How do I know which cables I need for a modular psu?

[Ayala]

I have the evga g3 650w, which is fully modular. I have one graphics card, a water cooler, an ssd, a hard drive, and all of the normal components. Which cables do I need to use?

[Himommies]

RTFM

[iRileyx]

Should be quite easy to figure out when you go to plug things in...

 

24 pin ATX

4 or 8 pin EPS/CPU Power

1x or 2x 6 or 8 pin PCI Power, depending on your graphics card(or 0, like i said, depending on the graphics card)

SATA for the hard drives/ssd's

Molex for fans(if you're not connecting to motherboard) and possibly the watercooler depending how the pump is controlled. And any LED strips you may be adding in.

[Crunchy Dragon]

The PSU comes with all the necessary cables, unless you're ordering custom cables from CableMod.

 

Depending on graphics card, you'll need at least 1x6 pin + 1x8pin PCIe(VGA) connector, for the rest of your PC you'll need 2 SATA connectors, 1x4+4pin EPS connector, 1x20+4pin ATX connector, and you'll be all set.

[manikyath]

you open the boxes of the vareous bits of hardware you have, you look at which connectors are spread around the components, and you select cables from the PSU box accordingly.

[Ayala]

 

18 minutes ago, Crunchy Dragon said:

The PSU comes with all the necessary cables, unless you're ordering custom cables from CableMod.

 

Depending on graphics card, you'll need at least 1x6 pin + 1x8pin PCIe(VGA) connector, for the rest of your PC you'll need 2 SATA connectors, 1x4+4pin EPS connector, 1x20+4pin ATX connector, and you'll be all set.

Why does the sata cable have 3 ends?

[Crunchy Dragon]

1 minute ago, Ayala said:

Why does the sata cable have 3 ends?

So you can plug multiple SATA devices into the one power cable. It doesn't matter which end you use.

[Ayala]

Just now, Crunchy Dragon said:

So you can plug multiple SATA devices into the one power cable. It doesn't matter which end you use.

What does the 4-pin molex cable do?

[mariushm]

It was used by older mechanical hard drives and optical drives, before SATA was invented. 

Right after SATA was invented, some SATA hard drives had both SATA power AND older style power connectors, just in case buyers had older power supplies that had no SATA power connectors.

 

Here's an example of such a hard drive :

 

 

==========[ SATA POWER ] [ SATA DATA]============[MOLEX POWER]

 

Left section is SATA power, the smaller section is for SATA data cable, and if you have an old power supply without SATA power cables, you could have used the older molex power cable by plugging it all the way to the right.

 

Some fans and some water pumps can still use it (as an option), if you don't have enough fan headers on the motherboard

A lot of people also use older CD-RW optical drives or DVD-RW optical drives which were using the older molex connector so power supplies still offer them.

 

Some specialized cards (capture cards, RAID cards, USB 3 cards) sometimes have this old style molex connector when they need more power than what the slot they're plugged in can actually provide safely.

[Ayala]

14 minutes ago, mariushm said:

It was used by older mechanical hard drives and optical drives, before SATA was invented. 

Right after SATA was invented, some SATA hard drives had both SATA power AND older style power connectors, just in case buyers had older power supplies that had no SATA power connectors.

 

Here's an example of such a hard drive :

 

 

==========[ SATA POWER ] [ SATA DATA]============[MOLEX POWER]

 

Left section is SATA power, the smaller section is for SATA data cable, and if you have an old power supply without SATA power cables, you could have used the older molex power cable by plugging it all the way to the right.

 

Some fans and some water pumps can still use it (as an option), if you don't have enough fan headers on the motherboard

A lot of people also use older CD-RW optical drives or DVD-RW optical drives which were using the older molex connector so power supplies still offer them.

 

Some specialized cards (capture cards, RAID cards, USB 3 cards) sometimes have this old style molex connector when they need more power than what the slot they're plugged in can actually provide safely.

Where do I plug in the bundle of cables preinstalled in my s340 elite?

[mariushm]

Your motherboard will have various headers where you plug those cables.  Each cable should have something written on it, USB , USB3 (for USB 3.0) , HDAUDIO for front panel audio connectors.

There should be text on the headers on the motherboard which tells you what that header is for, for example USB3_0  means that's 1st header for usb 3 , USB3_1 will mean 2nd header for USB 3.0. Or you may have USB3_01  for "usb 3.0 header for two ports numbered 0 and 1"

You may have HDAUDIO or AC97 (older name for the front panel audio connector) 

 

Pretty much all connectors are keyed (one pin is missing or filled with some material) so you shouldn't normally be able to plug a connector in a wrong header, but still pay attention and you should be fine.

 

The motherboard manual tells you where each header is located with pictures and everything. It may not come in the box with the motherboard, but it may be on the CD/DVD or you can download it as a PDF file from the motherboard manufacturer's website

It's simple. Go to manufacturer's website, search for the model of the motherboard you have, click on Download or Support or Service , then find the Manuals section and you'll find there "User Guide" or "Manual" or something like that.