting all them may help add stability in an extreme overclocking situation for an already high-wattage CPU. However, there's a good chance on a common i7 even on your 1337 board you could function just fine with a single 4 pin. It depends on your PSU obviously for how much it'll put out a single 4-pin but most CPUs are not consuming more than 150W. This means it's entirely feasible for a PSU to be designed to supply sufficient power over that single 4 pin

In most PCs the only real advantage you're getting from an 8 pin connector is slightly lower resistances - because you're nowhere close to overloading even a single 4 pin let alone 2 4-pins or 2 8-pins.

Sucks about the cable length - I've had the same issue with trying to re-use PSUs from OEM PCs. They combine unique motherboard layouts for where the power connectors are placed with custom PSUs with cables just long enough to reach their customized mobo. It's slick in the OEM PC, but an absolute no-go for anything else

[79wjd]

1 hour ago, Eraldoe said:

I'm afraid many posters in this thread have spent far too long around the marketing hype and extreme high end. A single 4 pin ATX12V connector should handle up to around 190W (the connector itself - how much that PSU supplies is obviously going to be less). If you have a CPU which doesn't use much power a single 4 pin is perfectly acceptable. Look under the hood in tons of business PCs with i7s and lo and behold - a 230-300W PSU with a single 4-pin ATX12v. It's not sacrilege as these people are saying, it's pretty much the norm. Your super deluxe extra mega extreme ultra edition motherboards include multiple ATX12v connectors mostly "for the lulz" -  connecting all them may help add stability in an extreme overclocking situation for an already high-wattage CPU. However, there's a good chance on a common i7 even on your 1337 board you could function just fine with a single 4 pin. It depends on your PSU obviously for how much it'll put out a single 4-pin but most CPUs are not consuming more than 150W. This means it's entirely feasible for a PSU to be designed to supply sufficient power over that single 4 pin

In most PCs the only real advantage you're getting from an 8 pin connector is slightly lower resistances - because you're nowhere close to overloading even a single 4 pin let alone 2 4-pins or 2 8-pins.

Sucks about the cable length - I've had the same issue with trying to re-use PSUs from OEM PCs. They combine unique motherboard layouts for where the power connectors are placed with custom PSUs with cables just long enough to reach their customized mobo. It's slick in the OEM PC, but an absolute no-go for anything else

No one is denying (or should be denying @STRMfrmXMN ) that a single 4 pin is enough. It is, however that doesn't mean the PSU is of any decently quality, and just because it hasn't had an issue YET doesn't mean it won't. OEMs are notorious for using trash-tier components, and considering how important a PSU is and the fact that you can get a decent one (especially for a system of this type) for like $30, it's well worth the cost considering a PSU can easily take out an entire system. 

[STRMfrmXMN]

5 hours ago, Eraldoe said:

I'm afraid many posters in this thread have spent far too long around the marketing hype and extreme high end. A single 4 pin ATX12V connector should handle up to around 190W (the connector itself - how much that PSU supplies is obviously going to be less). If you have a CPU which doesn't use much power a single 4 pin is perfectly acceptable. Look under the hood in tons of business PCs with i7s and lo and behold - a 230-300W PSU with a single 4-pin ATX12v. It's not sacrilege as these people are saying, it's pretty much the norm. Your super deluxe extra mega extreme ultra edition motherboards include multiple ATX12v connectors mostly "for the lulz" -  connecting all them may help add stability in an extreme overclocking situation for an already high-wattage CPU. However, there's a good chance on a common i7 even on your 1337 board you could function just fine with a single 4 pin. It depends on your PSU obviously for how much it'll put out a single 4-pin but most CPUs are not consuming more than 150W. This means it's entirely feasible for a PSU to be designed to supply sufficient power over that single 4 pin

In most PCs the only real advantage you're getting from an 8 pin connector is slightly lower resistances - because you're nowhere close to overloading even a single 4 pin let alone 2 4-pins or 2 8-pins.

Sucks about the cable length - I've had the same issue with trying to re-use PSUs from OEM PCs. They combine unique motherboard layouts for where the power connectors are placed with custom PSUs with cables just long enough to reach their customized mobo. It's slick in the OEM PC, but an absolute no-go for anything else

You missed the point entirely. Nobody was denying that a single 4-pin wouldn't be enough - we were saying that a PSU with JUST a 4-pin CPU connector is likely a firestarter and should be thrown away immediately.

[Eraldoe]

On 9/9/2016 at 9:56 AM, djdwosk97 said:

No one is denying (or should be denying @STRMfrmXMN ) that a single 4 pin is enough. It is, however that doesn't mean the PSU is of any decently quality, and just because it hasn't had an issue YET doesn't mean it won't. OEMs are notorious for using trash-tier components, and considering how important a PSU is and the fact that you can get a decent one (especially for a system of this type) for like $30, it's well worth the cost considering a PSU can easily take out an entire system. 

I'm perfectly okay with what you've said
Can't agree more, OEM's are notoriously cheap on motherboards and PSUs. Quite often you'll see a nice CPU, sometimes even a nice GPU even in an OEM build, but built on a shoddy foundation.

[System Error Message]

4 pin is fine for CPUs up to 80W. The i7-2600 has that TDP. On oem PCs people dont overclock and it likely didnt have a dedicated GPU either using the i7's IGP.

[79wjd]

10 minutes ago, System Error Message said:

4 pin is fine for CPUs up to 80W. The i7-2600 has that TDP. On oem PCs people dont overclock and it likely didnt have a dedicated GPU either using the i7's IGP.

TDP =/= power consumption. Although a 4 pin is still enough. 

[System Error Message]

4 minutes ago, djdwosk97 said:

TDP =/= power consumption. Although a 4 pin is still enough. 

Actually it is and it is something i measured. TDP is the absolute worse, basically a theoratical or tested estimate if the entire chip was fully powered. I took a GPU and connected it externally and used a wattmeter to measure it. So i isolated a GPU and measure'd its power use. For example a good variant of a GTX 580 (one that gets lower stock volts) consumes 150W during intense gaming. A normal stock one would consume 200W. The TDP is 250W meaning if you ran something like furmark which is very power heavy it will consume 250W.

 

So TDP is the power consumption at the worst (without overclocking).

 

In electronic terms you have the CPU, the volts (1.3V or 1.2V) enters the CPU. the CPU does its job in switching on and off and the electricity used is dissipated in heat and other forms for the transistors switching. At the end of the CPU is 0V with no energy left.