Ok, let me start off by saying I might sound like I dont know what i'm on about, which is because I don't know what i'm on about, but if anyone could help me I would be greatful. I did do computing at college but never opened up a computer in my life, it was all like coding and stuff like that. Oh and the reason I put this topic in general chat is cuz I dunno where else to put it. Anyway, what it is, a couple of weeks ago my gf won a prize through a competition (she does online comps and wins random things a lot of the time). Well it was a power supply that she won (took us a few hours to figure out it was a power supply for a PC and not a car or somet). Anyway, it is a hiper R power supply unit, 480 watts, which is a good one so im told... so I thought right well ill stick it in my pc cuz my pc is really noisy n stuff and maybe this would help, so I bravely opened up my PC for the first time ever and took out the old power supply and put in my new one, then I saw that the connecter that that was to connect to the motherboard would not fit, as my motherboard needs a connecter with 20little holes in it, but the one on this new power supply has 24 little squares on it (although on of them looks empty - so its more like 23). So I tookl it out and put my old power supply back in. Now without any knowledge of building PCs ive decided to try since I have this power supply - but first i need to buy a motherboard and need to know how I am meant to know what type to get that will take a power supply with 23/24 holes in the connector? Hope someone understands what I mean, and any help or advice is appreciated, even if it just to say that building a pc is hard and i shudnt bother if i dunno what im doing, but i will still try anyway. Thanks alot :-).

Hello and Welcome

Do you know what motherboard you are currently using?

If not then run this tool and let us know what it detects. (Mainboard, CPU and RAM)
http://www.pchelpforum.com/forum/ind...pic,225.0.html

I ran the program and heres what it says bowt my current PC.

MAin circuit board details:
Board: nVidia-nForce
Bus Clock: 166 megahertz
BIOS: Phoenix Technologies, LTD 6.00 PG 09/24/2003

Processor details:
2.15 gigahertz AMD Athlon XP
128 kilobyte primary memory cache
256 kilobyte secondary memory cache.

So that is my old board that the new power supply doesnt fit onto, but im gunna keep that in this computer anyway with the old power supply. What im looking for is what motherboard i should buy that would fit the new power supply so i can start building a whole new computer. :-). Hope these details help, thanks!

Thanks for the specs

Right if you wanted you could use your new power supply in your old machine, all you need is a converter:
http://www.pcloft.com/24atxposucot.html

I am sure if you went into your local PC Store that would be able to organise one of these adapters.

I noticed that on some sites they say that this power supply comes new with a 24 - 20 pin adapter so might be worth checking in the box.
QUOTE from page
"Also in there are a 24 to 20-pin ATX adapter and a manual printed in a commendable ten languages"

If you are still looking at putting together a new computer then you could buy any of these motherboards.

CHAINTECH NVIDIA nForce4 Ultra Chipset Motherboard For AMD Socket 939 CPU, Model "VNF4/Ultra" -RETAIL

Specifications:
Supported CPU: Socket 939 AMD Athlon 64FX/64 processor
Chipset: NVIDIA nForce4 Ultra
RAM: 4x DIMM Dual Channel DDR 266/333/400 Max 4GB
Slots: 1x PCI-Express X16, 2x PCI-Express X1, 3x PCI
Ports: 2x PS/2, 2x COM, 1x LPT, 10x USB2.0(Rear 4), 1x RJ45, Audio Ports
IDE: 2x ATA 133 up to 4 Devices with NV Raid 0/1/0+1
SATA: 4x SATA2 3.0Gb/s with NV Raid 0/1/0+1
Onboard Audio: NVIDIA 7.1-channel audio
Onboard LAN: 10/100/1000Base-T Gigabit Ethernet
Form Factor: ATX

Supermicro P4SCE ATX 875P P4 Motherboard
Intel? Pentium? 4 Support up to 3.4 GHz, Celeron? up to 2.4 GHz

Intel? 875P Chipset
Up to 4GB DDR 400/333/266 SDRAM
2 x Intel? 82541 Gigabit Ethernet Controllers
Serial ATA Controller on-chip (Intel? ICH5-R)
5 x 32-bit 33 MHz PCI (5V)
ATI RageXL 8MB PCI Graphic Controller


Tidalwave T18 Motherboard
Processor

? LGA775 socket for latest intel Pentium 4/Celeron D processors, support 800/533MHz FSB
? Intel? Celeron D CPU Support
? Intel? 915P Northbridge and Intel? ICH6 Southbridge Chipset
? Supports Serial ATA
? Supports eight USB 2.0 ports
? Supports three 32-bits PCI slots of arbitration and decoding for all integrated functions and LPC bus.
? Audio - Realtek ALC880 8-channel audio Codec
? Supports AGPro
? Realtek RTL8110S Giga LAN controller


By the way I did read report somewhere that said these 24 pin power supplys are mostly used on Servers and they have only just resently started using them on normal machines that you buy for your home.
This means that any parts that you buy, e.g motherboard, RAM, processor will be quite pricey.

Thanks alot, that is a great help. I noticed on a review of the psu that it mentioned getting a 24-20 pin adapter with it but there was not one in my box. One last question, I was just wondering to see what the PSU would sound like when turned on so i plugged it into the wall to see how noisy it was without putting it into a computer or anything, just a cpu plugged in to a wall and nothing happened, the fan didnt start or anything... does that mean the cpu isnt going to work once its in a computer and all hooked up? Or is it normal for PSU's not to work until in a PC?
Thanks again for your help, its really appreciated.

The PSU will not work when it is only plugged into the wall, it requires that 24 pin cable to be connected to a motherboard.
You would then use the PC power button to turn the power supply on.

Glad to be of help