I just started building a new system by buying all new parts except using my old power supply. I realized that my old powersupply (Forton - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16817104952) only had a 20+4 pin connector instead of the 24 pin atx connector that my motherboard uses. I was wondering if I could combine the 20 pin and 4 pin connectors and plug them into the 24 pin socket, without causing any damage or malfunction.

Any help would be appreciated.

I'm faily sure that that wont work!! You can however buy an adapter to do the job!!!!

hi, my psu is the same but in my mobos manual says just plug in the 20 pin cable and align correctly. i have been running mine like this for about a month now with no troubles

How would I go about aligning it correctly? Theres no labling on 20+4 pin plugs although I think they only fit in 1 way

that is correct, the pins/plugs all align in one way and only fit in whatever connector its supposed to be on.

mine just says align it to the right side of the port

power connector could have a keyed hole that will only go with hole on MB and mine aligns to the left
IE the clip that hold it to connnetor goes to clip but to the left ,will not plug in to the right
if your new board uses 24 pin like a server get an adapter ,before you fry it
those pins on the end are not for power they are for off ,on at least on my board they are
good luck

That will work perfectly fine. That PSU has a 20+4 pin connector which has 4 pins ( with orenge,red,yellow,black wires) that snap off to form a 20 pin or snap back in to form a 24-pin connector. As long as your new motherboard also uses the 4-pin (2 yellow,2 black wires) CPU connector as well and not one of the 6 or 8 pin cpu connectors.

The reply dmill89 posted is the answer you're looking for. 20+4 means there's a detatchable 4-pin connector from the 20-pin, plain and simple.

It is indeed possible to run a PC using a 20-pin power supply connector with a 24-pin motherboard. My 24-pin motherboard is compatible with 20-pin power supplies. I've tried it, it works perfectly, it just leaves four exposed pins on the motherboard connector (the side that the 20-pin connector isn't occupying).

Most of all connectors within a PC will only fit in one way, so unless you shove it in real hard, it's impossible to plug it in the wrong way.

ok thanks for all the replies, my computer seems to be working fine (so far)

so close...

This sounds agonizingly like a problem I'm having. My motherboard has a 24-pin "ATXPWR1" slot and an 8-pin "ATX12V1" slot (next to the CPU). My PSU has a 20+4 connector that I was originally plugging in as a 24-pin connector and leaving the 12V slot empty, and my machine hangs during boot saying "Check CPU core voltage."

From what I have gathered on other forums, I need to plug the 4-pin into the 8-pin 12V slot? Unfortunately the 20+4 cable from my PSU will not let me stretch the 4 pins over to the 12V slot...

if someone could confirm that any of this is correct or incorrect that would be AWESOME. Thanks!

ive had my old system like that for a long time, its been fine.

resolved

So I just wasn't powering my CPU... rookie mistake. Leaving the 20+4 in the 24 slot was fine.

After that I had another problem (machine rebooting every 2 seconds) that was resolved by clearing my CMOS, but now everything's working. Thanks!