Power Supply 20+4 Pin Question

[Maksim]

I have a motherboard that supports 24 pin but i have a power supply that is 20 pin and has a 12v plug to go into the appropriate place on the motherboard.. but when i plug in the 20 pin into my mobo it leaves 4 pins left over.. Im wondering how i can solder one together.. I have bunch of power supplies that i can break off and solder in..

I have extra CDROM power plugs i do not use that are coming off the power supply, could i solder it and plug it into the remaining 4 pins that the 20 pin power supply connection leaves out.. and if so then how..

What is the extra 4 pins that are left out of the motherboard for??
I read somewhere its for the PCI-E Graphics card so you dont need to provide external power to the card.. True??

[smeezekitty]

you cant just solder it in
it may work without the four pins

[xavier]

Buy the correct power supply for your board

[Computer_Commando]

20-Pin to 24-Pin ATX Power Supply Adapter Converter Cable

[squall_01]

you cant just solder it in
it may work without the four pins

That may only work if its a higher wattage

[Karnac]

20-Pin to 24-Pin ATX Power Supply Adapter Converter Cable

My local Future Shop actually had a drawerfull of these converters and the tech refused to charge me saying they usually throw them away....this is exactly what you need......They didn't have them for sale retail, but they had them in the back room.

[squall_01]

which would help him how?

[Quantos]

Because it does exactly what the OP is asking for.

[squall_01]

I ment all considering that he has some that the tech dont bother with or w/e

[Maksim]

Thanks for all the help. It appears if you have a pci-e card then the extra 4 pins are needed. But my video is on board so do you guys think I need the extra 4 pins? My computer runs fine and I downloaded a CPU stability tester and ran the test and it didn't crash... I even overcloked it to extra 800mhz and runs like a charm.. But besides having the extra 4 pins for pci-e card does it improve system stability or what does it do extra besides the pci-e as of right now I don't see a reason to get the adapter or buy a new psu..

What do you guys think?

P.s. A customer gave me her computer to fix and it's a new Dell computer and I popped the cover and it had a 24 pin mobo and a 20 pin psu..

[Karnac]

If it's running well and stable, then let it run....I haven't seen this cause problems, perhaps one of the more experienced helpers can comment.

[squall_01]

there are two seperate pairs usually one for the cpu the other for the graphics card.  I would have it just so like the board is getting a steady rate of power an not tring to push say like a 330 watt psu to run dual core or something