The new ATX12VO power supply standard is back in the news. As a reminder, this standard forces manufacturers to remove the 5V and 3.3V rails from power supplies to leave only the 12V. Thus, these voltages are directly produced by the motherboard. Well, we have some news. Motherboard manufacturers, partners of Intel, are forced to design at least one model with this standard.
ATX12VO: brands must design at least one motherboard!
When you’re building a PC, let’s face it, the 24-pin ATX connector is a pain. It’s a big cable, often rigid, which doesn’t fit everywhere depending on the case used. In short, the new power supply standard promoted by Intel promises to do away with this cable for a 10-pin one. The latter is therefore more compact and takes up less space. This is made possible by the removal of the 5V and 3.3V rails of the power supply. As you can see, this facilitates the design of power supplies.
However, if the power supply does not provide these voltages, another component will have to do it. Here, it is the motherboard that must take care of the conversion of these voltages. Moreover, motherboard manufacturers are dragging their feet because they have to make the design of their boards more complex. Moreover, according to El Chapuzas Informatico, it would seem that this is not an option since Intel would summon its partners to design at least one card with this standard. However, where it gets funny is that nothing would force them to launch these famous cards on the market.
As we told you in a previous article, this standard offers some advantages all the same. There is a serious reduction in consumption and better performance of the machine on low loads. Unfortunately, this effect fades when the consumption increases. The other question that arises is financial: what about the price? With simplified power supplies, their price should decrease, however, the price of motherboards should increase since they will be more complex.
Anyway, considering how manufacturers seem to drag their feet in reviewing their design, we suspect that the ATX12VO will not be democratized right away. Especially since some manufacturers prefer to provide 24-pin ATX –> 12VO adapters rather than to do their own integration… Still according to our colleagues. It remains to be seen how this will turn out, but it is not yet a sure thing.
