4 pin cpu power

[tigersty1e]

How much power can 4 pin cpu connector deliver?

I'm seeing lots of ivy bridge boards with 4 pin power connectors. Max tdp is 95 watts and most are 77 watts.

Are people taking these boards and the cpu up to ~4.7?

 

[BallaTheFeared]

Which boards?

 

[2is]

Well considering many LGA 775 boards only had a 4 pin and also supported 105watt processors, i don't think it should be a problem.

 

[ShintaiDK]

All Ivys are 77W. Sandy is 95W. (Or lower for both.)

Also the 4/8 pin CPU power supply is a secondary connector.

And we had 130W CPUs with the 4pin.

 

[JonBlack]

Don't worry about the 4pin vs 8pin thing. If you got a good power supply and MB, then you are good to go.

 

[Rvenger]

Mostly Gigabyte boards. Most of the models have only 4 pin. I was looking at the Z77X-D3H and its a midrange board with 9 phase power with only a 4 pin power connector. It kind of makes the other 4 pin lonely. lol

 

[pelov]

Mostly Gigabyte boards. Most of the models have only 4 pin. I was looking at the Z77X-D3H and its a midrange board with 9 phase power with only a 4 pin power connector. It kind of makes the other 4 pin lonely. lol

Maybe if the other 4-pin connector wasn't looking a little too long at the back end of the 24-pin motherboard connector and forgot that he had little children with the other 4-pin who was he was still technically married to he wouldn't be so lonely? Ever thought of that?

Or it doesn't really make a difference. It would be interesting to see if there is a notable OC'ing difference between the 4-pin Z77 and Z68. It would be kind of funny to see overclockers snatch up old-gen motherboards and processors because the new mobo/CPUs are double gimped for heavy OCing.

 

[borisvodofsky]

There definitely is no difference. The only reason all the asus boards need 8 pins is because they have all those damn phases and like freaking a million fan connector pins.

 

[Rvenger]

If you are shooting for 5ghz it will provide cleaner power. Other than that its ok.

 

[TakeNoPrisoners]

The motherboard provides a certain wattage to the CPU. There is a reason it is a 24 pin monster connector. Some AMD motherboards accept 125w CPUs with a 4 pin connector so I wouldn't worry much.

 

[MrTeal]

Each pin on the Minifit Jr is rated for 9A in most cases with a max of 10 milliohms of contact resistance. Even at 110W, that's a safety factor of 2. For heavy overclocking the 8pin wouldn't hurt, but even a 4pin won't have a huge negative effect and any motherboard that could actually deliver 120W through its VRMs would likely have an 8pin anyway.

 

[2is]

I instantly noticed a difference with my e-peen when I saw my Asus board had an 8-pin connector.

 

[borisvodofsky]

I instantly noticed a difference with my e-peen when I saw my Asus board had an 8-pin connector.

:sneaky:

 

[Arkaign]

I've got an overclocked PhII X6 1100T and 8GB of DDR3 along with a GTS450 happilly buzzing away on a microatx Asus 760G board w/4-pin, has been for loooooong time now under media duties (transcoding/playing/moderate gaming). And I know for sure that X6 sucks more juice than SB or IB.

 

[borisvodofsky]

I've got an overclocked PhII X6 1100T and 8GB of DDR3 along with a GTS450 happilly buzzing away on a microatx Asus 760G board w/4-pin, has been for loooooong time now under media duties (transcoding/playing/moderate gaming). And I know for sure that X6 sucks more juice than SB or IB.

coretemp says I use 115 watts at my setting. that's alot no? :sneaky:

 

[Arkaign]

*shrug*

I honestly think that's still within acceptable realm. I am a "it works or it doesn't" kind of guy though.

 

[bononos]

coretemp says I use 115 watts at my setting. that's alot no? :sneaky:

Thats still within the limits of 1 molex connector (11A) so it doesn't seem like you're in trouble since the p4-molex adapters are common, and I assumed that the p4 limit was 1 stock 125W cpu.

A search brought up one website which says the unofficial max for the p4 is 192W, no idea how accurate that is.
http://www.playtool.com/pages/psuconnectors/connectors.html

 

[ShintaiDK]

Old 130W CPUs had 4pin too.

 

[Rvenger]

coretemp says I use 115 watts at my setting. that's alot no? :sneaky:

Hmm, point an Infared thermometer at those VRMs.

