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If you’re sending 1500 watts directly into a motherboard, something is probably wrong. Massive power draws (CPU, GPU) would always get their own direct connecti
by sjwright 7y ago
If you’re sending 1500 watts directly into a motherboard, something is probably wrong. Massive power draws (CPU, GPU) would always get their own direct connection, just as they do today.
Apply this simple rule of thumb: watts become heat. The only major exception to this is where the power has exited the computer via USB or similar.
- jmgao 7y agoPCIe specifies that you can get 75W from the connector, which adds up quickly.
- generatorguy 7y agoI haven't assembled a PC since the pentium 200 days. I recall hard drives, floppy drives, and the motherboard had their own power connections but not the CPU or GPU of the time. Still a single pin is probably something like a #18 gauge and would only be good for 10A before it gets too warm for comfort.
- x0 7y agoI always thought that was why the big ATX connector has multiple 12V wires, multiple GND wires, etc. To push heaps of current, but using a normal gauge of wire, rather than something huge.
- cesarb 7y ago> I haven't assembled a PC since the pentium 200 days [...] had their own power connections but not the CPU or GPU of the time That hasn't been true for a long time. Nearly every motherboard for many years has a separate "ATX12V" plug dedicated exclusively to the CPU voltage regulator input. According to Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ATX12V https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ATX12V), the first CPU which needed it was the Pentium 4 from the early 2000s. As for the GPU, the PCI Express slot can only go up to 66W in the 12V rail (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PCI_Express#Power https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PCI_Express#Power), and that's a software-enabled special case for GPUs (the normal limit being 25W for long slots and 6W for the short x1 slots), so higher-power GPUs need one or even two separate power plugs.