Rampage IV Extreme 4-pin and 8-pin motherboard power

[xmanrigger]

Hello. Although I may be new to the ROG forums, I am by no means a new ASUS user or new ROG user. I have read thru a few posts here, and it seems nobody can come up with a definitive answer to the many questions about the 4-pin and 8-pin motherboard power connector. As you can see in the pic below from page 2-44 of the user manual, it shows 3 options of powering the 4 or 8 pin plugs. The way the diagram is wrote, one would think that along with the 24-pin connector, either a single 4-pin power plug or a single 8-pin power plug is required to properly power the board. No where in the diagram or manual does it advise to connect both the 4-pin and 8-pin connectors at same time. Very unclear. But yet, I read posts here and some people are using both, one or the other, or slitting the 8-pin and connecting one 4-pin connector to the 8-pin socket and one 4-pin to the 4-pin socket. WTF is up with that?

In this forum, this question has arose many times. I currently am running the board with only the 8-pin/24-pin power connections. With that said, I have also pushed this board close to it's limit running a 3960X and 3X GTX580 tri-sli without anything cooking or funky stuff happening. This is a very extensive client build, so I would like this to be cleared up beyond doubt so I dont get a phone call from the client telling me the PC I built him is FUBAR or burnt his house down. This PC will also have a 4.5GHZ overclock on the CPU as well as the GTX580s being overclocked, all water cooled. So you can see and hopefully appreciate my concern.

Now, to save me and others the grief that mcj66106 is experiencing, can an actual ASUS Engineer get on here and clarify exactly what plugs are required and why/when? No offense, but I am no spring chicken. Been in the PC industry for almost 20 years, so I dont want other members suggestions. I am not implying I am more versed than anyone else here, but I have read many posts here and not one of them offers a definitive answer.



Thanks, 'rigger

[mcj66106]

I don't think the number or orientation of the power cables plaid any part in the burn that happened to my board. The tech I spoke to on the phone about my particular case told me that the reason the 4 pin didn't burn is because it was not drawing any power.
I would think if I was pulling enough power to burn the 8 pin wouldn't the mother board try to pull power from the 4 pin as well? It is there for added stability in some cases and apparently it doesn't work. Not that I see 1.4v and high on LLC as a high power draw situation. 1.5v and over for periods of sustained load yes, but that is not the case.
Sorry about the derail XMAN

[xmanrigger]

mcj66106 wrote:
I don't think the number or orientation of the power cables plaid any part in the burn that happened to my board. The tech I spoke to on the phone about my particular case told me that the reason the 4 pin didn't burn is because it was not drawing any power.
I would think if I was pulling enough power to burn the 8 pin wouldn't the mother board try to pull power from the 4 pin as well? It is there for added stability in some cases and apparently it doesn't work. Not that I see 1.4v and high on LLC as a high power draw situation. 1.5v and over for periods of sustained load yes, but that is not the case.
Sorry about the derail XMAN

No worries mcj. I wasnt inferring that was the problem at all. If that was the issue, I dont like pointing fingers, but I would say the fault would lie with Asus for not making the connections required clear beyond a doubt. I just want this clarified for the sake of others and myself.

Hope verything works out for you, I feel for ya.

Oh, just another note. WTF is up with having to enter this f***ing code every f***ing post?!!!!!!!! PITA!

[Perpixel]

Good point, I have both plugged in and the manual is very unclear about what it does. I hate it when they tell you to do something but doesn't explain why or what it does. Very similar to some options in the Bios that are only defined as "Could help overclock". I want to understand what it does exactly.

[xmanrigger]

Before I get shot and pissed on here, I want to say sorry if the tone of my first post came across a little harsh. I was a little pissed off at the moment and to compound things, I seen that post I linked to. Being I am using this board also, I got a little more pissed that that nobody that posted in that thread could get a solid answer on those plugs, over the time period. And ya, you might say it is better to be pissed off than pissed on. Heat of the moment.
This isnt my first venture into using ROG products. I have used many throughout the years. This is however my first venture into ROG forums. I guess I was expecting a little bit higher level of tech here than the regular Asus forum, not that I have had any issues with it. To the contrary, It is a great forum.

Here is the tri-sli power config I ran. Is it correct? With this config and all others, the CPU (5.3ghz) and GPU(s) (1000mhz+) were clocked/voltages extremely high.


This is the dual-SLI power config I am running. And as I said above, at high clocks and voltages.


Should I also be using the 4-pin power plug also? So far there have been no issues. Just worried there might be down the road because I didnt use it.

Oh, and did I mention this thing looks and clocks like tits? I will also say that up to this point in time, it has performed as advertised. I am just hoping I dont burn a plug off over something that was easily avoidable.

Again, sorry for the gruff intro.

'rigger

[emaratee]

I totally agree with the Thread starter ... this is confusing ..

English is not my mother language, but the manual clearly states from the drawing above that only one connector is needed and not both !! and that was the way I did it. I only connected the 8-pin power connector, but then and after reading some of the threads in this forum I ended up connecting both of them (8-pin & 4-pin).

Now, are we on the safe side or we will end up with a fried egg sunny side down !!

[Raja]

Both connectors are in parallel. There is no danger to be had from plugging in both - so you can flip eggs all day long to order and fill that B&B to the brim. 🙂

[xmanrigger]

Raja@ASUS wrote:
Both connectors are in parallel. There is no danger to be had from plugging in both - so you can flip eggs all day long to order and fill that B&B to the brim. 🙂

This is the exact response I was referring to. Some smart ass **** that thinks he knows it all but cant give a straight answer. So tell me genius, why in the **** are those 2 connectors there to begin with? Secondly, if it is required to connect them both, why in the **** does it not say in the user's manual to do so? Furthermore, please explain and give examples to as why a user would use one or the other or both.

Like I stated above, I have pushed this board. And I am confident from your reply that I have pushed this board well beyond what you have if you even own one.

[Spoony]

xmanrigger wrote:
This is the exact response I was referring to. Some smart ass **** that thinks he knows it all but cant give a straight answer. So tell me genius, why in the **** are those 2 connectors there to begin with? Secondly, if it is required to connect them both, why in the **** does it not say in the user's manual to do so? Furthermore, please explain and give examples to as why a user would use one or the other or both.

Like I stated above, I have pushed this board. And I am confident from your reply that I have pushed this board well beyond what you have if you even own one.

dam kid you really need to take a chill pill and give it a rest since your doing things very wrong here.

1st of all your giving abuse to an Admin of the forums and thats just not on.

2nd your also giving abuse to a member of the team who if im right in thinking actually tests the equipment and im sure as hell know he will own a R4E.

so in short curb your mouth and get back in your cage AND CALM DOWN

i have both the 8pin and 4pin connected and i have no issues what so ever. with them on the board so if your unsure do what the book says, jesus some people just need to be alittle more erm whats the word RESPECTFULL and not ABUSIVE

[Necrosan]

Keep the attitude to yourself xmanrigger.
It doesn't aid your "situation" and in fact makes you look rather unappealing to even bother helping.

The two pictures you included in your post are _TOTALLY FINE_ for the setups you've listed.
You don't have to plug in the extra 4 pin connector if you're stable at the setups listed.
If you have instability issues, try connecting the extra 4-pin connector so it can supply extra voltage to the SAME path as the 8-pin. (As Raja kindly listed before you got your panties in a bunch.)

Also, you don't necessarily need the extra 6 pin for 3 way SLI. You'd know this if you tried beforehand instead of just complaining all over the ROG forums, or if you opened that thing some people call a manual.

Way to make a name for yourself here, kid.