Power Supply Connectors:
The pc's power supply converts an high voltage AC current into lowvoltage DC current with is required for motherboard and disk drives.
Power supplies are designed as :
- AT power supply
- ATX power supply. We can't connect an AT styled power supply to an ATX power supplied motherboard. All power supplies have 3 connectors.
- Motherboard Power connector : Motherboard power connectors are used to connect motherboard to the power supply unit.
- Molex Connector : Molex connectors are used to connect hard disk drives, CD and DVD media drives.
- Mini Connector :Mini connectors are used to connect 3.5 inch floppy drive.
through wires and connectors there is a voltage drop and that energy is lost as heat. As long as you don't overload them the voltage drop and extra heat don't matter. But the losses get worse as the current rises. That's why you see some power cables with more that one wire for the same voltage. Having multiple wires reduces the losses. If you seriously overload a line, the wire can get fairly warm. The resistance of connectors tends to increase as they are plugged and unplugged so after enough uses they can overheat and even melt when passing a large current. So a lot of changes in connectors over time has to do with adding more wires and connectors to make sure that none of these problems occur.
Some of the tables below provide the maximum wattage supported by a power cable and its associated power connector. Some specifications clearly spell out the maximum allowed wattage. Other specifications just provide the suggested connector and wire gauge and never specify a maximum wattage. And there's never really an absolute value to the maximum wattage anyway. If you draw a little more wattage then the maximum, the hardware doesn't immediately burst into flames. The voltage drop and power dissipation increase as you increase the current so there isn't a clear maximum wattage at which it stops working. Most of the specifications which spell out the maximum wattage provide a wide safety margin by defining a value which is far below the maximums supported by the connector and wire. If the table below provides an "Official cable/connector maximum wattage" then that specification has spelled out the maximum wattage. In most cases that wattage will be significantly below what can actually be handled by the suggested connector and wire. If the table provides an "Unofficial cable/connector maximum wattage" then that specification doesn't provide the maximum and the value in the table is a practical maximum wattage defined by the maximums for the connector and the suggested wire. An unofficial wattage doesn't have a wide safety margin built in because people differ on how much margin to provide. Some people happily use connector and wire maximums and other people like to have a wide safety margin.