Computer Surgery

[buta]

SO. New mobo + CPU are here. There's a JPWR2 slot that requires +12V on one side and ground on the other. The one on the mobo is an 8-pin, but my power supply only has a 4-pin. Most places I've read said it should be fine unless you're running a higher end CPU or something or other.

What's the downside of using just the 4-pin? What happens if I do and the CPU wants 8 pins? Does buying the adapter for it really suffice?

Edit: Some places are saying it provides a 'better ground' and that the only problems I would run into is if I OCed. Would this mean running on factory settings using just the 4-pin connector will be okay?

Edit2: Also, at what temperature would you say a CPU is getting too hot? I have yet to test it under high-load situations so I'm not sure how hot it gets yet. So for future reference...

[RoflKnife]

No idea about the 8-pin. Never tried just 4-pinning it.

CPU "hot" temps vary depending on what CPU, but generally I'd say 50+ is where it starts to get hot. 70~ is really hot, and you probably don't want to go over that. I've heard people doing 70-90 okay though.

[DarkRayne]

Generally for any hardware, around 100C is a bad sign, so you'll not want to reach that point.

[Shugi]

I personally don't like my temps going above 70 when under 100% load. It's mostly personal preference, but 100+ is really bad and 90+ is too hot.