 

[Concillian]

coretemp says I use 115 watts at my setting. that's alot no? :sneaky:

Each molex pin is spec'ed for current. I believe these pins are 6A pins. I don't know the exact size, but Molex provides current ratings for the various size pins they use. If these are 6A pins, then it means 6A * 12v * 2 pins = 144 Watts on a typical 4 pin Molex. Wire size doesn't matter, the limitation is the connection.

8 pin connectors and 15 phase motherboards are for 2 things:
1) LN2 overclockers
2) marketing and trying to get people to "overbuy" for their needs.

If you're air cooling and not going for insane OCs, 4 pins and 4-6 phases are plenty.
The mobo marketers know that people are counting phases and not looking at the capacity of chokes and such, so some are using 20A components and running tons of phases, and others are using 60A+ components, using less phases and able to provide just as clean a power... more efficiently.

IVB CPU is using around 50W at a low voltage 4GHz OC, and closer to 100W at a typical air cooling ~4.5GHz OC at full utilization. The CPU is pretty efficient, and most of us aren't using the iGPU that accounts for a portion of the 77W TDP. These kinds of features just aren't a big deal to OCing. Even the ASUS interview with Anand, the guy comes out and says all their boards will OC similarly and they're trying to seperate themselves with other features.

Motherboard "counting wars" is the same thing as the megapixel wars in cameras. the glass and sensor quality matter a lot more than the number of megapixels (especially when primarily viewing a 10+ megapixel image on a 2 megapixel 1080p screen). But you can't put an easily quantifiable number on quality of the sensor and the quality of the optics in a camera... you can however put a number on the pixels the sensor can resolve, and it's easy to convince people "bigger is bettter" or "more is better'. Motherboard marketing understands that people are counting and they're charging up the ass for those extra pins and phases because everyone knows "moar is bettar!!"

Unless you're using sub-ambient cooling and looking for MAJOR OCs, shop for a mobo based on:
1) Port connections you want / need
2) layout you like
3) PCI / PCI-e configuration you like
4) Price
5) Power efficiency (really this is a "long term" component of #4 - Price)

Beyond that the other features are at most going to make 100 MHz of difference on an OC.

 

[SHAQ]

I believe it is 150 watts for the 4 pin and 300 watts for the 8 pin. Those are just specs and can be exceeded just like the 6 and 8 pin video card connectors(75 and 150 watts).

 

[nyker96]

I personally always go for 8pin connector, the reason is that 8pin is a server standard. From what I understand it delivers more stable power esp. in overclocking situations. So for me all the boards I get I look for 8pin EPS connector.

you can read about it more here, I google it just to find out more about eps myself:
http://www.playtool.com/pages/psuconnectors/connectors.html#eps8

 

[Concillian]

I personally always go for 8pin connector, the reason is that 8pin is a server standard. From what I understand it delivers more stable power esp. in overclocking situations. So for me all the boards I get I look for 8pin EPS connector.

you can read about it more here, I google it just to find out more about eps myself:
http://www.playtool.com/pages/psuconnectors/connectors.html#eps8

That was written in 2008. Mobos in 2008 often came with analog VRM circuitry that would pass any +12v power issues into the CPU. Modern mobos are very rarely full analog, and are at least a "hybrid" digital (many of the ASrock mobos, for example) or a full digital (most Gigabyte, MSI and ASUS, for example) that will regulate out most issues from the +12v line.

Sure, 8 pin is "better" but it's not worth worrying about unless you're doing MASSIVE overclocks (LN2 or phase change cooling). For the most part, any mobo that is going to have good capability for that kind of extreme OCing, will have 8-pin, so you really can ignore it. You're not shopping in the price range of 4-pin mobos when you're goal is sub-zero CPU temps, and otherwise, 8-pin vs. 4-pin is irrelevant, as mobo MFRs move to 8-pin well before it's absolutely necessary just because some people will buy 8-pin just because 8 is more than 4 and they can mark up that connector that costs 5 cents more by like $5.

 

[BiG K]

There definitely is no difference. The only reason all the asus boards need 8 pins is because they have all those damn phases and like freaking a million fan connector pins.

I have an Asus E45M1-I Deluxe. Doesn't mean most to anyone but its a mini-itx board with an integrated AMD E450 that sips only 18w of juice. This motherboard has a freaking 8pin CPU supplY!!!!

I think Asus like putting it on because it's a "selling point"

 

[ShintaiDK]

I have an Asus E45M1-I Deluxe. Doesn't mean most to anyone but its a mini-itx board with an integrated AMD E450 that sips only 18w of juice. This motherboard has a freaking 8pin CPU supplY!!!!

I think Asus like putting it on because it's a "selling point"

8pin has become the stupid "more must be better" crap.