Question Two 24-pin motherboard cables, one has 1 pin empty and the other has 2 pins empty ?

Zombehh

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Oct 2, 2014
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Hello!

I purchased a Thermaltake ToughPower GF A3 Gold 1050w PSU. I have 2 motherboard connectors, 1 has a pin hole empty and the other one has 2 empty. chatgpt said that I must use the one that came with my PSU or I can risk frying it however I can't remember which is which! does it really matter which cable I end up using? The PSU manual says nothing on the topic so I'm worried.
 
The correct one would be either all black, or all white wires with black connectors, depending on which color PSU you bought. It could matter a lot as there is no standard way to wire the PSU side, and the monochromatic wire colors are no help. But if you didn't mix up the other cables, the small markings on the wires of those Molex and SATA and PCIe cables should match the ones on the 24-pin

To be sure, you could jumper the end of the plugged-in cable using the paperclip test then check each pin on the 24-pin of the running PSU with a multimeter for the correct voltage:
psu-paperclip-test1.png

Or you could contact Thermaltake and ask them which is the right one.