When assembling a computer we can have quite a few doubts, especially when we have a series of components that we may not be used to seeing, one of the clear examples that we can have is modular power supplies. Know how many of the cables You have to connect at the beginning is something that is quite complicated to guess, so it is quite likely that many times we forget something, causing us to have to find a way to implement it when the fountain modular inside the box, so to prevent this from happening, we tell you which ones are necessary.
The power cables that the various PC configurations have are really not something that is too complicated to install when we have a normal power supply, since these have everything necessary for any computer, and even much more than what you would expect. we will use normally. In the case of modular ones we have a series of advantages, one of the main ones being the fact that we can eliminate the power cables used in SATA storage devices, something perfect for saving space in next-generation configurations that use M.2 drives.
How to know which connector to use before installing the font
One of the great advantages that modular power supplies offer us is the ease of recognizing each of their components, the connectors who go to their own PSU They are screen printed to make it easy to know which end to connect here, while also having their technical names to identify them. Most sources usually divide connectors by several names, which are usually the following:
- Motherboard: motherboard connectors, usually the mythical 24-pin ones
- PCIe/CPU: connectors for both expansion cards (8-pin, 6+2) and CPU (8-pin 4+4)
- SATA/PATA: connectors for storage devices
Modular power supplies have all the cables that we may need to connect any component to our PC, while they obviously offer the most basic ones that exist to offer the motherboard the power it needs. In this aspect, the most basic cables that we will always find are the modular ATX of 24 pinwhich is usually connected to the right side of the board and supplies power to it, along with the EPS/ATX 12v which has an 8-pin configuration (4+4) and is usually connected in the upper area to supply power to the processor.
These are the two main ones that we will always have to connect, without any exception, while there are others that are used situationally depending on the components that our computer has. If, for example, we use a latest generation graphics card, we will have to choose to use the cable 12V-2×6 12+4 pins, while if we have one that is a little older we will surely have to use a PCIe with a configuration of 8 pin (6+2) or another that is also 8-pin but double.
And lastly we would like to mention the cables. SATA and LEGwhich are used as we have indicated for storage devices and which have the most peculiar configuration, being easy to recognize due to their completely different appearance. The SATA, for example, uses a practically flat connector, very different from the others that use a configuration of various pins, while the PATA has a four-pin connector arranged horizontally.
So what cables do I need to use in my source?
It is really very simple, as we explained at the beginning, everything depends on what you are looking to connect, that is, both the 24-pin ATX and the 8-pin EPS/ATX will be necessary in the vast majority of cases, but the PCIe, for example, it is almost never necessary to connect them all. This means that although the source comes with eight different types of cables, among which we will find some repeats of each one, we do not need to connect them all, obviously, making the installation and maintenance of the PC much easier.
