Uncreative Labs

Joined: 10 May 2008 Posts: 62

I have an HP-Compaq Presario SR5113WM that I purchased back in December 2007. The specs are as follows: AMD Athlon X2 3600+ 1.9Ghz, 4GB DDR2-800 RAM (originally shipped with 1GB DDR2-667), 160GB SATA Hard Drive, 16x LG Sata DVD-+RW drive, Front Card Readers, integrated sound, lan, and GeForce 6150SE-n430 video. The unit has a 250W bestec power supply. The thing is now that I have the memory upgraded, I would also like to upgrade the video but a 250W Bestec power supply would be skimpy and I fear that it would not provide enough power to a decent graphics card. I have noticed that the Asus motherboard that this compaq supports a 24 pin atx power connector. However the power supply only has a 20 pin connected to it.

The question is this... If I purchase a newer power supply with more wattage (esp. on that 12V rail) should I plug a 24pin in the 24 pin place or should I just plug the 20 pin portion onto it. Would it damage the mobo by providing too much power?

Joined: 03 Feb 2006 Posts: 488 Location: pennsylvanai

compaq // hp is NOT knowlegeable about these things
everybody with brains was fired when the companies merged.
( based on experience)
ebay hong kong sells flat 4 to square 4 cables for about $2.00. But the amd mB I have here don';t use either the separate 4 pin or a 24 pin atx plug.
I think this is a pentium 4 "thing"
some power supplies have a way to separate the 20 and 4 pin parts amd m,anmy supplies have an entire;ly separate 4 pin plug.
I have one 250w with a 24p and was told I could plug it in a 20 p mb if there was clearance at the end of the 20p connector ( there isn't)
others have a 20 and a separate 4 pin llug
I would go and buy a 20 pin power supply. with a seapatrate 4p plug and set it up the same way it is now.
BTW even some P4 mb do not use the separate 4 p connector.
one of mine ( a p4)shows it in the manual. but the MB has no 4p plug. it works.

if you are not 100% sure on the ps you buy compare colors on the connector
some dells had an odd pinout ( intentionally) and will cause fire and smoke) dell used a non-standard pinout despite using intel mb. ( p2 p3 mb)

My son has a very " nice" video card that kills his pc when he tries to use it., apparently is is either defective or draws too much power.

My wife has problems with ztree as the video goes away on her p4 when it is run in full screen mode.
she can run once and esxit to the desktop and it is ok,. second time no video black screen.

Joined: 10 May 2008 Posts: 62

wdegroot wrote:

compaq // hp is NOT knowlegeable about these things
everybody with brains was fired when the companies merged.
( based on experience)

Apparently this is the case if they put a 20 pin power supply on a 24 pin motherboard. Probably a cost saving thing to skimp on the power supply. However the system has run reliably for me since December 2007 when I bought it new. The power supply also has an ATX12V that connects to the motherboard next to the CPU. Without that the CPU wouldn't get enough juice. I'll definitely take your advice and get a power supply that has a 20+4 pin detachable atx connector and use the 20 pin portion. This compaq I'm using I put a PCI Express x16 video card in there before, an eVGA Geforce 7300GS. After running it for a week, the card died and I had to take it back to the computer store. Perhaps it was just a defective card. But before I upgrade the video again I'm definitely upgrading the power supply.

Joined: 22 Apr 2007 Posts: 264 Location: Ohio/USA

ATX 20+4 plus the 4 pin 12V plug should work for pretty much any ATX machine except for select dells that had special PS wiring (older P2/3?).

I just ordered a couple 550W supplies from geeks.com on sale for $16.99 each (they have all the CE UL etc ratings so can't be that bad).

Some PCIE cards have a power connector you need to connect to them.

Posted: Wed May 06, 2009 2:21 am

Makes me glad i still use agp........ the cards onboard connector is a standard large molex...