Your OptiPlex is about 2 generations newer than the ones we are still using at work. You'd love them, about half of them have been upgraded with a GT710.
Remember that pcie slot is supposed to provide 75W to the card, so up to 150-200W cards should be more or less fine Gtx 960 is 120 w card I would be more worried about how much PSU can provide on 12 v rail
most gpus dont actually draw 75w from the mobo, they usually try to draw as much as possible from the pcie power connectors. My 3080ti with unlocked power limit draws 398w overall and only 48w from the mobo
@@macieklukasiewicz8176 yeah I was gonna say this, depends on how the car has been set up, some will use power via the slot, others seem to avoid it as much as possible.
If you have any of those dual SATA to 8pin PCIe adapters lying around they can come in handy for 12V-4A solar panel / charge regulater / Lead-Acid deep cycle marine battery trickle charge.
Most of the problems I’ve seen with SATA power connectors are to do with very poor manufacturing quality that results in the connector shorting out internally even at modest loads.
the 8 pin gpu power draw as per pci-sig’s specs is 150W but each 12V pin on the 8 pin connector itself should be able to carry up to 9A before things get hot based off molex’s specifications for mini ft jr. that means you could get up to 324W at 12V going through a single pcie 8 pin power connector. I wouldn’t recommend it but it’s possible lol Maybe if you do a sequel video you can try using that crazy power mod on a Vega 56 that allows it to draw 600W and try to blow up some other adapters, that could be fun
But the SATA plug is only rated to 4.5A, so 9A or 108W for two of them. 4-pin Molex on the other hand is rated for 11A per line, so 22A or 264W for a molex to PCIe. So the SATA-to-PCIe adapter would violate the specs for the SATA ports on a high-power GPU but the Molex-to-PCIe would be fine. What always surprises me is that the PCIe 6-pin is specced to deliver 75W over 2 lines, but the 8-pin can give 150W over 3 lines. that means 4.17A on the 8-pin but only 3.13A on the 6-pin. If we load the 6-pin also with 4.17A that means it should be able to give 100W And then there are the 4 and 8-pin for the CPU which do 155W over 2 lines and 235W over 4 lines for 6.0-6.46A per line.
Just a bit of practicality here for anyone who is forced to use similar connectors. 1. 2xMOLEX to 6-pin is totally fine as long as connectors are not damaged. 2. 2xMOLEX to 8-pin is a sketchy setup, but it works. You still may want to check it for traces of melting plastic and oxidization on pins once in a while. 3. SATA power connectors to either 6 or 8-pin for any kind of prolonged usage - is a nogo, "not even once". While MOLEX are not user-friendly and are generally unpleasant to operate, they are robust and reliable (or serviceable/repairable by a decently sapient user, to be exact). SATA power connectors are more user-friendly but are a total mess when it comes to actually, you know, delivering power. You may use SATA to 6/8-pin for short periods in a controlled/observed environment, but don't let them stay in your machine for years without observation. It is essential to understand that fire happens not momentarily when you connect unrated stuff and put it to use. It occurs when the electrical resistance (and therefore heat output) of contacts in the connector rises due to bad connection and/or oxidization of pins. Which progresses slowly during long-term exploitation and often remains unnoticed by users.
Why not just take off both the SATA connectors and connect both the cables directly, which will be even safer than Molex connector. P.S. Sorry for late query. I'm two years late, lol.
A couple points: If you're using an infrared temperature monitor like that it's important to make sure it's calibrated correctly by pointing it at things you know the temperature of. While it mostly works better for contact thermometers, it's still useful to use ice water as a good baseline temperature reading just to make sure it's roughly in the area you want. Another thing that's important to remember is how power supplies actually provide power. If you ever open up one (DO NOT OPEN UP A POWER SUPPLY UNLESS YOU HAVE THE PROPER TRAINING AND KNOWLEDGE TO DO SO) then you'll usually see a bunch of individual wires going to each connector. Each of these wires has their own individual rating and in turn that can tell you how much you can safely push through any kind of connector. While other comments already talked about how the 75w coming from the pcie slot will affect it, it's also important to remember that the actual wires themselves are going to be the biggest factor in seeing if those cables burn up or not from the power supply. The reason you often see failures at the connectors rather than inside the wires themselves are almost always because of arcing between the actual connectors inside. Arcing creates a _lot_ of heat and often results in catastrophic failures like you saw in those pictures. It takes a lot of current to actually melt/destroy/burn a wire compared to the much more common scenario of arcing inside the connector itself. This is why you see so many success stories of people using those sata to 6/8 pin connectors without failure despite it being out of spec. Just wanted to point that out, still loved the video Dawid!
nice comment. do you think this power draw through the mb rather than a psu cable would create heat that would shorten the life of the mb and its components? That's what concerns me. I have an rx6600 which is 132W tdp and wondered if these sata adapters could provide the power from the mb in an optiplex with the standard dell 260W psu.
Failing connectors are more likely to burn when there is some arcing happening. A good clean mechanical connection can handle quite some amps before failing. There are youtube videos on this subject.
I have used these when adding GPUs to Optiplexes, but 1) have always limited the GPUs to lower-TDP models like the 120W GTX 1060 or the 100w 1650 Super, 2) never overclocked the GPUs off these, and 3) have always tested them running Furmark for a few hours and checking the temps periodically to make sure it's not heading up.
Pro Tip : When you purchase one of those Hand Held Thermometers, read the box and check for the + / - ... That way you can get better idea of the Actual Temp. Mine is a 5 deg = / - so that means its most likely off by at Most 5 deg . Keep that in mind when you use those . Cheers .
Love the zeal for controlled chaos :) I used a Molex to SATA adapter/splitter to power my old server's WD Green 1TB hdd. One day, the server was not responding on the network. I opened it up and saw the splitter was burnt, and the circuit board on the hdd was damaged. I didn't have backups for much of the stuff on the drive. I was able to resurrect the drive with a board ordered off ebay for about $25.
If you increase the wire lenght, the amp draw will increase. Prehaps the connector is decent quality and the short run of wires helps prevent an issue.
