I'm currently running a 7600gt, which doesn't have any power connections. I notice the board i'm using has a pcie 12v connector on it, so I was wondering what's the connection for?

Are you talking about the motherboard having a PCIE connector on it?

Are you sure it's not a 4 pin "Intel" power connector? If that's what it is, then you should hook it up for maximum stability!

What's the brand and model number of your motherboard. I'll look it up and let you know (if someone doesn't get to it before me)

Anytime you ask a question about hardware, try to include specific information about what you're discussing. That will typically help us narrow down a more precise answer.


Waiting for your reply.

-hartigan

GIGABYTE GA-M55SLI-S4 ATX AMD Motherboard

It's a 4 pin connector..but in my manual its says its for pcie.

I circled the connector i'm referring to.

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Thats a regular Molex connecter

It is definitely a 4 pin molex connector. if memory serves correctly, some motherboards have such connectors to provide extra juice for sli and especially when overclocking. I doubt plugging in the connector wouldnt do any harm. Would wait for hartigan's answer before taking any course of action, just to be on the safe side.

Yeah, hook a regular molex to it..it should aid stability in general, and if you OC, allow you to reach higher clocks.

EDIT: and yes Nav..its mostly used to feed extra power to the board for SLI, again..to aid stability with todays power hungry high end cards!

I had the same thing on my DFI LP, I alwasy hooked it up, but I have answered a few threads in the past where they didnt have it hooked up and wondered why it wouldn't OC and kept crashing...and that turned out to be what they missed.

It's in the manual for your motherboard on Page 26.

If you've lost it, here's a link to the online .pdf of the manual. LINK

Right Click the "America" Link and select "Save File As . . .". Once it's downloaded you can use Adobe Reader to find page 26.




From the manual:

3) PCIE_12V (Power Connector)
This power connector provides extra power to the onboard PCI Express x16 slot. When installing
two graphics cards, please connect the power cable from the power supply to this connector, or
system instability may occur.





I realize this simply restates what has already been said but, sometimes it's nice to have it from the official documentation.

Hope this helps.

-hartigan

Oh I have the manual, so I already knew what it says. It says connect the connector depending on your system requirements. My question is, since i'm running only one video card, will using the 12v connector add more power to the pcie slot?

Quote: Originally Posted by coolerguy1984 Oh I have the manual, so I already knew what it says. It says connect the connector depending on your system requirements. My question is, since i'm running only one video card, will using the 12v connector add more power to the pcie slot?

It won't necessarily make things "better" (faster) but it will definitely make things more stable.


Bottom-line . . . connecting it will do no harm and I'd suggest doing so as long as you have the extra molex connector for it. That added stability is worth it.

Hope that helps.


If you have any other questions feel free to ask.

-hartigan

Thanks guys, and I appreciate all your help.

I can't remeber exactly..but there is a limit at wich you NEED to hook it up, like if you rcard draws over 50-75 watts or something close to that.

Dead stock, your 7600 should be right on the border of needing it...if you OC, you should definately hook it up!


I would like to take this time to point out OC'ing a card like that can provide some pretty nice gains, and is prety simple and reliable if you take yur time during stability testing.


All you need is "CooblBits" wich will unlock the hidden NVIDA OC settings in the control panel!

It even has an Auto OC feature to help out those who don't know where to start...it is just a good place to start, sometimes it's a liittle too much on the core and not enough on the ram, or there may be more (or less) headroom on both, but it's usally not too far off the mark.


You can find a link to it in my Ultimate links collection at th bottom of my sig.

I tried connecting the cable, and my system booted up slower than usual. It would stay loading the windows logo, i'll left it to load for like 2 minutes before turning off the pc and unpluggin the cable. Once I unplugged it, I then turned on my computer and it booted up normal. Does anyone think this could be a PSU problem, maybe needing more wattage?

Well..what PSU do you have? I thought someone all ready said it realy helps when you list it when asking for advice...lol

And the molex's have different "load" ratings sometimes, it is best to use one of the higher rated ones (See your manual) and best not to have anything else on that "Chain"

Quote: Originally Posted by $SOLID$ Necro Well..what PSU do you have? I thought someone all ready said it realy helps when you list it when asking for advice...lol And the molex's have different "load" ratings sometimes, it is best to use one of the higher rated ones (See your manual) and best not to have anything else on that "Chain"

yea lol, sorry about that. I've posted my specs so many times on here I just forget sometimes.

amd 64 X2 am2
OCZ 2X512 DDR2 667
eVGA 7600gt
wd sata/300
Ultra X-Connect 500watt psu

Oh boy..those damn ultra's just won't go away around here...

Just do a search for them in the archives...in fact , here ya go...not the ones I was looking for, but they will do for now.

http://forums.pcapex.com/project_wor...=Ultra+connect

http://forums.pcapex.com/deals_and_s...=Ultra+connect (Free after rebate? whats THAT tell ya!!!!!)


It may or may not be the problem, but I realy don't like them as a rule of thumb..the newer gen with 600 or 800 watts seem to be a huge improvement though.

Oh..and since you don't have a sig, why don't ya just list your specs there? (Save ya some time)

Hi i have the same motherbored Gigabyte GA-M55SLI-S4 and i was wondering if i need to hook up the pcie 12 v connecter with my Nvidia GeForce 7300 SE/7200 GS Graphics card? Will it increase the performance of the card? thanks in advance

Quote: Originally Posted by smithky Hi i have the same motherbored Gigabyte GA-M55SLI-S4 and i was wondering if i need to hook up the pcie 12 v connecter with my Nvidia GeForce 7300 SE/7200 GS Graphics card? Will it increase the performance of the card? thanks in advance

Okay, folks, here's the deal:

PCIx 1.0 and 1.1 slots provide 75W to the graphics card. If your card requires more than that (or even just under that), then by all means plug in that extra molex connector. If you're going to OC your card, plug in that extra molex connector.

The big benefit for 2.0 spec boards (X38 and above, I think) that is currently relevant (bandwidth is irrelevent at this point, IMO, as we're not filling that pipe these days) is that they provide 150W to the graphics cards. This reduces or removes (in some cases) the need for extra wires running to the graphics card.

For example, the minimum power requirements for the nVidia 8400 GS is 71 watts. You might think about plugging in that molex connector. The maximum power requirements for the 7300 GS, however, is only 16.1W. (According to the chart found here: GeForce 7 Series - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia ) So I wouldn't worry too much about that 7300 SE. The nVidia's didn't start drawing high wattage until the 7800's or so. (Wish I could have found that info at nVidia's site, but only found the 8400 requirement there.)

Check your card's specs ...

-godling