Postive and Negative on MB Connectors

O

ohnnyj

Gawd
Joined
Jun 7, 2004
Messages
575
Hello all:

I know, I know, I should know this by now but how can you tell which way to place the motherboard system panel connectors? Which wire is positive and which is negative? I never have bothered to find out and just plugged them in and if they work they work, if they don't I turn them around. But once and for all I would like to know what I am doing.

Thanks.
 
Which connectors? The front panel ones? The main PSU connector? The 12V connector? Lots of connectors, got to be more explicit than that.
 
That doesn't fall under the ATX standard Form Factor like PSU or other power connectors. It's different from mobo to mobo. You need to consult your manufacturer's website.
 
I noticed on the Asus A8N Sli Deluxe it has a + for the positive pin, nice handy feature.. Now only if I knew which wire was the postive ahahahahahah :D
 
The neutral (ground) wires on thoes cables are always the same color. So, you'll have, say, a calbe with red + white, blue + white, green + white, etc... The white wires are the ground, and the others the possitive.
 
Most motherboard manuals (or silkscreened on the motherboard itself) will tell you which post is negative and which is positive on the motherboard.

As far as the wires themselves, since there's no set standard for case manufacturers to use this isn't set in stone, but how it SHOULD be done is as follows:

Look at the connector on the ends of the wires. There will be a triangle pointing towards the end of one of the wires on the connector. You have to look closely to see it. This normally points towards the end of the POSITIVE wire. If you use this method you will connect them correctly 95% of the time.

NOTE: some connections don't require a specific polarity, like switches, (reset switch, power switch) and some connections do, like LEDs, so you may not see labels for all of the motherboard posts. LEDs definately need correct polarity. Speakers do in order to sound properly, but it doesn't really matter for junky case speakers. It would only make a difference to the sound quality on a higher fidelity speaker.

Hope that helps.
 
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