Abit AW9-D MAX - does the four pin molex need to be connected?

[adslegend]

Does anyone know if the molex connector beneath the PCI-E slot needs to be connected? The manual is pretty vague tbh.

My PSU only has the 4-pin auxillary 12V connector, which is connected.
TIA

[Blue078]

It's their to supply a lil extra power to the board when your runing two power hungrey 19xx cards in CrossFire. Single card you dont have to use it, but what could it hurt? I use it because I'm runing a power sucking 8800GTX.

[oohms]

With a single card i never use it... I have tried with and without it and i reach exactly the same overclock..

[adslegend]

Ok, the reason I ask is that this is my older C2D build. I only really played BF2142 in it, and it kept BSODing despite the overclock being Orthos stable etc. I thought it was my 8800 GTS, or the power to the PCI-E 16x. I looped 3D Mark 03 overnight at 1600x1200 8xAA 16xAF and no issues, so I believe it must just be a BF2142/Forceware issue from other stuff I read on the net.

Kind of relieved it's not a dud card too.

[hipro5]

If you have an 8800GTS and above, you don't need to plug a 4 pin molex....If you have an 8800GT and below, it's better to plug the 4 pin molex...

[fgw]

i posted this over at the abit forums a few days ago ...

simply connect one of the cables coming from your psu and usually running to peripheral devices (hdd, cd, dvd) to it.
the pcie slots on the board gets their additional power from this connector.
it is required for powerhungry vga cards to run stable!

as of intel specs, a single 12V rail of the psu has to be limited to 18A. this is true also for the 6pin pcie cable to supply power to pcie vga cards. as soon as your vga card requires more than this 18A, the ATX4P1 connector is required in addition to the 6pin pcie power connector connected directly to the vga card, to maintain sufficient power for the vga card!

[Blue078]

Ok, the reason I ask is that this is my older C2D build. I only really played BF2142 in it, and it kept BSODing despite the overclock being Orthos stable etc. I thought it was my 8800 GTS, or the power to the PCI-E 16x. I looped 3D Mark 03 overnight at 1600x1200 8xAA 16xAF and no issues, so I believe it must just be a BF2142/Forceware issue from other stuff I read on the net.

Kind of relieved it's not a dud card too.

And is this BF2142 BSODing happening in Vista?
I've had nothing but BSOD's and Memory erra # xxxxxxx, also off and on in game freezes, from the combo of Vista/8800GTX/BF2142.

[adslegend]

And is this BF2142 BSODing happening in Vista?
I've had nothing but BSOD's and Memory erra # xxxxxxx, also off and on in game freezes, from the combo of Vista/8800GTX/BF2142.

Nah XP which is why I was immediately suspecting hardware.