My main system is an old HP 8300 elitedesk Medium Tower, with a proprietary 320W PSU. Configuration is i7 3770, 32 GB DDR3 1600 dual channel, 1 HD, 1 SSD, , 1 external HD, DVD burner, Asus Soundcard and a RX 570 4 GB, that draws power from the exact same adapter you've tested. All the system is working perfectly fine for several years of intensive work use and gaming. Maximum draw of the system at the AC outlet is 265 W total (tested with Furmark). This adapter solution could be considered a long-term one, if needed.
@@vgnlda that's crazy, rx 6600 is a 160 watt card, cheers man. I am still waiting for my rx 570 order, I have to start from somewhere. Things go well I will notify you.💪🏿
@@Yahsaxe I'll be glad to hear from you 🙂 A little correction, though: I looked over the reviews of the RX 6600 and the 160W request seems to be incorrect: "We tested the video card in several taxing situations. The PowerColor Hellhound RX 6600 barely goes above 100W (no undervolting) even in very demanding situations". That's less than the RX 570.
I'm using a dual SATA to 8pin for a GTX 1080ti. It was installed as a temporary solution but a year has passed since then. Still works. Although I undervolted the gpu to lower the temps.
@@DawidDoesTechStuff How about the worst possible examples of specific tech products? Bargain bin SSD's, or off-brand video cards from AliBaba or something? Knock-off motherboards, stuff like that?
most gpus dont actually draw 75w from the mobo, they usually try to draw as much as possible from the pcie power connectors. My 3080ti with unlocked power limit draws 398w overall and only 48w from the mobo
@@macieklukasiewicz8176 i'll guess it's a "path of least resistance" thing do the 3080ti got 3x 8-pin ? that's 450w + 75w pcie and if the pcie has fatter cables with better connectors it might pull more from that side.. or it has some software that makes i preferer pcie sorry for my broken English ;-)
It gets to a point where "thermal Runaway" occures. If the connector gets hot enough I will actually require more amps to compensate for the resistance of the connector . So the card will pull more power to compensate and that will in turn increase the heat/ internal resistance which in turn will draw more power to compensate until you have a melted connector.
This video is going to be the first in a series of videos in which Dawid desperately tries to induce electrical fires so he can feel justified in buying a thermal camera And I am completely on-board
I had an old HP with an Athlon 64 X2. It being my first PC with a video card needing PCIE power, I didn't know the power supply I bought for it had it already on there. I plugged in the GPU with one of those adapters (The one that came with it. It was a GTX 560Ti) I used that PC for 2-3 Years after, and my brother, who bought it after me used it for like 5 more after that. It was rock solid. The board ended up failing, but the GPU and the Cooler Master power supply survived. Edit: I even ended up overclocking that card a bit. I can't remember how much.
I added a Molex to SATA adapter to a Dell Inspiron Slim in my office so we could have an extra SSD drive in the PC. The adaptor went to the rarely used DVD drive. That connector basically burst into flames at the DVD drive after the PC was left on in a cabinet with the doors closed by a co-worker. The PC was about 10 years old but had an upgraded Seasonic power supply. Luckily the fire was contained in the case. The only damage was the PC (fried the Power Supply) and a really bad smell in the office for a few days.
@wd5vdFor the class of card it was in it's era, a mid class card, yes. It pulls like 10w when doing regular internet browsing with TH-cam on in a tab etc. Even lower end GPUs of this era like the RTX 3060 draw 170w The 4070 non-Ti pulls 200w
those fans suck air in, not push air out, the active airflow there is very minimum for this situation, perhaps if you put them near the metallic fins on the gpu heatsink will get more airflow, and when they melt, they will short and fuck up the gpu in the process lol
The IR thermometer doesn't use the laser for measuring, it's just something to assist with aiming :D and the temps on the rest of the cable shouldn't have anything to do with the janky adapter
I used that connector once on my RX580, Mine was two molex to 8 pin. Both of the molex melted but one molex was still usable... The 8 pin on the other end survived tho. I love being a sketchy and wacky person so what I did next was soldered the 8 pin to my PSU's 6 pin pcie connector(replacing it entirely with the 8 pin) and use the surviving molex as the two last negative wires on the 8 pin. Worked fine to this day
Hey Dawid! I just want to thank you for talking about this. A year ago, I put together a 600 dollar system, and I used one of these adapters. I think this might have broken my GPU, causing my system to fail. If you're building a PC, please never use this adapter! It could cost you hundreds of dollars!
It's not often that the rating makes the cable fail it's usually time! Connections get dirty and corroded. That makes a high resistance which then gets hot and that's what can overheat. Another fail point is poor crimping of the wire to the pin. The wire is partly covered by the insulation, not a tight crimp, some of the conductors cut off as the insulation is removed. The use of aluminium and not copper because it's cheaper...the list goes on.
the pccooler corona 5in1 uses the same connector to power 5 fans with a separate connector for their RGB, and mine ran no problem for almost 2 years but that heating problem does have a commutative effect and it eventually failed (burned) last September, luckily for me the burnt wire remain in its socket and the fire died immediately after the wire was severed. Also for those interested the room temp was around 27C.
Love people who spend a huge amount of money for cool graphics cards or CPU‘s or mainboards and mix it with a PSU for 50€ or less. The PSU is the most important device of the whole PC to keep the system save and sound.
At the start of 2021, I upgraded my prebuilt's gpu from an apu, to a rx 570, and, because it didnt have an 8 pin connector to a gpu, i used that thing. Lowering the volts of the gpu to the minimum that the amd tool let me, I could use the gpu on idle and with little load, but not with much more than that so I ended up upgrading to a better psu.
With the better PSU I guess it ran pretty sweet afterwards. Undervolting the card (and RX 580) isn't a bad idea anyway as they're quite hungry but have solid headroom for optimization. I see a lot of people getting it down to somewhere around 80-90W with 960-1050mV instead of the 120-125 W with 1175mV that are default.
Dude you are impressive the ideas you have and how fun you are... love the channel much I watched at least 10 videos in a row the first time I found out about your channel. The soundtracks are perfect the quality everything about your channel is amazing I only wish there were more videos !
That connector is probably good to about 85 C, so even though you pushed way too many amps through it in a naughty way you didn't really get to the point of actually killing the connector. Still, don't do that for real, people.
With a proper sata connector probably, but the cheap molded ones like the one in the video are really prone to shorting out and melt everything. So yeah, don't.
