# MSI x570 Tomahawk - 8+4pin CPU Power Requirement



## babaquazi (Aug 5, 2020)

Hi Gurus,

My planned build will have a MSI x570 Tomahawk motherboard which requires a 8 + 4 pin power for the CPU. I am looking at an antec HCG 750W PSU which comes with 2 x 8 pin plugs for the CPU.






I have read that I can have half of the 8 pin connected to the 4 pin but does it matter which way its oriented ? Reason i ask is that there a component next to the 4 pin plug so i don't have the space for the "extra 4 pins" to overhang. It will have to have to be plugged in 90 degrees flipped.



 



If not, how else can I proceed to get a 4 pin plug from my PSU to the additional 4 pin required on the board.


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## basco (Aug 5, 2020)

no no and no
there are latches on one side and there is only one way to push this in.
this is built to plug it in one way and ya have the space-if not you are doing something wrong

if ya plug the 4pin latch in the direction of the "component" its wrong-latch should point to above =end of motherboard.
both are the same direction 8pin + 4 pin

if ya are not overclocking like crazy ya don't need that 4pin to start the motherboard

plz be careful dont ruin your new pc!
if ya have questions(can be dumb too) ask us-we are happy to help


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## Tatty_One (Aug 5, 2020)

I have an 8 + 4 on my board but I only use the 8 pin and it works fine, I think it delivers up to 375 Watts, unless in x570 guise it is powering more than just a CPU.


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## jayseearr (Aug 5, 2020)

yeah, no need for the extra 4 pin. One 8 pin is fine


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## kayjay010101 (Aug 5, 2020)

It makes no difference. A single 8pin is more than enough. The extra plug is for extreme overclocking.


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## oxrufiioxo (Aug 5, 2020)

The only current consumer level CPU that requires more than an 8 pin with really good cooling on a high overclock is a 10900k

Nothing currently that slots into x570 requires more than an 8 pin on ambient cooling.


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## Assimilator (Aug 5, 2020)

4-pin extra power on AMD boards is a completely unnecessary "feature" that motherboard manufacturers add to make their boards seem better (and also to charge you more money).

As others have said, you don't need it, you won't ever need it, do not worry about it.


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## babaquazi (Aug 5, 2020)

legend thank you so much guys ! As you can see from my build specs - i have been out of the scene for close to 10 years.

With just the 8 pin - can i push my ryzen 5 3600 base clock upto 4Ghz ? I'm not looking at any crazy overclocking


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## oxrufiioxo (Aug 5, 2020)

It should sit around that with just boost and probably higher 4.2 ish in games. With decent cooling 


I'd personally just let boost take care of the clocks it's what I do on my 3900X


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## kayjay010101 (Aug 5, 2020)

babaquazi said:


> legend thank you so much guys ! As you can see from my build specs - i have been out of the scene for close to 10 years.
> 
> With just the 8 pin - can i push my ryzen 5 3600 base clock upto 4Ghz ? I'm not looking at any crazy overclocking


Don't bother overclocking the Ryzen chips. They're already good out of the factory, and setting an all core overclock hurts the single core performance. Just enable PBO and the chip will do its thing, much better than any manual overclocking could.
And the 3600 isn't even close to drawing enough power to warrant more than an 8pin. 8pin can supply upto 350W (IIRC), and the 3600 is lucky to go above 90W. The only time you'll ever see a use out of the extra 8pin is with LN2 or with overclocking the 3950X or the 10900K or above.


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## Ruyki (Aug 5, 2020)

Half of the 8pin CPU power connector on many power supplies can be split off turning that connector into a 4pin CPU power connector.
The HCG 750W power supply you have is probably like that too.
8pin and 4pin CPU power connectors are keyed and can only be plugged in one way.


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## Chomiq (Aug 6, 2020)

babaquazi said:


> legend thank you so much guys ! As you can see from my build specs - i have been out of the scene for close to 10 years.
> 
> With just the 8 pin - can i push my ryzen 5 3600 base clock upto 4Ghz ? I'm not looking at any crazy overclocking


As someone mentioned before, 8-pin can handle up to 375W. More than this is required only for extreme OC, think liquid nitrogen. My board has only 8-pin and it runs 3700x just fine, hell it would run 3950x if you threw it at it.


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