Johnny Bravo said:What did you change M1keMK?
Baxtor said:Aye been playing Vanguard most of the day, had no problems so far, so it looks like this connector is optional.
Flanno said:What psu are you using ? And what cards. If 8800gtx's and your psu meets the nvidia requirement of 60amps on the 12v rail, then each of the 4 pci-e connectors provides sufficient power. Obviously the power from the 4pin molex boosts it, but this suggests an issue with the psu and/or 12v line if you need the molex connector which I firmly believe is to provide power to pci-e cards that do not have a dedicated pci-e connection, and some of the smart people over on the jonnyguru's forums who know a hell of a lot about psu's believe this also. I can't believe abit would stick this connector in such a bad spot if it was needed for sli and people have to resort to cutting connectors, especially considering the g80 is a partner with this board and they would have to have tested g80 sli to at least verify the sound glitch issue didn't affect them.
I have been playing Oblivion and Rainbow Vegas all night and not one glitch by the way.
TonyM16 said:Most certified psu's don't have that, they are smooth, and so will fit with the 8800gtx sli plugged in.
Flanno said:Incorrect...I have an Etasis 850w sli certified psu and my mate has the PC Power and Cooling silencer 740w - also certified. Neither will allow us to plug the 2nd molex connector in and then fit the 2nd G80.
<edit> Also - I had an Asus P5N32-SLI (not abit as I originally thought) which had the 4pin aux connector between both sli slots but you couldn't plug in the molex because the 1st G70 blocked it.
http://img253.imageshack.us/img253/7651/boardbig1mw.jpg
It was Asus tech support told me not to sweat it as it was needed for cards with no dedicated pci-e connector. I ran 2x7800gtx's on it for a year without any issues.
Also Dell does not use this 4 pin molex connector on their XPS 710's. So I am still not convinced it is required but as as you say it can do no harm and can rule out instability. But until then I won't worry as I have no instability. I also trust people who know their psu stuff to tell me I don't need it.
If I come across a low profile molex adaptor I will use it though...
</edit>
TonyM16 said:By the way Dell uses different mobos to other people they are properiety and usually based on NF5 not NF6 so it's not a good idea to compare with them.
Flanno said:I take it you are running the cpu fan from a controller so have notihing plugged into the cpu header. What about one of those extension cables that has a 3pin connector for rpm monitoring and a molex connector for power. Plug the 3pin end into cpu header, and plug the molex into a molex to 3pin adaptor and then plug the 3pin end of the adaptor into your fan controller
Flanno said:It was mad mike...he was referring to 680i...and basing his answer on the fact that the pci-e connectors for g80's give enough amps to begin with and was very certain this connector is ONLY needed for non pci-e connector powered cards. That was the consensus on the Asus forums as well the time I had problems using this connector.