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My motherboard is a brand new Gigabyte LGA 1151 Z170 GA-Z170-HD3. It has a 2x4 power connector.

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My power supply is an old ENERMAX Liberty ELT500AWT 500W. I'm saving money by salvaging it from an old PC build. It only came with cables that have 5 or 6 pins.

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Is it possible to supply power using the 2x3 12 volt rail to the 2x4 motherboard socket? Or will this fry system? Is my only choice to buy a new power supply with the correct connections?

JoJo
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  • Please refer to your PSU’s manual. The red connector is a PCIe power connector. I don’t know what the other is supposed to be. Going by the cable colors, it’s not suitable anyway though. If your PSU is not terribly dated, it *will* have the ATX12V CPU power connector. – Daniel B Jan 26 '17 at 06:31
  • The manual does say it have two 12 volt 22 ampere rails. Those are the cables with the red connection. Those connections are arranged in 2x3, which contradicts the 2x4 arrangement on the motherboard. I'm just wondering whether the mismatch is okay or not. – JoJo Jan 26 '17 at 06:42
  • From what it looks like the pins wouldn't fit and even if you got one, how would you attach the other one? On both sides you have stuff that's blocking. Also see [this](http://superuser.com/questions/386138/can-i-safely-use-a-psu-with-an-atx-12v-4-pin-for-a-board-that-has-a-eps-12v-8-pi) question which has the same topic. It looks like there are simple adapter available. – Seth Jan 26 '17 at 06:54
  • This isn’t about rails or whatever. How the PSU is built inside isn’t really relevant here. There are only two types of ATX12V connectors: 2×2 and 4×2. Your PSU will either have one of those or you *will not use it*. – Daniel B Jan 26 '17 at 07:44

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