The power supply is a very important part of a computer. Without one the computer will not work. It takes care that the computer performs optimal if it is the right one.
It transforms the voltage of the power point to different voltages which the computer needs to be able to work.

The power is given in Watt (W). This is the maximum power the it can give to the computer. Using the Watt indication you can check if it is powerful enough for your computer and all the devices in your computer.

There are different types of power supplies. The wattage is different for each one. Also not each of them has the same connectors. The most older ones have a wattage of 200 Watt and a few connectors like an ATX connector to connect to the motherboard, a few IDE connectors and a floppy drive connector.
The newer ones are more powerful with a higher wattage and have more connectors like the connectors above and a few SATA connectors, CPU connectors, etc.

So there are several different connectors on it, depending on the type of it.



But which connectors can be on a power supply?
Below are the connectors which can be on it. Each connector will be explained.

4 pin molex connector (IDE)
This connector is the connector which are the most of. This type of connector is used to connect devices like DVD drives, CD drives, hard disks etc. Using this connector you can provide your IDE hard drive with power. You cannot attach it to a SATA hard disk. This connector provides power with +12V and + 5V.

SATA connector
The SATA connector is a connector which provides power with SATA hard disks. This type of hard disk connector is quite a new connector and is totally different from a standard molex (IDE) connector. The new at this connector is that it provides power with +5V, +12V and also +3,3V. A standard molex (IDE) connector provides power only with +12V and + 5V.

4 pin + 12 V CPU connector
This connector is used to provide more power to the processor. This type of connector can be attached to the 20 pins ATX connector. The new power supplies have this connector often integrated in the 20 pins ATX connector so it became a 24 pins ATX connector. But many power supplies have a standard 20 pins ATX connector together with this connector. This connector is useful because more power is needed because a standard ATX connector must provide so many devices with power. And in the future this will only be more and more.

8 pin + 12 V CPU connector
This connector is actually a double 4 pins connector which is made to provide servers and dual CPU systems with power. Because servers and dual CPU systems have 2 processors or a dual processor more power is needed for them to work fine.

6 pin + 12 V PCI-e connector
This connector is especially made to provide powerful video cards with power. Because the newest powerful video cards need that much power and the motherboard can’t provide it always, then this connector will provide the video card with enough power. This connector is also called a PCI-e connector because PCI-e video cards are such powerful video cards and they need that many power. For example if you want to use Crossfire you really should look for a power supply which has this connector.

4 pin floppy connector
This connector is used to provide your floppy drive with power.

6 pin Auxiliary
This connector is not being used any more these days. This is an old connector which was used in old systems.





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