PSU issue

Minibiker · 4 May 2016 at 14:01

I have got most of my build sorted however, In the Manual it says connect Fan A1 A2 A3 and B1 B2 B3 to the connectors from the PSU but there isnt any... Im really confused, also my power button isnt responding so im guessing ive plugged it in the wrong socket :confused:

Borealis · 4 May 2016 at 14:05

What board/case/PSU are you using?

Front panel headers can be annoying. You could have it wired up to the wrong socket, or it could be you've got it back to front. Some of the switches have a positive and negative and won't work if they're back to front.

Minibiker · 4 May 2016 at 16:18

All sorted now, I had the negative and positive the wrong way round hahah donut!!! No i have spare SATA cables, CPU2 and Two other cables i cant find sockets for, Could these just be spares or are all cables always used

Borealis · 4 May 2016 at 16:32

What PSU is it?

If you've got a modular PSU, then they always come with more cables than you need. Usually they come with extra PCI-E connectors for multi-graphics cards setups (Corossfire/SLI), more SATA cables and 4-pin molex connectors. Sometimes you also get additional CPU cables for multi-CPU setups like servers.

Unless you get a very, very cheap PSU you'll always have connectors left over, even if it's not modular.

Minibiker · 4 May 2016 at 16:40

I have the Superflower 650w PSU... All cables are tied together and go into one hole on the PSU... Im also guessing the PCI-E and SLI go into the GPU

Borealis · 4 May 2016 at 19:04

OK, so non-modular. Is this your PSU?

https://www.overclockers.co.uk/supe...0-plus-gold-power-supply-black-ca-004-sf.html

It does indeed come with 2 CPU cables. Unless you're running a dual-CPU server, it's just a spare cable. The 4 PCI-E connectors are for graphics cards. Unless you're running Xfire/SLI you'll only need a maximum of 2 of them for mainstream cards (MSI Lightning/EVGA Kingpin are an exception to this). You always end up with spare Molex/Sata connectors unless you're running a lot of devices.

Minibiker · 4 May 2016 at 19:14

Yeah thats the one bud, Thats a great help, so what i only need to plug in the GPU is the PCI-E cables and not the SLI cable

Borealis · 4 May 2016 at 19:30

There's no such thing as an SLI cable. You use PCI-E power cables to power your graphics cards. You then use an SLI bridge/Xfire bridge to connect the data link if you're using multiple cards. 4 PCI-E cables will power 2 high end cards.

It's worth noting that any SLI/Xfire setup is likely to be needing a 750W+ PSU, so why they include so many connectors on these lower-wattage PSUs beats me.

Minibiker · 4 May 2016 at 20:21

Ohhh really, the cable has a red adapter with SLI Ready wrote on it thats why i thought it was a SLI cable... :confused:

Borealis · 4 May 2016 at 21:15

SLI ready just means the psu is capable of SLI, or has enough connectors for SLI. Basically, any of those cables will work to power a graphics card.

SLI/Crossfire is the standard for multiple GPUs. It's a data transfer mechanism, not a power system. Bit out of date but:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scalable_Link_Interface

Minibiker · 5 May 2016 at 04:39

Ahhhhh i see, Thanks for that explaination i understand a lot more... I have one PCI-E cable in the GPU and one SLI ready cable in the GPU and now i know its safe that way ill keep it plugged in...