POWER SUPPLY UNIT

WEEK 4
• A power supply unit (PSU) converts mains AC to low-voltage regulated DC power for the
internal components of a computer.
• Modern personal computers universally use a switched-mode power supply. Some power
supplies have a manual selector for input voltage, while others automatically adapt to the
supply voltage.
AT power connector wiring
diagram:
 CONNECTORS
THE 20/24 ATX PIN 
• It allows you turn on the motherboard: early models had a 20-pin configuration, whilst the
current standard is now 24.
 THE "ATX P4" 
• was introduced by Intel for Pentium 4 (hence the name): it plugs into the motherboard and exclusively
powers the processor. 
 THE MOLEX
• The most classic. Still very present in every PC, it is sometimes used directly on the
motherboard (MSI) and is used to connect the hard disk and other drives.
 THE SATA CONNECTOR
• Modern power supply must have at least 4 of these, to power up drives at the SATA
standard.
 THE "PCI EXPRESS"
• Modern graphics cards need more power. They need to power themselves directly from the
power block.
 MOLEX TO PCI EXPRESS 
• The use of these adapters is not recommended and requires the power supply to be of good
quality and powerful enough to feed the latest graphics card. 
THE PINS