Motherboard Vendors Unhappy with Alder Lake’s 12VXO Power Standard

extremetech.com

12 pointsvanburen4 comments

> Intel’s ATX 12VO standard ... allows for a much smaller power cable — 10 pins only, as opposed to the current 24.

What I don't understand is that they didn't take this opportunity to combine the main power cable with the 4 or 4+4 pin CPU power connector, making a single 14 or 18 pin connector instead of keeping the existing (and confusing) separate power connectors.

Probably because the point of the 4+4 CPU pin is to get the power as close as possible to the CPU. If you notice, the 24 pin connector is comparatively really far away. Routing all that power over the motherboard would possibly be more costly (and, have other implications for design) than just using the separate connector.

Just my guess, but 4+4 pulls hundreds of watts in burst workloads. Not sure how much the rest of the motherboard uses in theory, but I imagine it's quite a bit less.

I've been reading for over 15 years that the 4+4 pin was to provide more power to the motherboard specifically for the CPU, not to deliver it closer (though I imagine it was a nice bonus).

Delivering it closer does provide more power. Some of the power is lost to heat as the electricity travels through the traces on the motherboard.

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