@@shadowxxe Well, at least now you know that power supply is decent, I tried one of these cables on a generic old PSU and it just combusted in an instant. It was mildly entertaining and scary.
I used these cables in a 7020 optiplex with its stock power supply. Paired with a GTX 970. As soon as I ran Time Spy with 3dmark it shutdown. I ended up replacing the power supply with a 500w evga one. And did away with the adapter cables. Worked just fine after that.
i used a few of these addapters on a mining rig a few years back, powering a couple of 980ti's. i think I had 4 of them and one almost set on fire. it wasn't the sata plug/connector that was at fault but the wire its self. good job I was around, I smelt it and immediately knew what it was.
Great content as always. Much as expected, the 960 just can't pull that much juice. I did have one of those connectors fail but it was Molex to SATA running a WD hard drive, it ran for years and one day poof smoke and the PC wouldn't boot. Found the connector melted. It hangs above my desk at work. Replaced the connector and everything did worked fine just fyi whatever power protection was in the system shut it down without catastrophic failure. I think if you get something like a StarTech connector that uses slightly thicker gauge wire vs the freebee that came with some component the danger is reduced.
I know that this might be hard to find but you can probably find a motherboard that has a 25w pcie slot rather than a 75w that will make the connectors draw more current until they burn.
I have been using one of these for years, and I have never had a problem, only difference is mine has a few more cables from the sata conecter to the 8 pin
Here's a good rule of thumb for those dual sata to 6/8 pin. If you assume the SATA connector is safe for about 15-20 watts, since most drives should never pull much more than 10w (bar the 10-15k rpm drives) then with 75w from the PCIe slot (most cards are tuned to pull more from PEG) then you *can * safely power a card with a tdp of around 120w. Now I could do some math using guidelines from the CEC but it's the weekend
@Dawid the connector is rated when it's of quality. Not every cable is built the same, lower quality plastics will degrade faster under heat. This particular adapter also only uses two pinouts. If it were sustaining a load over the entire connector and the drive was saturated with a max read/write load, while also pushing that much power, you'd likely see a failure.
1 to 2 pin adapters should never be used... at all heh, 2 pice x8 from psu cable on the other hand is fine, i've seen multiple modular psus do that, pci-e cable x8 with 1 psu input and 2 gpu outputs, these r meant for 3 8 pin gpus, ur using 2 8 pins to power a 3 8 pin card, and these cables r overbuilt for that, so is the psu 8 pin conecction, however if u do that on a random psu u wont know if its overbuilt for that, or not
Nothing like a man burning his house down so you don't have to! You are a hero in my book Dawid! Great vid and have always wondered about those sus adapters and how well they work...
I can confirm this cable set my Mac Pro 2010 on fire never use it when I was tuning an Nvidia gtx980 and AMD FirePro 7200 running in the machine. The FirePro was connected to it and the Mac Pro was boot looping and I could smell smoke, some how after removing the cable and the Mac Pro started and is still working to this day. Even the SATA port is still working just a little melted.
Yep. I used these power adapters to shove a used $15 9800 GT into a refurbished Dell Inspiron 570 minitower. It had the AMD Phenom II X4 820 quad core CPU, so it actually gamed really well for the time. Was actually able to play Metro 2033. Fortunately Dell power Supplies back then were also quite decent, as I think this cable adapter mod could hurt a low power/crap build power supply.
The company that builds computers for our equipment at work uses these, along with a very low end Asus motherboard and 500w slim line PSUs [reference the Ghost canyon NUC for size] ... and while statistically the failure rate is low, I *HAVE* seen these fail, most significantly melting the 8 pin connector and fusing it to a GPU. In this specific case they had both SATA cables connected to the same rail on the PSU. Mind you, I've worked with hundreds of our machines, and the failure rate so far is less than 5 machines... but it CAN happen.
Buuut, usually a melted connector means it was arcing. I had a trans fuse in my truck pop multiple times from getting hot. But it was because the contacts were arcing. Once I fixed the contacts for the fuse, it never happened again. Same thing with a fan relay. It started arcing after running it for over 10 years. It melted part of the relay. Bought and installed a new identical harness and its been good for over a year... Anywhoooo. Lol
@@jason4663 While that is always a possibility, if you have a connector attempting to pull too much power through not enough cable, it also makes heat. I wasn't in the office to do the failure analysis [and I'm sure they didn't bother to do one anyway because they order the computers from a third party vendor] but either way I strongly disagree with the method of wiring they used.
I'm glad you're doing these followup vids! They're probably among the most interesting ones you do. I still standby with the only using the SATA-to-PCIE 6-pin adapter. A bit safer than the 8-pin one since less potential for higher wattage. Less wear over time too. But it all depends.
Mr. BitsBeTrippin got good comprehensive guide with good tech testing the PCI-E slot draw, 3090 went as high as 127W even though by standard maximum is 75W.
Do you remember those old Halloween candies no one liked (carmel.. sorta.. in orange wax wrappers..) I could just see Dawid having a bowl of them and going these things are soooo good.. (for a video like this..) chances are he wouldn't get the reference but I know alot of older people would since those were always the candies no one wanted but always ate anyway when that's all they had left. heh.
I was waiting for a classic Dawid line such as “it feels like it’s getting hotter than a first time couple on prom night” or “while it’s not quite as hot as Pamela Anderson running in slow motion on Baywatch I think it’s still running quite warm” 😂
4:15 Even if the gpu were to be using 100 watts, it would only use half of what ONE sata connector can actually do, since the PCI slot carries 75 watts, which makes it totally reasonable for it not being that warm. I would personally not use that solution; but if I had to, I'd choose a GPU that has a TDP of less than 120watts, which would mean that I use only half of what it can pull from both of the sata ports.
I bought a cheap 2x6 pin to 1x8pin to run my Rx580 and they did set fire about an hour in to playing. It was the actual cables that burned through and then started shorting out. Good job I had the side off or I wouldn't have seen it as fast. I then tried an adapter that cost alot more and has been fine ever since.
There's a very specific reason those Molex to SATA power connectors fail and it's specifically how certain female connectors are made. Male SATA power connectors are more or less unaffected by the issue. If you look at the female SATA connectors on the power supply in this video, they use crimped terminals that are then inserted into a connector housing. These are very robust and rarely fail. If you look up Molex to SATA adapters (like the one at 1:17,) most are injection molded around the terminals. THESE are the female SATA connectors to avoid. The injection molding process produces connectors that have loose tolerances and don't provide a firm mechanical connection.
