Reply 20 of 30, by SpectriaForce
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wrote:Yes they do*. Some systems require a lot of current on the +5v rail, wich moderns PSU's dont really provide that well. But thats […]
wrote:Alright. One question I have, since there doesn't seem to be any reliable answers online:
Do modern power supplies work on older motherboards?
Yes they do*.
Some systems require a lot of current on the +5v rail, wich moderns PSU's dont really provide that well.
But thats not an issue with the relativly low power P2's and P3's.Tho you might wanna pay attention to the ATX connector.
Modern MB's and PSU's have 24 pin connectors and older usually have 20 pin.
The extra 4 pins are just added to the end of the connector and on most PSU's you can detach them and just use 20 pins.
But in some case thats not possible and you will get 4 extra pins hanging over the MB connector.
Wich also would be fine, but theres gotta be room for them on the MB =)Cheap and not modular, but they have 3 of the the (nowadays rare) 4 pin molex connectors, and a FDD one.
Not sure if they are available in all regions tho.*I suspect theres probably some rare exeptions to this.
Some recent (low end) power supplies with group balance regulation might not work, which is what I have discovered last week with a COMPAQ i440BX board.The power supply might reset or shut down when it decides that voltages and/or loads get out of control. It does depend on your configuration, because I have a socket 370 Voodoo2 system with a Seasonic S12-II (group regulated PSU) that does not have stability issues (the +12V is a little over 5% off though).
You need to look up the +5V load specification, in a regular slot 1 setup 20A (or more) is fine.
You can buy a 24-pin to 20-pin ATX plug converter pretty much anywhere, but if you have a board with some free space around the ATX connector, then you don't need one.