You should also be fine with a 4 to 8 pin adapter. Better than just using the 4-pin cable on the board (because the lanes on the board get less current each).
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You should also be fine with a 4 to 8 pin adapter. Better than just using the 4-pin cable on the board (because the lanes on the board get less current each).
do you have a link for this kind of adapter ? I tough there was only one 8pin -> 4pin not opposite ?Quote:
Originally Posted by Martin Cracauer
I bought a Thermaltake-labeled kit for SMP motherboards. Comes with a 20->24 pin and the 4->8 pin. Was 5 bucks or so. I lost the link, though. If I remember tomorrow I can see whether it pops up in my brain. Or ask on the 2cpu.com forums, they know this.
I just picked one of these up the other day in preparation for the Expert. It even comes sleeved whatever color you want. Here's the link: performance-pcs.Quote:
Originally Posted by tomati
They seem to have a lot of colors to choos from. What the heck is "super-hero" color?Quote:
Originally Posted by Revivalist
Or ogre or jester for that matter....wonder if the adapter actually helps? :confused:
Or if it needs to be a native 8-pin or a 4-pin + 2xmolex or something....
The new DFI will work with a 4-pin plugged in.Quote:
Originally Posted by Vapor
There is nothing magical about the 8-pin: the advantage is that now each wire on the mainboard carries less current. If you use an adapter to 8 pin before the MB this advantage is fully preserved.
Of course a pure wire is better than an adapter but adapters are really not that horrible as long as they are not corroded or mechanically challenged. It will certainly be overall better than just pluggin the 4-pin in.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Onycho
pcpc will retrofit if you want.
I'm not so sure that this is the case. Engineers at pcpc told me that an adapter is not the same as a real 8 pin hookup. With this big an investment, I think I'd rather have the real thing.Quote:
Originally Posted by Martin Cracauer
Hmmm...I just modded my pcpc 510sli with an 8-pin plug in preparation for my expert :p: TBH, I don't think there would be a drastic difference ifrom using an adapter vs wiring straight from the psu's pcb (which is what I did, btw)Quote:
Originally Posted by xgman
Using a 4 pin to 8 pin adapter doesn't do much for you, it really does nothing. All it does is split the 4 wires coming out of the psu, into 8 wires (8 pin plug). The whole point of 8 wires is to easily supply more current with less resistance. If the 8 pin header on the motherboard has all the 12v pins in common, and all the grounds in common, the only purpose would be to support more current via parallel motherboard traces (vs. using bigger traces that might have been harder to route). Since it has been said that you could use just the 4 pin plug, and leave the remaining 4 with nothing plugged in, they all must be in common, therefore using adapaters is silly :p: (the only way to mod a PSU would be to add more wires dirrect from the source (transistors/fets) in the PSU - i don't speak from experience, but it is basic electronics)
im not bothered about that,Quote:
Originally Posted by Martin Cracauer
if it overclocks as well as/better the others then thats ace but the reason i want this is because of the larger gap inbetween the sli cards as i am going to watercool and use pci cards (x-fi pro & tv card) :)
I'm not quite sure what you mean by adding wires "direct from the source (transistors/fets)". Psu wires terminate at the pcb of the psu and you can simply solder leads directly to the pcb if you want/need extra rails. The extra 4 pins on an 8-pin header are indeed used to supply more current with less resistance, therefore if you were to use only a 4-pin connector, the wires would have to carry 2x the load of an 8-pin connector. Yes, using a 4-pin connector will work, but using an 8-pin one works better. I would imagine an adapter wouldn't take the 4 wires from a 4-pin connector and then split them into 8-wires; rather it would use those 4 wires ALONG with 4 others from 2 molexes on separate lines to comprise the 8-wires necessary for the connector......Quote:
Originally Posted by Diverge
I just called dfi and heard a slightly mumbled "delay due to production problems" when asking about the "Expert", so no official ship date yet according to their morning update. Hope it's not a repeat of the early NF4 sli boards problems.
Well I don't know the DFI EXPERT specific answer about 4 -> 8 pin adapters and whether
just using a 4-pin connector would be OK.
But as an EE I can tell you for SURE that it COULD make a CRITICAL difference -- there's
no requirement I know of that says that they couldn't take each of the four +12V wires
coming in on the four pins of the 8-pin connector and use them to power
ENTIRELY DISTINCT parts of the motherboard e.g.
wire #1 powers chips A,B,C,D wire #2 powers chips E,F,G,H, etc. so that
if you didn't have all four +12V wires attached to the connector then some parts
of the motherboard would simply not be getting power inputs everywhere they
were supposed to.
The scary thing is that the board could actually seem to 'work' in this state if
the power started flowing in some 'backwards' way through the unpowered devices
so that they were getting some juice but not in the right way to avoid damage or
impairment to the circuits.
DFI and the other M/B manufacturers should really 100% clearly tell us if the
12V lines on the 8-pin connector are all connected electrically "in parallel"
AT the connector location, or if they're just run off as distinct power traces.