I don't know about Canada but USA has dodgy electrics and volts, i think that's why these adapters have a bad rep and also PSU. In the Uk power is way over built and i have a mining rig using SATA adapter for risers and its perfectly stable for nearly a year now.
Just FYI Dawid, you CAN get a FLIR camera for a lot less than the price you listed. The FLIR One Pro LT is a FLIR camera that attaches to your phone's USB-C port, and is only $310, they offer another phone attached model that is basically the same but with more features for $420, and they also offer the FLIR C5 and C7, which are in the $510-710 price range for a standalone camera. I've been considering getting a C5 for a while now personally, but i didn't know about the phone-attached cameras they offer either, so now IDK what I'll ultimately get lol.
Let's also not forget that sata cables usually draw from the 5 volt rail. While video cards usually draw from the 12 volt rail. These things are just not a good idea any more now that the average low end video card is drawing greater than 100 watts and those rails were just not made to feed such huge power needs.
if it is in this case, it would stay cool... at Newegg: SSUPD Meshlicious Mini-ITX Small Form Factor (SFF) Case - Full Mesh Side Panel with PCIe 3.0 Riser Cable - Black Color, Tool-Free and Easy Accessibility
I had an Rx580 8GB with a 6 pin adapter to the 8 pin in the card. Needless to say, I was a noob and it melted hard... After learning that lesson, I put a better power supply in which was my first time.
I've done this twice without any issues. It is the only way to gamify a HP office PC because it has proprietary Mainboard and PSU. However, I was aware of the limitations and used low powered cards, GTX 960 and 1060. But nowadays for a similar build, I would suggest resorting to a card that draws from the PCIE Slot only. It's obviously far safer and even cards like GTX 1650 can handle most games on 1080p.
Your OptiPlex is about 2 generations newer than the ones we are still using at work. You'd love them, about half of them have been upgraded with a GT710.
"Upgraded"
f
@@AliceC993 a GT710 can be a crazy good upgrade, if you're coming from Integrated graphics..
@@ProjectDamo when upgrading from intel extreme graphics from when nehalem was the hottest stuff
I have a gt 210
Remember that pcie slot is supposed to provide 75W to the card, so up to 150-200W cards should be more or less fine
Gtx 960 is 120 w card
I would be more worried about how much PSU can provide on 12 v rail
Thank you for typing that so I don't have too. Also a good PSU should be able to deliver it's full wattage rating across the 12v rail(s).
A good PSU will provide all of its power on 12V
And, depends on the cards wiring. Some barely draw 10-15W on the PCIe slot.
most gpus dont actually draw 75w from the mobo, they usually try to draw as much as possible from the pcie power connectors. My 3080ti with unlocked power limit draws 398w overall and only 48w from the mobo
@@macieklukasiewicz8176 yeah I was gonna say this, depends on how the car has been set up, some will use power via the slot, others seem to avoid it as much as possible.
For sure! I should pair a single sata to PCIe 8 Pin adapter with a much worse PSU and see if that gets something to fail.
If you have any of those dual SATA to 8pin PCIe adapters lying around they can come in handy for 12V-4A solar panel / charge regulater / Lead-Acid deep cycle marine battery trickle charge.
That's very specific
You can also make DIY ElectroBoom project with dat
That's awesome! The more you know. 😁
Most of the problems I’ve seen with SATA power connectors are to do with very poor manufacturing quality that results in the connector shorting out internally even at modest loads.
Mine melted but it is still good
the 8 pin gpu power draw as per pci-sig’s specs is 150W but each 12V pin on the 8 pin connector itself should be able to carry up to 9A before things get hot based off molex’s specifications for mini ft jr.
that means you could get up to 324W at 12V going through a single pcie 8 pin power connector. I wouldn’t recommend it but it’s possible lol
Maybe if you do a sequel video you can try using that crazy power mod on a Vega 56 that allows it to draw 600W and try to blow up some other adapters, that could be fun
But the SATA plug is only rated to 4.5A, so 9A or 108W for two of them.
4-pin Molex on the other hand is rated for 11A per line, so 22A or 264W for a molex to PCIe.
So the SATA-to-PCIe adapter would violate the specs for the SATA ports on a high-power GPU but the Molex-to-PCIe would be fine.
What always surprises me is that the PCIe 6-pin is specced to deliver 75W over 2 lines, but the 8-pin can give 150W over 3 lines. that means 4.17A on the 8-pin but only 3.13A on the 6-pin. If we load the 6-pin also with 4.17A that means it should be able to give 100W
And then there are the 4 and 8-pin for the CPU which do 155W over 2 lines and 235W over 4 lines for 6.0-6.46A per line.
Ah yes, more Dapz Academy
Eyo Dapz you like computers?
F*kc dapz your here aswell m8?
That is a really good idea! I could also use those single sata to 8 pin adapters to just really take it to the limit. 😅
Just a bit of practicality here for anyone who is forced to use similar connectors.
1. 2xMOLEX to 6-pin is totally fine as long as connectors are not damaged.
2. 2xMOLEX to 8-pin is a sketchy setup, but it works. You still may want to check it for traces of melting plastic and oxidization on pins once in a while.
3. SATA power connectors to either 6 or 8-pin for any kind of prolonged usage - is a nogo, "not even once". While MOLEX are not user-friendly and are generally unpleasant to operate, they are robust and reliable (or serviceable/repairable by a decently sapient user, to be exact). SATA power connectors are more user-friendly but are a total mess when it comes to actually, you know, delivering power. You may use SATA to 6/8-pin for short periods in a controlled/observed environment, but don't let them stay in your machine for years without observation.
It is essential to understand that fire happens not momentarily when you connect unrated stuff and put it to use. It occurs when the electrical resistance (and therefore heat output) of contacts in the connector rises due to bad connection and/or oxidization of pins. Which progresses slowly during long-term exploitation and often remains unnoticed by users.
Yup, it's the same in my experience - the only really safe one is dual molex to 6-pin (if the PSU is good enough of course)
thank you, this is the only comment I ever need.
