Power supply question

[c0w]

Can someone please tell me why are there so many different connectors in a power supply?
What's the difference between 24 and 20 pins ATX connector? And what's a P4 connector for? Just for Intel P4?

[radeonboy]

There are many different connectors on the motherboard because it is conforming to a standard.

24-pin ATX connectors are for the new 775 series from Intel; an extra form of power because supposedly they need it, this is ATX2.0. 20-pins are the regular ATX version which comes in mostly all Athlons, and Pentiums of today.

The P4 connector is optional for some motherboards but it basically is a backup source for powering everything on the motherboard. This is for Intel and AMD CPU's.

[goofball]

24 pin is part of the ATX 2.0, used to provide extra line of power for +3.3/5/12 from the PSU. also requires dual +12v rails to be 2.0 compliant. Not limited to Intel platform only, nforce4 uses this type of connector, it is usually required for PCI-E motherboards.

20 pins is the old ATX formfactor.

4pin P4 is for extra +12v to the mobo/cpu for extra stability.