Understanding why a 450W power supply is destroying my ATX motherboards but not mATX
- by T. Webster
Maybe I'm missing something really obvious here, but after going through 3 new motherboards in trying to build my new machine, I'm finally certain that the 450W power supply I bought has been destroying them. It seems like it should be simple: just connect the connectors where they fit and switch the thing on. But today after hooking it to my ASUS Sabertooth 990FX TUF Series Motherboard and switching it on, I could see and smell the smoke coming out of the motherboard.
What I don't get is why I can hook this same 450W power supply up to my mATX motherboard and not run into the same problem. What am I missing here? Where on the box or manual is this?
(I have 8x2 GB RAM, AMD FX-4100 3.6GHz CPU, 1 512MB ATI graphics card, 1 WD 7200 RPM SATA hard drive. )