8-pin Connection on 12-pin CPU power socket

[Elusive181]

I have a Gigabyte SOC Force Z97 board, with an 8-pin connector and a 4-pin connector. Currently troubleshooting the parts, and all I have right now with extra PSUs is a 550w EVGA G2, which only has an 8-pin connector.

Can I plug in the 8-pin connector from the extra PSU and not have to plug in the 4-pin connector, and expect the system to start? This is just troubleshooting if my current PSU is what's wrong with the PC or not, no overclocking or any extra power needed. I am aware that one can plug in 4-pin connectors into 8-pin sockets if not overclocking, so I expect that I will probably be okay, but not certain and I don't want to mess anything up.

 

[Robert Cook]

That 8 pin is for the CPU, the 4 pin is for extreme overclocking when the CPU needs even more power. you can sometimes run on 4 pins, but it can be unstable, but with the 8 pins you should be fine.

 

[Robert Cook]

at some point though you will want a single high enough Power PSU to fill all the ports.

 

[Elusive181]

That 8 pin is for the CPU, the 4 pin is for extreme overclocking when the CPU needs even more power. you can sometimes run on 4 pins, but it can be unstable, but with the 8 pins you should be fine.

Thank you! I got the board for OCing in the future, but as expected I thought it would be okay for testing if my main PSU is unreliable.