Question What needs to be plugged in to a power supply?

SHjiwani

Prominent
Jan 22, 2022
17
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510
I'm building my first pc and I'm at the stage where I plug everything into the power supply. The problem is I don't know which cables I need to use since my power supply is fully modular (hx1000). People tell me to just plug in all the cables, plug in everything that needs to be plugged in, and just remove the cables I didn't use. The problem is that I don't even know ow what in all needs to be plugged in. Some things need to be plugged in separately, but other things don't need to be because they are already powered by the motherboard when it gets plugged in. I am fully water cooling my pc aswell so that's even more stuff I don't know weather or not I need to plug in. Can someone please just tell me what in a fully water cooled pc needs to be plugged in to the psu and what cable those things need.
 

punkncat

Polypheme
Ambassador
Read your documentation and look at the connectors. The only two I am aware of being possible to mix are the CPU power, which will be marked, and the PCI (GPU) cable, which will also be marked. Everything else (so far as I am aware) will only plug in to like shaped and pinned places.
 

SHjiwani

Prominent
Jan 22, 2022
17
0
510
I'm not saying that I am worries about plugging a cable into the wrong spot, I'm worried because I don't know which components need to be plugged into the psu at all.
Read your documentation and look at the connectors. The only two I am aware of being possible to mix are the CPU power, which will be marked, and the PCI (GPU) cable, which will also be marked. Everything else (so far as I am aware) will only plug in to like shaped and pinned places.
 

punkncat

Polypheme
Ambassador
I'm not saying that I am worries about plugging a cable into the wrong spot, I'm worried because I don't know which components need to be plugged into the psu at all.

It should be fairly blatantly obvious when you have the parts in hand and take a look at them. @Zerk2012 pretty much nailed it.

There are loads and loads of build videos on YT and often you can find builds very similar to, if not exactly the components you are working with. As I mention above, once you look the parts over, read your motherboard manual, read the booklet for the PSU (if there is one) and GPU (if equipped) it becomes plain as day.

In some cases, you could have peripherals that will plug into a SATA or Molex connector. Your cooling fan when stock and most often air plug into the motherboard for power along with one or more case fans. Lighting could have supplemental plugs for power.

M.2 drives power from the motherboard socket, as well as RAM.

The only other things you have to worry about are the front header connections, and SATA data cables which will be spelled out in the motherboard manual as well.