Why not just take off both the SATA connectors and connect both the cables directly, which will be even safer than Molex connector.
P.S. Sorry for late query. I'm two years late, lol.
Why does the FurMark benchmark make me feel like I'm looking into the Eye of Sauron?
Literally what it's designed to look like
because it's Mordoring your PC
Fury donut of death. 😂
Isnt that what it means to do?
@@DawidDoesTechStuff Donut of Sauron
A couple points:
If you're using an infrared temperature monitor like that it's important to make sure it's calibrated correctly by pointing it at things you know the temperature of. While it mostly works better for contact thermometers, it's still useful to use ice water as a good baseline temperature reading just to make sure it's roughly in the area you want.
Another thing that's important to remember is how power supplies actually provide power. If you ever open up one (DO NOT OPEN UP A POWER SUPPLY UNLESS YOU HAVE THE PROPER TRAINING AND KNOWLEDGE TO DO SO) then you'll usually see a bunch of individual wires going to each connector. Each of these wires has their own individual rating and in turn that can tell you how much you can safely push through any kind of connector. While other comments already talked about how the 75w coming from the pcie slot will affect it, it's also important to remember that the actual wires themselves are going to be the biggest factor in seeing if those cables burn up or not from the power supply. The reason you often see failures at the connectors rather than inside the wires themselves are almost always because of arcing between the actual connectors inside. Arcing creates a _lot_ of heat and often results in catastrophic failures like you saw in those pictures. It takes a lot of current to actually melt/destroy/burn a wire compared to the much more common scenario of arcing inside the connector itself. This is why you see so many success stories of people using those sata to 6/8 pin connectors without failure despite it being out of spec.
Just wanted to point that out, still loved the video Dawid!
nice comment. do you think this power draw through the mb rather than a psu cable would create heat that would shorten the life of the mb and its components? That's what concerns me.
I have an rx6600 which is 132W tdp and wondered if these sata adapters could provide the power from the mb in an optiplex with the standard dell 260W psu.
Failing connectors are more likely to burn when there is some arcing happening. A good clean mechanical connection can handle quite some amps before failing. There are youtube videos on this subject.
I have used these when adding GPUs to Optiplexes, but 1) have always limited the GPUs to lower-TDP models like the 120W GTX 1060 or the 100w 1650 Super, 2) never overclocked the GPUs off these, and 3) have always tested them running Furmark for a few hours and checking the temps periodically to make sure it's not heading up.
Pro Tip : When you purchase one of those Hand Held Thermometers, read the box and check for the + / - ... That way you can get better idea of the Actual Temp. Mine is a 5 deg = / - so that means its most likely off by at Most 5 deg . Keep that in mind when you use those . Cheers .
I misread PC Master Peasant as PC Master Pheasant and briefly amused myself with the mental image of a fowl gaming.
"in a controlled environment" *pulls out fire extinguisher in a can*
"controlled" not safe LOL
Love the zeal for controlled chaos :) I used a Molex to SATA adapter/splitter to power my old server's WD Green 1TB hdd. One day, the server was not responding on the network. I opened it up and saw the splitter was burnt, and the circuit board on the hdd was damaged. I didn't have backups for much of the stuff on the drive. I was able to resurrect the drive with a board ordered off ebay for about $25.
If you increase the wire lenght, the amp draw will increase. Prehaps the connector is decent quality and the short run of wires helps prevent an issue.
My main system is an old HP 8300 elitedesk Medium Tower, with a proprietary 320W PSU.
Configuration is i7 3770, 32 GB DDR3 1600 dual channel, 1 HD, 1 SSD, , 1 external HD, DVD burner, Asus Soundcard and a RX 570 4 GB, that draws power from the exact same adapter you've tested. All the system is working perfectly fine for several years of intensive work use and gaming. Maximum draw of the system at the AC outlet is 265 W total (tested with Furmark).
This adapter solution could be considered a long-term one, if needed.
Two year later I'm at the exact point you are in.😅. Is it doing well , so far? I have the same set up as you.
And did you have to undervolt the catd?
@@Yahsaxe No, system Is working fine as is. No undervolting needed. I swapped the RX 570 4 GB with a RX 6600 8 GB last december. All is working well.
@@vgnlda that's crazy, rx 6600 is a 160 watt card, cheers man. I am still waiting for my rx 570 order, I have to start from somewhere. Things go well I will notify you.💪🏿
@@Yahsaxe I'll be glad to hear from you 🙂 A little correction, though: I looked over the reviews of the RX 6600 and the 160W request seems to be incorrect: "We tested the video card in several taxing situations. The PowerColor Hellhound RX 6600 barely goes above 100W (no undervolting) even in very demanding situations". That's less than the RX 570.
I'm using a dual SATA to 8pin for a GTX 1080ti. It was installed as a temporary solution but a year has passed since then. Still works. Although I undervolted the gpu to lower the temps.
is it still good
@@AHMED-mohaamed worked fine for years. Now works with a new PSU that has 2x8 pin
50°C over ambient in a well ventilated environment... Now imagine a dusty case of 40°C with limited airflow, and some vibrations on the connectors.
vibration, yes, sparks and flames soon
That's when you should expect indoor fireworks!
I'm missing the control group here - how warm is the regular PCIe power connector getting under such load?
@@magicalsnekit’s not the pcie connectors heat being talked about it’s the sata connector
I miss dawid comparing prebuilts to mid tier STDs. Those were the good old days.
sadly PC gaming has become so expensive that even prebuilts would have to be compared to high class prostitutes nowadays.
I've been trying to diversify, but do you want to see more prebuilt videos? 😁
@@DawidDoesTechStuff How about the worst possible examples of specific tech products? Bargain bin SSD's, or off-brand video cards from AliBaba or something? Knock-off motherboards, stuff like that?
Comments like this are what caused William osman to quit, so stop it
@@DawidDoesTechStuff Hi dawid. I really like the prebuilts. But these videos are really good as well. You are very funny
But 75 watts is pulled from the motherboard so the 150 watts is actually only 85w from the adapter
75
@@brightshadowdenmark sorry i can't do maths
most gpus dont actually draw 75w from the mobo, they usually try to draw as much as possible from the pcie power connectors. My 3080ti with unlocked power limit draws 398w overall and only 48w from the mobo
@@macieklukasiewicz8176
i'll guess it's a "path of least resistance" thing
do the 3080ti got 3x 8-pin ?
that's 450w + 75w pcie
and if the pcie has fatter cables with better connectors it might pull more from that side..
or it has some software that makes i preferer pcie
sorry for my broken English ;-)
@@brightshadowdenmark i have the FE so only 2x 8pin
It gets to a point where "thermal Runaway" occures. If the connector gets hot enough I will actually require more amps to compensate for the resistance of the connector . So the card will pull more power to compensate and that will in turn increase the heat/ internal resistance which in turn will draw more power to compensate until you have a melted connector.
Just an FYI: the laser on handheld infrared thermometers like that is only for aiming. The infrared detection is done by a completely separate sensor.
Came here to write exactly the same. 👍🏻
This video is going to be the first in a series of videos in which Dawid desperately tries to induce electrical fires so he can feel justified in buying a thermal camera
And I am completely on-board
Ow that's easy. He should just grab a Gigabyte power supply from some garbage can. ;)
He can always test it on the wife or the pet.
Pair it with a budget psu. Let's see how those sata connectors hold up
don't hold, lol
*PSU commits seppuku*
lol no, once did this and I learned my lesson
When you want to see the connector/adapter fail, what is the point of using a PSU that fails before the connector?
@@zero.zero.one.001 see how some people do it and end with a pc in flames
show people how risky is to use a cheap psu
I've did it multiple times with older systems and newer graphics cards. Never been a problem.
I had an old HP with an Athlon 64 X2. It being my first PC with a video card needing PCIE power, I didn't know the power supply I bought for it had it already on there. I plugged in the GPU with one of those adapters (The one that came with it. It was a GTX 560Ti) I used that PC for 2-3 Years after, and my brother, who bought it after me used it for like 5 more after that. It was rock solid. The board ended up failing, but the GPU and the Cooler Master power supply survived.
Edit: I even ended up overclocking that card a bit. I can't remember how much.
I added a Molex to SATA adapter to a Dell Inspiron Slim in my office so we could have an extra SSD drive in the PC. The adaptor went to the rarely used DVD drive. That connector basically burst into flames at the DVD drive after the PC was left on in a cabinet with the doors closed by a co-worker. The PC was about 10 years old but had an upgraded Seasonic power supply. Luckily the fire was contained in the case. The only damage was the PC (fried the Power Supply) and a really bad smell in the office for a few days.
Gotta say - The RX 580 is a very efficient card. I've rarely seen it push over 140w when gaming with the official AMD game boost (to 1410Mhz) added.
@wd5vdFor the class of card it was in it's era, a mid class card, yes.
It pulls like 10w when doing regular internet browsing with TH-cam on in a tab etc.
Even lower end GPUs of this era like the RTX 3060 draw 170w
The 4070 non-Ti pulls 200w
The connectors were getting active airflow on them from the RX 580 GPU fans.
and open air
those fans suck air in, not push air out, the active airflow there is very minimum for this situation, perhaps if you put them near the metallic fins on the gpu heatsink will get more airflow, and when they melt, they will short and fuck up the gpu in the process
lol
Brings new meaning to Afterburner
70 dollars?! are you sure you can afford that? You still have to buy more pre-builds!
It was a tough call. 😂
Rip out the GT710s and sell them on Ebay to recover the costs some sucker will buy them.
@@armchairgeneralissimo just tell them that it's a RTX
The IR thermometer doesn't use the laser for measuring, it's just something to assist with aiming :D
and the temps on the rest of the cable shouldn't have anything to do with the janky adapter
@Dawid Does Tech Stuff -
The LASER is just an indicator for where the User points this temperature measuring gun
I used that connector once on my RX580, Mine was two molex to 8 pin. Both of the molex melted but one molex was still usable... The 8 pin on the other end survived tho. I love being a sketchy and wacky person so what I did next was soldered the 8 pin to my PSU's 6 pin pcie connector(replacing it entirely with the 8 pin) and use the surviving molex as the two last negative wires on the 8 pin. Worked fine to this day
still working? Also did you run the card at its regular tdp or undervolt it?
Hey Dawid! I just want to thank you for talking about this. A year ago, I put together a 600 dollar system, and I used one of these adapters. I think this might have broken my GPU, causing my system to fail. If you're building a PC, please never use this adapter! It could cost you hundreds of dollars!
Why would it fail. Unless it was either your PSU or the fact that your graphics card asked for more current but it couldn't be supplied
Back in the day the saying used to be “Molex to SATA loose all your data”
It's not often that the rating makes the cable fail it's usually time! Connections get dirty and corroded. That makes a high resistance which then gets hot and that's what can overheat. Another fail point is poor crimping of the wire to the pin. The wire is partly covered by the insulation, not a tight crimp, some of the conductors cut off as the insulation is removed. The use of aluminium and not copper because it's cheaper...the list goes on.
the pccooler corona 5in1 uses the same connector to power 5 fans with a separate connector for their RGB, and mine ran no problem for almost 2 years but that heating problem does have a commutative effect and it eventually failed (burned) last September, luckily for me the burnt wire remain in its socket and the fire died immediately after the wire was severed. Also for those interested the room temp was around 27C.
Love people who spend a huge amount of money for cool graphics cards or CPU‘s or mainboards and mix it with a PSU for 50€ or less. The PSU is the most important device of the whole PC to keep the system save and sound.
I've used this kind of connector with older video cards for years. They've always worked fine for me! I'll stop using them to power my 6900xt though.
At the start of 2021, I upgraded my prebuilt's gpu from an apu, to a rx 570, and, because it didnt have an 8 pin connector to a gpu, i used that thing.
Lowering the volts of the gpu to the minimum that the amd tool let me, I could use the gpu on idle and with little load, but not with much more than that so I ended up upgrading to a better psu.
With the better PSU I guess it ran pretty sweet afterwards.
Undervolting the card (and RX 580) isn't a bad idea anyway as they're quite hungry but have solid headroom for optimization.
I see a lot of people getting it down to somewhere around 80-90W with 960-1050mV instead of the 120-125 W with 1175mV that are default.
