It's happening again, melting 12v high pwr connectors

[Degreco]

The solution is simple, just relocate to a zero-G environment and float your cables out in a straight line from the GPU.

Thanks, will do that in the next build

Where are you getting that Nvidia sold "millions and millions" of 4090s?

Where? When reading 35 pages is too much, but you want to contribute anyway

 

[JAS_design]

Jon Gerow (i.e Corsair) thinks it's ok to bend close to the connector, just need to check you haven't popped any pins out.

With respect to Jon Gerow, with a properly formed housing and properly crimped pins, the tangs on the pins should grip the housing well enough that you can't "pop them out." Pin removal tools exist for a reason. In my experience, the crimp itself should fail before the pin pulls out.

If Corsair regularly has pins popping out of the connectors, Corsair is doing something wrong.

 

[ShrimpBrime]

With respect to Jon Gerow, with a properly formed housing and properly crimped pins, the tangs on the pins should grip the housing well enough that you can't "pop them out." Pin removal tools exist for a reason. In my experience, the crimp itself should fail before the pin pulls out.

If Corsair regularly has pins popping out of the connectors, Corsair is doing something wrong.

I would like to see crimp + solder. That's how I do all my connectors. Especially circuits with 10a load over a single wire. But thats how I do mine.

Are these seriously just crimped?

 

[JAS_design]

I would like to see crimp + solder. That's how I do all my connectors. Especially circuits with 10a load over a single wire. But thats how I do mine.

Are these seriously just crimped?

Unless the specifications say otherwise, you're not really supposed to solder contacts that are designed to be crimped. The solder can wick up the strands of the cable, causing it to become brittle and, counterintuitively, actually weaken the joint.

Crimp contacts are designed to have a little bit of flex for thermal expansion and stress relief; soldering can make the the cable more prone to snapping inside the insulation sheath, where you don't see it has broken. It can potentially cause a hidden high resistance nightmare.

 

[STSMiner]

Lets see if we can end the confusion here with the cable and the connectors used with the cable.
First of all, the cable and the connector (12VHPWR / 12V-2*6) are the same, there is no change here.

The change is with the connector that's mounted on the PCB of the GPU and in the PSU (the PCB Header) - ATX 3.1 specs detailing the change.

https://edc.intel.com/content/www/us/en/design/ipla/software-development-platforms/client/platforms/alder-lake-desktop/atx-version-3-0-multi-rail-desktop-platform-power-supply-design-guide/2.1a/pci-express-pcie-add-in-card-connectors-recommended/#_Ref95471394

This is the info from Corsair if anyone wants to go read it.

12VHPWR and 12V-2x6 Compared | CORSAIR

With the introduction of the RTX 40-Series, the PCIe 5.0 12VHPWR GPU power connector made its debut with the promise to deliver up to 600W of power through a single connector. As with any new standard, things are likely to evolve quickly and we’re now seeing the introduction of a new connector...

www.corsair.com

It's clear here that there is still a problem with this with melting connectors, this is something that Nvidia and the PCI-SIG need to resolve before someone's house burns down or someone dies because of it.

 

[ShrimpBrime]

Unless the specifications say otherwise, you're not really supposed to solder contacts that are designed to be crimped. The solder can wick up the strands of the cable, causing it to become brittle and, counterintuitively, actually weaken the joint.

Crimp contacts are designed to have a little bit of flex for thermal expansion and stress relief; soldering can make the the cable more prone to snapping inside the insulation sheath, where you don't see it has broken. It can potentially cause a hidden high resistance nightmare.

Well, I want to agree, but then again, not really.

For starters, solder is stronger than the wire strands. Yes it could wick up a strand or two, maybe all of them, but then again using a small amount vs just dumping solder would be up the the person doing the soldering. I've never had an issue.

But I have seen wires break right at the solder joint, but on old (years) high resistance circuits such as lighting where you draw 10 amps.

Pages back you can inspect my work if you'd like, I've already posted examples. Obviously not on an NVidia card, but on 10a circuits with much larger connectors, the male side in the modules are actually spades, not pins.

 

[AVATARAT]

Jon Gerow (i.e Corsair) thinks it's ok to bend close to the connector, just need to check you haven't popped any pins out.

Nah, it's too complicated, just use instant glue inside the 16 pin connector and it will never move no matter what you do to it.

 

[Dredi]

Nah, it's too complicated, just use instant glue inside the 16 pin connector and it will never move no matter what you do to it.

It might just work, if used after plugging in the connector.

 

[qxp]

Nah, it's too complicated, just use instant glue inside the 16 pin connector and it will never move no matter what you do to it.

Not really - organic glues come apart when heated

The connector was brilliantly designed to provide excitement no matter what you do.

 

[Gatt]

Exactly my thought. I long for getting drunk with you.

Some people here really think the connector is safe. Yeah, it's perfectly safe, when perfectly plugged, in virtual conditions.
This connector has such low safety margin that it is rendered useless when you take into account connector/cable manufacturing process variation.

Meanwhile, WTF:

New 12VHPWR angled adapter features fan, power and temperature monitoring for RTX 40 Series - VideoCardz.com

Monitor power and temperature levels, and keep cabling tidy A Chinese company has developed a special 180-degree adapter for GeForce RTX graphics cards with a 16-pin power connector. Before you ask, the company only mentions RTX 4090, 4080, and 4070 graphics cards, so one cannot recommend this...

videocardz.com

View attachment 385889

Now every one who owns RTX 4090 and RTX 5090 will get this even when they say the connector is designed properly. You know, just to be sure.

I was almost frying my 4080 with the damned CableMod angled connectors. Both V1 and V2 versions melted. Be VERY careful.

 

[LittleBro]

4080? For real?

 

[Werwulf]

People in the market for a GPU, what's your strategy? Skip this generation entirely in the hope that PCI-SIG have yet another attempt at making a connector that won't melt? Do some napkin math to de-rate the 12VHPWR and get a card under that (maybe with an undervolt)? Wait for AIBs to add better safety mechanisms?

From my rudimentary understanding, in worst case scenarios of cable imbalance like Der8auer saw, you're really only looking at around 300w total board power draw (114w per wire/pin?) before things start getting a bit dicey. Interested in seeing some workings if this isn't accurate

 

[ty_ger]

Where? When reading 35 pages is too much, but you want to contribute anyway

What kind of response is that? Did you read his question?