The left 2 pins of the 6+2 pin connector on the right is detached to provide backwards compatibility with 6-pin graphic cards. To solve that issue the PCI-E connector was introduced. Faster dedicated graphics cards require much more power. The motherboard can provide a maximum of 75W through its PCI-E interface slot. It is also possible that your 8-pin cable can be split into two segments to provide backwards compatibility with cheaper motherboards. Obviously you only need to use one of these cables. Most PSU’s provide two cables one with 4-pins and one with 8-pins. For regular usage there is absolutely no need for the additional pins. The extra 4 pins ensure that enough power can be provided to the cpu when overclocking. More expensive “overclocking” motherboards have 8-pin connectors. Nowadays it is the P4, or EPS connector, to provide the cpu with power.Ĭheap motherboards are equipped with a 4-pins connector. With overclocked cpu’s drawing as much as 200W a need to provide power directly to the CPU was created. P4 (EPS Connector)Īt some point in time the motherboard’s pins were no longer sufficient to provide the processor (cpu) with power.

This is done via the 20-pins or 24-pins connector.Ī 24-pins cable is backwards compatible with a 20-pins motherboard, often this cable can be split into 20- and 4-pins (like in the image above). The primary task of the Power Supply Unit (PSU) is to provide your motherboard with power.

However it can still be interesting to learn about the different connector types and their applications. The cable simply won’t fit in the connector slot when you try to connect the wrong header. Luckily they are designed in such a way that you cannot go wrong when installing them. There are a lot of different Power Supply connectors out there.

Power supply with 3 8 pin connector