@@HappyBeezerStudios mine runs at 90 100w with the default voltage
Dude you are impressive the ideas you have and how fun you are... love the channel much I watched at least 10 videos in a row the first time I found out about your channel. The soundtracks are perfect the quality everything about your channel is amazing I only wish there were more videos !
I love your random ass videos, thanks for being different
That connector is probably good to about 85 C, so even though you pushed way too many amps through it in a naughty way you didn't really get to the point of actually killing the connector.
Still, don't do that for real, people.
With a proper sata connector probably, but the cheap molded ones like the one in the video are really prone to shorting out and melt everything. So yeah, don't.
@@mttkl my freinds pc had one of them and the power supply downright refused to turn on until we removed it the fault protection was not having it
@@shadowxxe Well, at least now you know that power supply is decent, I tried one of these cables on a generic old PSU and it just combusted in an instant. It was mildly entertaining and scary.
I used these cables in a 7020 optiplex with its stock power supply. Paired with a GTX 970. As soon as I ran Time Spy with 3dmark it shutdown. I ended up replacing the power supply with a 500w evga one. And did away with the adapter cables. Worked just fine after that.
Lol he had his wallpaper as a combusting fire in anticipation of the adapter's possible end
0:37 And that's how you know you're in a Dawid video.
_Grabs popcorn and enjoys the ride._
"Immediately got me excited" .... ROTFL materiel like this is why I never miss a video! :P
Usually the ones that melt are the ones with aluminium wires. You probably got lucky with a copper one.
Or just thick enough wires!
I never knew that aluminium wires even existed lol
@@victorhugofranciscon7899 they are widely used
@@Zebra_Paw Now thinking about it makes sense, because aluminium is considerably cheaper than cooper
i used a few of these addapters on a mining rig a few years back, powering a couple of 980ti's. i think I had 4 of them and one almost set on fire. it wasn't the sata plug/connector that was at fault but the wire its self. good job I was around, I smelt it and immediately knew what it was.
Good old Canadian Tire. Thanks for the videos from a fellow Canadian.
Good to know fire extinguishers in a can exist
in this episode Dawid attempts to set fire to mount E-Waste
Great content as always. Much as expected, the 960 just can't pull that much juice. I did have one of those connectors fail but it was Molex to SATA running a WD hard drive, it ran for years and one day poof smoke and the PC wouldn't boot. Found the connector melted. It hangs above my desk at work. Replaced the connector and everything did worked fine just fyi whatever power protection was in the system shut it down without catastrophic failure. I think if you get something like a StarTech connector that uses slightly thicker gauge wire vs the freebee that came with some component the danger is reduced.
I know that this might be hard to find but you can probably find a motherboard that has a 25w pcie slot rather than a 75w that will make the connectors draw more current until they burn.
I have been using one of these for years, and I have never had a problem, only difference is mine has a few more cables from the sata conecter to the 8 pin
It's very unlikely to "cause a fire"
It may melt the plastic until it shorts and the current limiting in the psu trips.
Comments: "It is an easy way to get yourself killed"
Dawid: "Which immediately got me excited"
Dawid, always speaking for the common folk...
That is the most Dawid fire extinguisher I could imagine
That Canadian Tire tool ahahaha I can recall! Nice video as always :)
Here's a good rule of thumb for those dual sata to 6/8 pin. If you assume the SATA connector is safe for about 15-20 watts, since most drives should never pull much more than 10w (bar the 10-15k rpm drives) then with 75w from the PCIe slot (most cards are tuned to pull more from PEG) then you *can * safely power a card with a tdp of around 120w.
Now I could do some math using guidelines from the CEC but it's the weekend
Big fan Dawid. Your show is always entertaining!
Thank you for watching! 😁
@Dawid the connector is rated when it's of quality. Not every cable is built the same, lower quality plastics will degrade faster under heat. This particular adapter also only uses two pinouts. If it were sustaining a load over the entire connector and the drive was saturated with a max read/write load, while also pushing that much power, you'd likely see a failure.
Been using that adapter for many month, still live.
The previous Optiplex generation uses standard ATX power supplies. I have an old 3010 with and i5 3470 and replaced the PSU with an EVGA PSU.
Now, get a 1 to 2 8-pin adapter on a giant GPU.
1 to 2 pin adapters should never be used... at all heh, 2 pice x8 from psu cable on the other hand is fine, i've seen multiple modular psus do that, pci-e cable x8 with 1 psu input and 2 gpu outputs, these r meant for 3 8 pin gpus, ur using 2 8 pins to power a 3 8 pin card, and these cables r overbuilt for that, so is the psu 8 pin conecction, however if u do that on a random psu u wont know if its overbuilt for that, or not
No. Get TWO 1 to 2 8-pin adapters for a GPU that uses three connectors, with two splitters in a row to get 3 connectors.
@@hireahitCA Do all that and power it with a potato!!!!
@@stuartlunsford7556 potato? Could we just try a Gigabyte PSU without a fire extinguisher nearby?
Dawid I have been using those connectors on my gtx 960 oc for last 3 years. They have withstood pretty good despite me max overclocking my gpu.
I also used them in the past on a 1050ti without issue.
Nothing like a man burning his house down so you don't have to! You are a hero in my book Dawid! Great vid and have always wondered about those sus adapters and how well they work...
justo tengo el mismo dell y pensaba comprar una gtx 960 tu video me callo del cielo
I can confirm this cable set my Mac Pro 2010 on fire never use it when I was tuning an Nvidia gtx980 and AMD FirePro 7200 running in the machine.
The FirePro was connected to it and the Mac Pro was boot looping and I could smell smoke, some how after removing the cable and the Mac Pro started and is still working to this day. Even the SATA port is still working just a little melted.
Yep. I used these power adapters to shove a used $15 9800 GT into a refurbished Dell Inspiron 570 minitower. It had the AMD Phenom II X4 820 quad core CPU, so it actually gamed really well for the time. Was actually able to play Metro 2033. Fortunately Dell power Supplies back then were also quite decent, as I think this cable adapter mod could hurt a low power/crap build power supply.
The company that builds computers for our equipment at work uses these, along with a very low end Asus motherboard and 500w slim line PSUs [reference the Ghost canyon NUC for size] ... and while statistically the failure rate is low, I *HAVE* seen these fail, most significantly melting the 8 pin connector and fusing it to a GPU. In this specific case they had both SATA cables connected to the same rail on the PSU. Mind you, I've worked with hundreds of our machines, and the failure rate so far is less than 5 machines... but it CAN happen.
