Biostar TA790GX

deshepherd · 13 Mar 2009 at 11:12

Just got one of these boards. On it the mb there's a molex power connector which is an "auxilliary graphics power connector".

Does this need to be connected if I'm already connecting to a PCIe power connector on my gfx card?

My suspicion is that the connector is there to get the extra power to the PCIe socket thats part of the PCIe 2 spec ... but, many gfx cards assume that they might be used in a PCIe 1.x context and thus still use the older on card 6/8pin power connector.

I assume that using it won't do any harm but (haven't started to fit the board yet) haven't worked out if I've a spare molex plug to use yet and want to avoid going the moelx splitter route if its not needed!

Quixote · 13 Mar 2009 at 18:57

Lots of boards have these. They're to be plugged in when using more than one graphics card in Crossfire / SLI configuration. Provides extra power to some parts of the board for stability purposes. With a single card setup, you don't need to plug it in.

deshepherd · 15 Mar 2009 at 18:56

Quixote said:
Lots of boards have these. They're to be plugged in when using more than one graphics card in Crossfire / SLI configuration. Provides extra power to some parts of the board for stability purposes. With a single card setup, you don't need to plug it in.

Plugged it in any way ... I got a new PSU a couple of months back (old one died) and I'd been thinking of the old one when I was concerned about lack of plugs ... new one has loads spare so no issue

jawor121 · 16 Mar 2009 at 20:26

Well i wouldn't use it if didn't need to because it doesn't look pretty, the wire going through the case.

deshepherd · 17 Mar 2009 at 09:46

jawor121 said:
Well i wouldn't use it if didn't need to because it doesn't look pretty, the wire going through the case.

I'm afraid I'm one of those old fashioned people who see a case as being a box that holds things rather that an art installation :rolleyes: