Most of us are fortunate enough not to need a monster power supply in our PCs, but for those that do, SilverStone has launched an updated version of its 2050 Watt HELA 2050 power supply, simply named the HELA 2050R. It delivers no less than 170 Ampere on its 12 V rail and SilverStone claims a power density of 882 Watts per liter. The updated version comes with a pair of 12VHPWR connectors, with one modular cable with two GPU connectors and one modular cable with a single GPU connector.

The HELA 2050R is rather amazingly only 180 mm deep and in addition to the 12VHPWR connector it also has three standard 6+2 GPU connector with support for up to 14 GPU connectors, as well as support for up to 12 SATA drives, three Molex connectors, one floppy drive type connector and of course, the standard ATX and EPS power connectors. Note that the HELA 2050R is limited to 200-240 Volt input, as a standard 115 Volt outlet would be limited to 1650 Watt. No pricing was announced, but considering that the HELA 2050 is retailing for well over US$500, it's not expected that the 2050R will be any cheaper.

Molex, a company known for making various electronics and connectors, has today announced that the company has developed a first-of-its-kind chip-to-chip connector. Designed mainly for the data center, the Molex 224G product portfolio includes next-generation cables, backplanes, board-to-board connectors, and near-ASIC connector-to-cable solutions. Running at 224 Gbps speeds, these products use PAM4 signaling and boast with " highest levels of electrical, mechanical, physical and signal integrity." As the company states, future high-performance computing (HPC) data centers require a lot of board-to-board, chip-to-chip, and other types of communication to improve overall efficiency and remove bottlenecks in data transfer. To tackle this problem, Molex has a range of products, including Mirror Mezz Enhanced, Inception, and CX2 Dual Speed products.

Future generative AI, 1.6T (1.6 Tb/s) Ethernet, and other data center challenges need a dedicated communication standard, which Molex is aiming to provide. Working with various data center and enterprise customers, the company claims to have set the pace for products based on this 224G PAM4 chip-to-chip technology. We suspect that Open Compute Project (OCP) will be first in the line of adoption, ad Molex has historically worked with them as they adopted Mirror Mezz and Mirror Mezz Pro board-to-board connectors. The new products can be seen below, and we expect to hear more announcements from Molex's partners. Solutions like OSFP 1600, QSFP 800, and QSFP-DD 1600 already use 224G products.

Thermaltake today introduced the SWAFAN 120 RGB and SWAFAN 140 RGB case fans optimized for used in liquid-cooling radiators. These fans come with easily-swappable impellers, and include two sets of them, each with a different airflow direction. You could just flip a case fan around to reverse its airflow direction, but that would expose the ugly reverse side of the fan hub with its regulatory markings and wiring sticking out, not to mention the pillars of the frame that hold the hub in place. This approach ensures you have just the impeller and its pretty RGB setup facing you. This is especially useful when you have the radiator sandwiched between two sets of fans in a push-pull configuration. The swappable nature of the impeller also makes it easy to clean these fans.

Both the SWAFAN 120 RGB and SWAFAN 140 RGB come in black and white color variants, and in packs of three fans that include an RGB controller. The fans feature hydraulic bearings rated for 40,000 hours. The fans each take in a 9-pin connection that resembles the USB 2.0 headers on the motherboard, which it uses for both power (main function) and RGB control. The included lighting controller is hence essentially a USB 2.0 hub that interfaces with the motherboard over a USB 2.0 header, and takes in a 4-pin Molex for additional power.

Despite sticking with PCI-Express Gen 4 as its host interface, the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 "Ada" graphics card standardizes the new 12+4 pin ATX 12VHPWR power connector, even across custom-designs by NVIDIA's add-in card (AIC) partners. This tiny connector is capable of delivering 600 W of power continuously, and briefly take 200% excursions (spikes). Normally, it should make your life easier as it condenses multiple 8-pin PCIe power connectors into one neat little connector; but in reality the connector is proving to be quite impractical. For starters, most custom RTX 4090 graphics cards have their PCBs being only two-thirds of the actual card length, which puts the power connector closer to the middle of the graphics card, making it aesthetically unappealing, but then there's a bigger problem, as uncovered by Buildzoid of Actually Hardcore Overclocking, an expert with PC hardware power-delivery designs.

CableMod, a company that specializes in custom modular-PSU cables targeting the case-modding community and PC enthusiasts, has designed a custom 12VHPWR cable that plugs into multiple 12 V output points on a modular PSU, converting them to a 16-pin 12VHPWR. It comes with a pretty exhaustive set of dos and don'ts; the latter are more relevant: apparently, you should not try to arm-wrestle with an 12VHPWR connector: do not attempt to bend the cable horizontally or vertically close to the connector, but leave a distance of at least 3.5 cm (1.37-inch). This ensures reduced pressure on the contacts in the connector. Combine this with the already tall RTX 4090 graphics cards, and you have yourself a power connector that's impractical for most standard-width mid-tower cases (chassis), with no room for cable-management. Attempting to "wrestle" with the connector, and somehow bending it to your desired shape, will cause improper contacts, which pose a fire-hazard.Update Oct 26th: There are multiple updates to the story.

Silverstone HELA 850R Platinum is probably the first ATX 3.0 + PCIe Gen 5 PSU you can actually buy. It's listed on Amazon for $215. Silverstone had debuted the HELA series in late-2021, but originally with the 12-pin Molex MicroFit 3.0 connector for seamless connectivity with RTX 30-series Founders Edition graphics cards. It's since been updated with a newer connector for PCIe Gen 5. The 850 W PSU meets ATX 3.0 standards, as well as offers an 12+4 pin ATX12HPWR connector. The PSU can handle +100% excursions for 100 µs, a requirement for offering the ATX12HPWR connector. Inside, you'll get a single +12 V rail design, Cybenetics Platinum efficiency, and a 135 mm fluid dynamic bearing fan. Other connectors include six 6+2 pin PCIe, two 8-pin EPS, and a large number of SATA-power and Molex connectors.

NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090 Ti is real, and coming to gamers miners within Q1 2022. The new SKU maxes out NVIDIA's largest silicon based on the GeForce "Ampere" graphics architecture, the GA102, and pairs it with even faster 21 Gbps GDDR6X memory; but these changes come at a significant impact on power, with the typical board power for a stock RTX 3090 Ti reportedly being rated at 450 W, compared to the 350 W value of the RTX 3090. For enthusiast-class custom-design boards such as the EVGA KINGPIN, this only means even more elaborate setups, as QuasarZone forums found out.

While the current RTX 3090 KINGPIN comes with three 8-pin PCIe power connectors, a configuration capable of delivering up to 525 W (including the PCIe slot), the new RTX 3090 Ti KINGPIN ropes in the small but mighty 12-pin Molex MicroFit 3.0 connector, and comes with not one, but two of them! NVIDIA debuted the 12-pin connector in the consumer space with its RTX 30-series Founders Edition graphics cards. The connector is capable of delivering 450 W of power. With two of these on the RTX 3090 Ti, you're looking at a maximum power input capability of 975 W! It's only now, that PSUs are shipping with 12-pin cables, and even the high-Wattage ones we've come across, only pack one such connector. The EVGA card could hence include several dual- or triple-8-pin to 12-pin adapter cables. Pictured below is the RTX 3090 KINGPIN.

AeroCool today introduced the LUX RGB 850M power supply. This PSU delivers a high capacity of 850 W, and looks premium thanks to its addressable-RGB LED lighting elements, but packs some mid-tier specs. The PSU offers 80 Plus Bronze efficiency under 230 V EU conditions. It also features active PFC and offers most common electrical protections, against over/under-voltage, overload, overheat, and short-circuit; and uses a 120 mm fan to keep cool.

The AeroCool LUX RGB 850M features a addressable-RGB diffusers along the sides. You can toggle between 13 lighting presets by pressing a button near the AC receptacle; or connect the PSU to a 3-pin ARGB header for control using software or an ARGB controller. The LUX RGB 850M offers partially modular cabling. Fixed connectors include 24-pin ATX, one 4+4 pin EPS, and a pair of 6+2 pin PCIe power connectors. Modular connectors include an additional pair of 6+2 pin PCIe power, a cable with four SATA power connectors, and another with two each of SATA power and 4-pin Molex. Both the fixed- and modular-cables are black, flat, ribbon-type. The company didn't reveal pricing.

SilverStone today introduced the AD120-DC, a pico power-supply designed for SFF builds without enough room for PSU, and which rely on power-bricks. It is, quite literally, a 120 W power brick that puts out a 12 V, 2-pin DC output. You can either plug this directly to motherboards that have 2-pin DC inputs, or use the included distribution board that takes in this 2-pin DC input, and uses DC-to-DC switching to put out a conventional 24-pin ATX connector, an 8-pin EPS, and various peripheral connectors such as SATA power, Molex, etc. The brick measures 160 mm x 25 mm x 45 mm (DxHxW). The company didn't reveal pricing or availability.

BittWare, a Molex company, today unveiled the IA-840F, the company's first Intel Agilex -based FPGA card designed to deliver significant performance-per-watt improvements for next-generation data center, networking and edge compute workloads. Agilex FPGAs deliver up to 40% higher performance or up to 40% lower power, depending on application requirements. BittWare maximized I/O features using the Agilex chip's unique tiling architecture with dual QSFP-DDs (4× 100G), PCIe Gen4 x16, and three MCIO expansion ports for diverse applications. BittWare also announced support for Intel oneAPI, which enables an abstracted development flow for dramatically simplified code re-use across multiple architectures.

"Modern data center workloads are incredibly diverse, requiring customers to implement a mix of scalar, vector, matrix and spatial architectures," said Craig Petrie, vice president of marketing for BittWare. "The IA-840F ensures that customers can quickly and easily exploit the advanced features of the Intel Agilex FPGA. For those customers who prefer to develop FPGA applications at an abstracted level, we are including support for oneAPI. This new unified software programming environment allows customers to program the Agilex FPGA from a single code base with native high-level language performance across architectures."

Here's one of the first clear pictures of an NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 Founders Edition graphics card pictured in the flesh (that isn't an NVIDIA press-shot or render). A PC enthusiast in China with access to Founders Edition cards of all three RTX 3000 series cards announced on September 1, posted a family shot, which provides a nice size comparison.

The RTX 3070 Founders Edition is noticeably shorter than the RTX 3080 FE. Both cards are dwarfed by the RTX 3090 FE. Unlike the RTX 3080 and RTX 3090, the RTX 3070 FE uses a more conventional approach to air-flow, with both of its cards on the obverse side of the card, even through the second fan still pushes some of its airflow through the PCB, through a partial cutout. All three cards use the 12-pin Molex MicroFit 3.0 power connector. The previous generation flagship RTX 2080 Ti is the butt of gamer memes thanks to the RTX 3070, as NVIDIA advertised it as being faster than the RTX 2080 Ti at half its price of $499 (starting price). This announcement has forced some RTX 2080 Ti owners to dump their cards on Ebay at throwaway prices.

FSP today rolled out the "Ampere Cable," an accessory that converts two 8-pin PCIe inputs from modular PSUs to the 12-pin Molex MicroFit connector standard introduced to the client segment by NVIDIA and its GeForce RTX 3000 "Ampere" Founders Edition graphics cards. The cables are compatible with any modular PSU that has 8-pin 12 V connectors that put out 8-pin PCIe. It should work with all FSP branded modular PSUs, as well as modular PSUs of other brands that use Fortron as their OEM source. FSP is Fortron's DIY channel brand. FSP is setting up web-forms for existing owners of FSP power supplies to claim a free unit.Update Sep 10th: FSP has informed us that they have decided to not sell this cable

SilverStone today introduced the DA1650, a 1650 W high-end PSU. With a length of 180 mm, the DA1650 has some of the highest power densities on the market, more so given that it's a fully modular PSU (modular cabling adds to the length of a PSU). The extreme Wattage enables the PSU to run completely fanless up to 30% of its capacity or 495 W. Under the hood, the DA1650 features a single +12 V rail design, with a gargantuan 137.5 A rail. It features DC-to-DC switching, active PFC, and most common electrical protections, against over/under-voltage, overload (if you try to crank a truck with this thing), overheat, and short-circuit.

The SilverStone DA1650 offers 80 Plus Gold efficiency, along with ETA A and Lambda S+ certifications. The PSU is designed for 24/7 continuous operation in an environment with up to 50 °C ambient temperature. It uses a 135 mm fluid-dynamic bearing fan to keep cool. Connectors include one 24-pin ATX, four 4+4 pin EPS, twelve 6+2 pin PCIe power, sixteen SATA power, six Molex, and a Berg.Update Aug 27th: SilverStone informed us that the DA1650 will be backed by a 5-year warranty, and priced at USD $330.

Korean tech publication QuasarZone posted three high-res pictures of the new Molex Micro-Fit 3.0 12-pin connector that NVIDIA adapted for its GeForce "Ampere" graphics cards, at least the reference-design Founders Edition ones. As we detailed extensively in an older article, the 12-pin connector has significantly smaller pins than the standard PCIe power connectors, and is only slightly longer than an 8-pin PCIe power connector. Placed side by side, you can tell how the PCIe connector is taller, if not wider. Despite its relatively compact dimensions, the 12-pin connector is rumored to be rated for a significantly higher power delivery than the 8-pin connector, with some of the oldest reports even suggesting 600 W. The cables going into the 12-pin connector appear to be of a higher gauge than the ones making up the 8-pin. NVIDIA in a video presentation released on Wednesday explained how it plans its upcoming GeForce graphics cards to address many fundamental engineering problems with modern graphics cards, in the areas of efficiency heat dissipation, board durability, and power delivery.

1stPlayer unveiled quite a few new products this Computex, beginning with the Steampunk line of power supplies and power accessories. The Steampunk series consists of fully-modular PSUs in upper-mid range capacities such as 750W. These PSUs come in two physical variants, all-black, and white with RGB-LED illuminated 140 mm fans. Like most other PSUs launched this year, the 750W Steampunk includes two 4+4 pin EPS connectors, besides four 6+2 pin PCIe power, six SATA power, and three Molex. A single +12V rail design and most common electrical protections make for the rest of it.

1stPlayer also unveiled a series of Steampunk-branded PSU extension cables purchasable separately from the PSUs. These include colorful fiber braided sleeved individual cables of various shapes and sizes (24-pin, 8-pin EPS, 6+2-pin PCIe, etc.,), or illuminated cables with addressable RGB LED lighting up each cable.

ASUS kicked the door open to barge into the gaming PC PSU market with the ROG Thor high-end PSU last Computex. This year, the company is biting into the meat of the performance gaming market with the new ROG Strix PSU family, making its debut with a 650W model. This PSU offers low idle noise due to excessively large heatsinks, an ASUS-innovation Axial-Tech fan that's designed to direct all of its airflow downwards, with no sideways bleed; full modular cabling, and some cosmetic customization options, including a pair of magnetic stickers. Cabling includes two 4+4 pin EPS connectors, four 6+2 pin PCIe, nine SATA power, and a trio of Molex connectors. ASUS plans to expand this series in both directions.

ASUS introduced the Republic of Gamers (ROG) Aura Terminal, an RGB LED control module that puts out four addressable RGB LED channels. This box plugs into one of your motherboard's USB 2.0 headers to interface with Aura Sync RGB software, and power is drawn either from a 4-pin Molex connector (if installed inside your case), or from a 45W power brick (if installed externally).

The ROG Aura Terminal supports up to 90 LEDs per channel, and up to 210 LEDs in all, working out to up to 4.2 meters in addressable RGB LED strips. The package includes two 30 cm and one 60 cm RGB LED strips, a 45W power adapter, a Molex to 2-pin DC adapter, a 9-pin USB 2.0 header to USB type-A adapter, stickers, and cable ties. ASUS Aura Sync RGB software is used to control all outputs from the box, including its glowing ROG logo. You also get ROG Halo, a feature that lets you task RGB LED strips stuck behind your monitor to work as ambient mood-lighting. The company didn't reveal pricing.

MSI is in the throes of launching a socket LGA 1151, Coffee Lake-based motherboard that's geared for cryptocurrency mining. Apparently looking to cater to the mining enthusiast that wants the latest silicon even in the CPU department of their mining setup, it's still hard to imagine something other than the upcoming Pentium or Celerons will ever make their way to this motherboard - not in any sane miners' mind, surely.

Despite Supporting Coffee Lake processors and including 1x PCIe x16 and 12x PCIe 1x slots, MSI has taken steps to reduce unneeded features as much as possible, as the usual workloads for this kind of hardware don't really require more than some basic inputs and outputs. A pair of Molex connectors allows for more power to be delivered to the graphics cards employed on this motherboard, and only 2x DDR4 DIMM slots - smart cost-savings for the market demographic. Everything else is as bare and minimal as possible - the 1x HDMI and 1x DVI video output, sound connectors, 2x USB 2.0 and 2x USB 3.0 slots... One can see the preparations for some more 5x PCIe x1 slots to be added to a motherboard - just not to this one, since it can't handle that many graphics expansion slots. Maybe on some upcoming motherboard that simply reuses this design and trades the H310 chipset for something a little beefier on that front?

Thermaltake today introduced the Riing Plus 20 RGB TT Premium Edition, a large 200 mm fan studded with RGB LEDs. The 30 mm-thick fan features a 11-blade impeller backed by a motor that features hydraulic bearing; and a fan frame with 24 RGB diodes studded along the bore of the frame, which support 16.7 million colors. What's interesting about this fan is that it plugs into your motherboard via the 9-pin USB 2.0/1.1 header, from which it not just powers the fan and the lighting, but also takes in software control for both.

The included Digital Lighting Controller (DLC) module ensures you don't run out of USB headers if you have many of these fans, by taking input from one header (two 500 mA inputs), and putting out three USB headers for up to three fans. Additional power is drawn from a 4-pin Molex input. The Tt RGB Plus software lets you control the fan on your PC, and through a connected smartphone. As a fan itself, the Riing Plus 20 RGB spins between 500 to 1,000 RPM, pushing up to 118 CFM of air, at up to 29.2 dBA of noise output. Available now as a single-pack that includes one fan, the DLC, and cables, the Riing Plus 20 RGB TT Premium Edition is priced at USD $59.99.

ASUS dropped its hat into the DIY crypto-currency mining hardware craze, with the introduction of the B250 Mining Expert motherboard. This ATX form-factor motherboard comes with a jaw-dropping eighteen PCI-Express gen 3.0 x1 slots, in addition to a PCI-Express gen 3.0 x16, taking full advantage of the 200-series platform's PCIe lane budget. The board draws power from three 24-pin ATX, one 8-pin EPS, and three 4-pin Molex connectors, although besides one ATX and EPS, the other connectors are optional for the machine to start, but required for some of those PCIe slots to work.

Based on the Intel B250 Express chipset, the board supports 6th and 7th generation "Skylake" and "Kaby Lake" processors. The rest of the board is pretty spartan, with just enough connectivity to make the machine work. You get two DDR4 DIMM slots supporting up to 32 GB of dual-channel memory, four SATA 6 Gbps ports, six USB 3.0 ports (two via header), a gigabit Ethernet connection, 6-channel HD audio, HDMI display output, and legacy PS/2 connectors. The company didn't reveal pricing.

Molex's Micro-Fit 3.0 Connector Systems, available in multiple circuit sizes and cable lengths for power applications, offer a 3.00mm pitch, a 10.0A maximum current rating and many design options such as a terminal position assurance, blind-mating and compliant pin features. The Molex's Micro-Fit Connector Family offers 10.0A with a 3.00mm pitch, delivering power in a compact package in wire-to-wire and wire-to-board configurations. OEMs often need power connectors in space-constrained applications.

Micro-Fit 3.0 BMI Connectors are designed for blind-mating applications. They allow mating misalignment (per product drawing). In hard-to-reach applications, such as drawers or fan assembly trays, connectors need to be mated and unmated without being seen. Doing so can cause damage to the connector and/or terminal and consume valuable labor time.