Buuut, usually a melted connector means it was arcing. I had a trans fuse in my truck pop multiple times from getting hot. But it was because the contacts were arcing. Once I fixed the contacts for the fuse, it never happened again. Same thing with a fan relay. It started arcing after running it for over 10 years. It melted part of the relay. Bought and installed a new identical harness and its been good for over a year... Anywhoooo. Lol
@@jason4663 While that is always a possibility, if you have a connector attempting to pull too much power through not enough cable, it also makes heat. I wasn't in the office to do the failure analysis [and I'm sure they didn't bother to do one anyway because they order the computers from a third party vendor] but either way I strongly disagree with the method of wiring they used.
I'm glad you're doing these followup vids! They're probably among the most interesting ones you do.
I still standby with the only using the SATA-to-PCIE 6-pin adapter. A bit safer than the 8-pin one since less potential for higher wattage. Less wear over time too. But it all depends.
For sure! It very much depends. Tha k's for watching, I also really enjoy making these videos.
Mr. BitsBeTrippin got good comprehensive guide with good tech testing the PCI-E slot draw, 3090 went as high as 127W even though by standard maximum is 75W.
When Dawid said safely in a control environment makes me really buy a new pc
Makes sense Dawid uploaded this during Halloween. It was like waiting for a jump scare that would possibly kill some unforutunate component.
Do you remember those old Halloween candies no one liked (carmel.. sorta.. in orange wax wrappers..) I could just see Dawid having a bowl of them and going these things are soooo good.. (for a video like this..) chances are he wouldn't get the reference but I know alot of older people would since those were always the candies no one wanted but always ate anyway when that's all they had left. heh.
0:02 What was the joke 👀
I was waiting for a classic Dawid line such as “it feels like it’s getting hotter than a first time couple on prom night” or “while it’s not quite as hot as Pamela Anderson running in slow motion on Baywatch I think it’s still running quite warm” 😂
Not every video can have a classic "Dawid-ism" in it
one of these things did in fact kill my motherboard once. that was because one of the sata ends came unplugged, overloading the other one though
3:00 so that’s where you got this PC! Naughty Dawid. Thieven is bad mmkay 🤣
4:15 Even if the gpu were to be using 100 watts, it would only use half of what ONE sata connector can actually do, since the PCI slot carries 75 watts, which makes it totally reasonable for it not being that warm.
I would personally not use that solution; but if I had to, I'd choose a GPU that has a TDP of less than 120watts, which would mean that I use only half of what it can pull from both of the sata ports.
I bought a cheap 2x6 pin to 1x8pin to run my Rx580 and they did set fire about an hour in to playing. It was the actual cables that burned through and then started shorting out. Good job I had the side off or I wouldn't have seen it as fast. I then tried an adapter that cost alot more and has been fine ever since.
What is the name of the new adapter, so I can buy one , I have an RX 580 too, ty
There's a very specific reason those Molex to SATA power connectors fail and it's specifically how certain female connectors are made. Male SATA power connectors are more or less unaffected by the issue. If you look at the female SATA connectors on the power supply in this video, they use crimped terminals that are then inserted into a connector housing. These are very robust and rarely fail. If you look up Molex to SATA adapters (like the one at 1:17,) most are injection molded around the terminals. THESE are the female SATA connectors to avoid. The injection molding process produces connectors that have loose tolerances and don't provide a firm mechanical connection.
I don't know about Canada but USA has dodgy electrics and volts, i think that's why these adapters have a bad rep and also PSU. In the Uk power is way over built and i have a mining rig using SATA adapter for risers and its perfectly stable for nearly a year now.
How to start a house fire 101 featuring Dawid
Just FYI Dawid, you CAN get a FLIR camera for a lot less than the price you listed. The FLIR One Pro LT is a FLIR camera that attaches to your phone's USB-C port, and is only $310, they offer another phone attached model that is basically the same but with more features for $420, and they also offer the FLIR C5 and C7, which are in the $510-710 price range for a standalone camera. I've been considering getting a C5 for a while now personally, but i didn't know about the phone-attached cameras they offer either, so now IDK what I'll ultimately get lol.
At 2:53 - Dawid's hands can be seen at 25 C - reptilian overlord confirmed, lol!
Haha the secret is out
Great video. As with any thing - there are gonna be the good ones and then the bad ones ; this one was one of the good ones.
Liked it because Anna made you redact the joke. Good on Anna and good on you for taking your wife's advice.
Let's also not forget that sata cables usually draw from the 5 volt rail. While video cards usually draw from the 12 volt rail. These things are just not a good idea any more now that the average low end video card is drawing greater than 100 watts and those rails were just not made to feed such huge power needs.
if it is in this case, it would stay cool... at Newegg: SSUPD Meshlicious Mini-ITX Small Form Factor (SFF) Case - Full Mesh Side Panel with PCIe 3.0 Riser Cable - Black Color, Tool-Free and Easy Accessibility
I had an Rx580 8GB with a 6 pin adapter to the 8 pin in the card. Needless to say, I was a noob and it melted hard... After learning that lesson, I put a better power supply in which was my first time.
You should try this again with only ONE SATA to PCIe 8 Pin, i think that would be interesting, and yes, these adapters exist.
I am using RX 580 with this setup a long time
Dawid takes out an insurance policy in this episode!
"Safely, and in a controlled environment" - That phrase simply makes me MORE worried, Dawid!
... proceeds to use a highly flammable cardboard bench test.
a n i m e
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I've done this twice without any issues. It is the only way to gamify a HP office PC because it has proprietary Mainboard and PSU. However, I was aware of the limitations and used low powered cards, GTX 960 and 1060.
But nowadays for a similar build, I would suggest resorting to a card that draws from the PCIE Slot only. It's obviously far safer and even cards like GTX 1650 can handle most games on 1080p.
Try this with a low quality PSU and I’m sure we’ll see some fireworks 💥
For extra spicy ones, use one of the Gigabyte Explodey versions.
"In other words, it is an easy way to get yourself killed. Which immediately got me excited." Dawid, 2021.
Never not laughing at or with your videos good job mate