All ground in PSU is shared?

[PieIsAwesome]

My PSU has an 8-pin connector but it would not fit on my motherboard because there is something in the way, so I am removing the 8 pin connector and swapping it with a 4 pin.

I basically took the pins on the half of the 8 pin connector that correspond to the 4 pin one, and stuck them in the 4 pin connector. However, there was a ground pin I could not remove from the 8 pin connector that would correspond to the 4 pin, so instead I took the ground pin from the other half of the 8 pin connector.

Basically like this:

This is the 8 pin (top is 12v, bottom is ground):
A-C-D-E
F-G-H-I

I wanted to make a 4 pin like this:
A-C
F-G

But instead ended up with this:
A-C
F-I

Ground is ground no matter what? If I somehow swapped the ground pins from a PCI-E connector and a molex connector nothing would happen?

Just making sure.

 

[SparkyJJO]

Yes all the grounds connect to the same point (and, in turn, are connected to the chassis of your PC and the ground prong on your power cord even).

 

[PieIsAwesome]

Good.

Looks like it worked, no fireworks.

 

[Red Squirrel]

In fact every ground in your house is shared, and is probably even shared with the neighboor's ground too. 😀 The ground is bonded with the neutral at the service panel.

 

[bryanl]

All the DC grounds are common, but in rare instances the AC and DC grounds are kept separate and connect together when the PS is installed in a metal case and plugged into the motherboard that is also grounded to the case. I haven't seen this in years in PCs, and the closest recently was a Channel Well PS with a soldered jumper inside that connected the AC and DC grounds at a single point.

 

[Martimus]

You can cause ground loops based on impedence and reluctance, but it should be minor. It is really only an issue for small traces. You can help mitigate any ground loops by adding a small resistance (say 100 ohms) to the ground lead, which should kill off the extra heat caused by ground loop current.