EPS12V Power Supplies

sechs · Feb 11, 2004

I was putzing around, looking at workstation motherboards, and noticed that most of them require an EPS12V powersuppy. This was a new stardard to me.

Turns out, all that the EPS12V standard does is provide additional connectors for the +3v and +12v rails on the power supply.

Given that the power supplies are otherwise the same, what's the advantage of the extra connections of a ATX12V or EPS12V over a standard ATX power supply?

blakerwry · Feb 11, 2004

I dont think there's any advantage of EPS over ATX w/ a 4pin 12v (ala pentium4) connector, infact I think you can get simple converters from regular 20(?) pin ATX to the 24pin connector of EPS.

sechs · Feb 12, 2004

That's my thought.

Then why specify a standard?

blakerwry · Feb 12, 2004

I beleive the 4 pin pentium 4 connector came after the 24pin ATX power connector...

ask intel why they wanted to make their own connector versus using an existing design?

My guess is compatibility with standard ATX PSUs

sechs · Feb 12, 2004

So are those extra four pins just so that the processor can have it's own tap on the power supply?

Maybe I'm just not seeing the point of this.

blakerwry · Feb 12, 2004

That's what I got out of it. More power to lines from the PSU to power the processor(s) more stabley.

sechs · Feb 12, 2004

So why would this make the system more stable? All of the power comes from the same place.

blakerwry · Feb 12, 2004

why does it make the pentium 4's more stable?

sechs · Feb 12, 2004

Any processor. The boards that I was looking at previously were dual Opteron.

Bung · Feb 13, 2004

sechs said:
So why would this make the system more stable? All of the power comes from the same place.

The plugs have a limit of about 6 Amps per pin. Pins that are slightly loose or drawing more Amps can result in melt down of the plugs. Some boards use the 12V plug to get the power CPU closer to the regulator.

sechs · Feb 13, 2004

Whi not just use molex connectors?