Power supply issues

hi,
my mobo is 24 pin, is it safe to use a 20 pin psu? This site (here) says that the xtra 4 pins on a 24 pin board are for pci-expresss graphics cards and its ok to use a 20 pin psu so long as the graphics card has it's own power connector which mine does. is this true??

OK what I read there is NOT it's OK, I read it might work. I've never tried it. At the price of power supplies vs MOBO/CPU/GPU why risk it? BTW that thread is from 2006 ... things change fast in the computer world.

If you read the first post on the link you provided you'll see the poster states to NOT use a 20 pin PSU on a 24 pin motherboard power connection.

I strongly recommend that you use a more up to date 24 pin power supply. Besides nearly all power connections for video cards are 6 pin connections these days not 4 pin.

Bite the bullet and get a decent PSU.

I used a 20-pin on my mobo's 24-pin connector when I used a temporary, old PSU while my Corsair was being replaced through warranty. It worked fine, but I also did not use a graphics card, relying on onboard graphics instead.

I wouldn't recommend it though, seeing as any PSU that comes with a 20-pin connector instead of 24 probably isn't the latest technology.

my board is from 2006 and my gpu uses 4 pin

Is it safe? Yes. You will not hurt anything if you plug a 20-pin plug into a 24-pin socket, assuming you align the 20-pins to the first 20 of the 24 correctly. But "safe" does not mean your computer components will get all the required power needed. Since high-speed digital electronics requires good, clean, stable power for best performance, I recommend getting a new PSU that meets your needs.