Understanding why a 450W power supply is destroying my ATX motherboards but not mATX

Posted by T. Webster on Super User See other posts from Super User or by T. Webster
Published on 2012-08-11T15:33:07Z Indexed on 2012/09/23 9:41 UTC
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motherboard

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power-supply

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. )

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