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2900XT power connectors... confused!

Teaf

Teaf

Teaf

Soldato
Joined
17 Dec 2006
Posts
8,258
Hey

I read around but couldn't really find anything, also did a forum search but again no joy so I thought I'd ask. I've been looking into 2900 XT's a bit more to make sure that if I decided to get one, that I wouldn't need a new PSU. Now I know that the power supply wattage is okay, but I'm confused over the power connectors that go into the 2900 XT.

2900xt_psu.jpg


From what I've read and understand, it requires that you plug in 2x 6 pin connectors, and that the 8 pin connector is for PCI-E 2.0 compatability that isn't needed yet and also to be able to overclock, but you still need to plug a 6 pin into the 8 pin slot or it won't power up. So... I've checked my PSU's cables that it comes with (it's modular) and I have 1x 6 pin PCI-E cable, that I can plug into it, but not sure where there other 6 or 8 pin connector will come from? I'm assuming that I could just get a 2x molex -> 1x 6/8 pin PCI-E convertor, but is that sufficient? All this talk on "rails" and amps needed from the PSU and I'm just a bit confused and would rather be sure that I'm okay to buy one instead of buying one then finding that I need a new PSU :)

PSU is in sig, it's an Antec SmartPower 2.0 500w Modular PSU. Specifications are listed here.

Firstly, am I right in thinking that my PSU is good enough?
Secondly where on earth does the 2nd 6-pin and/or 8-pin connector come from, will 2x molex->1x pci-e suffice?
 
knowledge123 said:
this thread[/URL] has discussion re: how much power a 2900xt needs
Click to expand...
Thanks for the info!

That thread I've read, wasn't really a concern after reading that if my 500w wasn't good enough, since it is, but it was more the rails required and the amps or something that each rail has that confused me and I couldn't understand it.

I'll dig around see if I have a 2x molex to 6-pin pci-e. But will I need 2 seperate molex cables coming from the PSU, or can I use 2x molex from the same cable and put that into 1x 6 or 8 pin pci-e?
 
I have 2 separate molex cables coming from my PSU, best to be safe ;) i also made sure nothing was interconnected between both of the 2 molex cables and the molex -> pci adapter, so it got full power all the time.
 
flibby said:
Secondly where on earth does the 2nd 6-pin and/or 8-pin connector come from,
Click to expand...


Contrary to some uninformed people stating that the 8 pin connector was ati proprietary its not, its a part of the pci-e 2 spec. There were psu's on the market with these connectors long before the 2900xt launched, though some people would try and say otherwise. :)
 
the corsair psu i got has a 8 pin connector but it doesn;t look like that one. not looked at it very closley, looks like a P8 power connector.
 
Thanks for the replies :)

I've rechecked my PSU cables to see what I have, and seemingly every cable that I have, has a 6 pin PCI-E connector on the end, such as the molex leads go: molex at bottom, molex in middle, pci-e at top. Same for the sata cables and I have 3 of those?! God knows what one man needs with that many 6 pin pci-e cables but I guess I have enough :) But can't see any signs of an 8 pin connector :( So not overclocking if I got one I guess.

Also, one more thing, so I figured that I can plug it in now with 2x 6-pin, but what's all this talk about rails and amps, I understand that the cards needs a secondary 12v rail which mine has, although won't it need 2x 12v rails since it needs 2 pci-e cables or have I got that completely wrong? :P Just my PSU only has 2x 12v rails, and one of them is seemingly plugged into the motherboard.
 
Provided you have those 3 cables straight from your PSU to your 2900xt, it should be fine. try not to plug anything else into those cables, so the 2900xt has all the power it needs.
 
CaNNoN_1981 said:
Are there any 8-pins adp's out there yet? like from 2 molex connectors.

They do one for the 6 pin pci-e connector:-

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CB-018-AK&groupid=701&catid=48&subcat=153

With 3 wires coming from each molex connector, surely they could do 4 wires from each molex to create an 8 pin adp.

:confused: :confused: :confused:
Click to expand...
Molex connectors have only one +12v lead (the other is +5v), so you'd need either a (4xmolex > 8-pin) adapter, or a (2x6-pin > 8-pin) adapter, or a (2xmolex+1x6-pin > 8-pin) adapter.
 
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