If they're truly hooked in parallel on the motherboard (all to the same copper pad
/ power trace on the PCB) then, yes, you could use a 4-pin connector on the 8-pin
socket and probably have no problem unless the extra PSU input current and
lower PSU to motherboard resistance from having more input wires was really
crucial for your setup. If the motherboard connector does NOT have the +12V
inputs in direct parallel then bad, bad, bad things may / probably eventually will happen.
The same can be said for using "only" a 20pin ATX connector on a "24 pin"
motherboard, I suppose, though I don't at the moment recall what the other 4
pins in that case are defined to be used for and if they're guaranteed to be
parallel, not parallel, critical, or non-critical.
Measuring the resistance of the 12V pins on the M/B to each other is probably
not a useful way to tell if they're truly all paralleled because you could get a false
"connected" reading going through a circuit vs. a PCB pad. The only way to know
is to ask DFI or see the connector pins literally soldered dead directly on to the
SAME PCB pad.
PS even if the +12V wires are paralleled it's similarly conceivable they
could use the different GROUND pins for DIFFERENT circuits, so, again,
if those weren't ALL connected through the connector to the PSU there
could be big problems.
Quote:
Originally Posted by xgman
Hmmm.......... It's karma. They pitched the Promise SATA RAID controller they were initially going to use, and stuck with the crappy Promise one. This is nature's way of getting back at DFI (and us, it would seem)
PCB, or to the actual component in the PSU, it's all the same, assuming the PCB traces and actual circuitry handles the current (if there is more a load). But, if you look at those adapters they sell (a link was posted above), all they do is branch 4 more wires out of the existing 4 pin psu connector. The way you described in your post is the right way to do it (by running additial wires from inside the actual psu).Quote:
Originally Posted by s7e9h3n
Yeah, i agree (pretty much what i had said with less detail). But from what has been stated, DFI or their tech support said you can use just the 4-pin plugs, so if that is true, the grounds and +12V's have to be common, otherwise circuits might not get powered correctly. (either way, my psu has an 8pin :p: )Quote:
Originally Posted by synergy
It is not the same, stricktly speaking. Having a solid wire is always better than having wires connected by a plug.Quote:
Originally Posted by xgman
But think about this: if these connectors in the plugs are so horrible, how come it works between the wires and the mainboard. It is the same plug, same mechanism. Of course having one is better than having two, but it is not possible that the adapter itself is a big problem. If it was, the plug on the mainboard would be the same big problem.
Well we will see if NCIX is right and everyone has been hush hush and not telling us when the boards will hit. They still show the ETA as tomorrow so hopefully they aren't lying. If not I got a cheaper board to tide me over until it gets in stock. Here is the link again if you want to check the date for yourself.
I remember not long ago we have a bunch of whinner accuse the current NF4 board were 'rush-product' but now when DFI take their time to work out all the bugs and tweaks for the upcoming products and here we have yet another group of people complaint again about them not being on time......jeewiz....you guys are hard to please! :D :D :D I can understand if it was being delay for like 2~3 months but it's only couple weeks.....it's not too bad really. :D :DQuote:
Originally Posted by dinos22
yeah well after the first couple of weeks delay you say no worries, second delay....well :banana::banana::banana::banana: happens and third and forth delay you start thinking WTF....if this product coming out soon or what.......i guess we'll see how well they've prepared the product for final release when they start selling next month sometime (hopefully)..............it's not a perfect world but when you make a call stick to it.....don't mess around..........no bios will be perfect regardless of how long they take.....it can only get better once there are bucketloads of competent overclockers making the rounds with the motherboards......Quote:
Originally Posted by ben805
companies are increasingly relying on this form of spindoctor marketing, talking up products on forums, massive launches, promising the world and then not delivering on time..............the board was talked up for months and it is now formally announced :fact: There should be boxes on shelves from day1 and not day 21, 31, 61, 91.................seems Nvidia of late is the only decent company around in that respect
Sorry to dissapoint, but it's gonna be AT LEAST 7-10 days until launch of the Expert and maybe even a little longer until they actually hit store shelves....Quote:
Originally Posted by 20AEGTI
err...wrong thread?...
No dissapointment on my end as you can see by my post I didn't really think it would be out today. If so why would I have gone through the hassle of buying a board to tide me over a couple of days to a week? I have come to expect that most company will not meet estimated dates by any means and to expect a delay in the products being released. My guess is you will have another release like their Crossfire boards.Quote:
Originally Posted by s7e9h3n
All the sudden, a couple of people will have them and post thoughts and results, a big website will have an exclusive that is due in a day or two, then all the sudden holy :banana::banana::banana::banana: a lot of retailers have them for sale, only to sell out in an hour and a half. So lets see next estimate :stick: date is what November 1st or so? Oh well, maybe something better will come out and I will cancel my pre-order.
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