How Cheap Cables Can Be Dangerous: False Wire Gauge & Poor Construction
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Date: 2021-04-19
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Comments and reviews: 10
southpark11235
In my cousin Jimmy's pc, I used a molex to SATA adapter for a HDD. The PC was sitting in his room for a few years when one day we started to smell smoke in the house. The whole family started walking around the house trying to figure out where the smell was coming from. It was traced back to Jimmy's room and when I took the side panel off his PC there was about a 3 inch tall flame in is PC. I quickly pulled the power cord and ran to grab a fire extinguisher. I sprayed down the PC because I was not messing around with a house fire and I really did not care about the PC in the moment. The fire killed the HDD and a SSD next to it and the fire extinguisher kill the motherboard. After examining the damage it was clear the the SATA was made poorly and a power and ground wire where to close. The slight movement of the HDD caused the two wires to touch and we got a short to ground and fire. Moral of the story is don't use cheap SATA connectors because you can not see if the wires inside a touching or almost touching and when they do touch you get fire.
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In my cousin Jimmy's pc, I used a molex to SATA adapter for a HDD. The PC was sitting in his room for a few years when one day we started to smell smoke in the house. The whole family started walking around the house trying to figure out where the smell was coming from. It was traced back to Jimmy's room and when I took the side panel off his PC there was about a 3 inch tall flame in is PC. I quickly pulled the power cord and ran to grab a fire extinguisher. I sprayed down the PC because I was not messing around with a house fire and I really did not care about the PC in the moment. The fire killed the HDD and a SSD next to it and the fire extinguisher kill the motherboard. After examining the damage it was clear the the SATA was made poorly and a power and ground wire where to close. The slight movement of the HDD caused the two wires to touch and we got a short to ground and fire. Moral of the story is don't use cheap SATA connectors because you can not see if the wires inside a touching or almost touching and when they do touch you get fire.
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jadoei13
For those relying on molex to power risers, I had multiple cables fail, both original and cablemod (2 of the latter, 1 of the former). They were powering 2 risers with an RX 480 each, ones that were running at 1100mhz and pretty cool. The first time I came across a failed one I thought it must've been a faulty cable, I later found 2 more.
They've usually failed at the point where the cable connects to the plug, so even if the cable is fine it might still die on you because you've unplugged it several times and the cable isn't in the best condition any more. I wouldn't say I ever put any unreasonable amount of force on the cable, they were never unplugged by pulling on the cable etc.
I wouldn't use more than 1 molex connector per cable any more and if at all possible I'd just use pcie 6 pin connectors, even if that means using an 8 pin to dual 6 pin splitter.
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For those relying on molex to power risers, I had multiple cables fail, both original and cablemod (2 of the latter, 1 of the former). They were powering 2 risers with an RX 480 each, ones that were running at 1100mhz and pretty cool. The first time I came across a failed one I thought it must've been a faulty cable, I later found 2 more.
They've usually failed at the point where the cable connects to the plug, so even if the cable is fine it might still die on you because you've unplugged it several times and the cable isn't in the best condition any more. I wouldn't say I ever put any unreasonable amount of force on the cable, they were never unplugged by pulling on the cable etc.
I wouldn't use more than 1 molex connector per cable any more and if at all possible I'd just use pcie 6 pin connectors, even if that means using an 8 pin to dual 6 pin splitter.
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kelownatechkid
Next time you cause fires, please use some respirators for safety! Despite the low risk, one would think you'd want to demonstrate going above-and-beyond for healthy/safety precautions to the large audience.
- safety video
- plastic and metal is likely to burn
- not done in a visible fume hood
- not wearing respirators
The planned burning of toxic materials in a regular office room without respirators should never fly in a professional environment! I was hoping that the NZXT video burning was a one-off.
Edit: can't reply to this comment for some reason, but I'd start by just trying to meet the OSHA 1910.134 requirements for respirators, and definitely show your ventilation systems on camera to avoid giving the wrong impression! Even if this is not a common task, maximum care should be shown on video to the viewers.
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Next time you cause fires, please use some respirators for safety! Despite the low risk, one would think you'd want to demonstrate going above-and-beyond for healthy/safety precautions to the large audience.
- safety video
- plastic and metal is likely to burn
- not done in a visible fume hood
- not wearing respirators
The planned burning of toxic materials in a regular office room without respirators should never fly in a professional environment! I was hoping that the NZXT video burning was a one-off.
Edit: can't reply to this comment for some reason, but I'd start by just trying to meet the OSHA 1910.134 requirements for respirators, and definitely show your ventilation systems on camera to avoid giving the wrong impression! Even if this is not a common task, maximum care should be shown on video to the viewers.
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LabRat
Thank you for huffing melting PVC so we don't have to. I have 1st hand experience with melty mining power cables. Thought it'd be okay by sharing load over many conductors and the PSU's OCP would take up the slack. Nope, lines and pin-plugs went melty. Everything survived, thankfully. Lower actual AWG vs. advertised, Aluminum conductors mixed with copper, and impedance/resistance at junctions were factors I didn't properly account for. I have to wonder if some of the problem was PWM/ripple causing eddy current heating too?
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Thank you for huffing melting PVC so we don't have to. I have 1st hand experience with melty mining power cables. Thought it'd be okay by sharing load over many conductors and the PSU's OCP would take up the slack. Nope, lines and pin-plugs went melty. Everything survived, thankfully. Lower actual AWG vs. advertised, Aluminum conductors mixed with copper, and impedance/resistance at junctions were factors I didn't properly account for. I have to wonder if some of the problem was PWM/ripple causing eddy current heating too?
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Dillon
The wire guage issue happened to me! The 3d printing club at my college a few years ago bought a new printer, and after testing it out, took it to a club fair. After about 2 hours of printing key chains, I brushed again the power cable and felt almost like I had been shocked, it was so hot. The manufacturer used a no-name pc power supply, and that company supplied a power cable that use at MOST 24 gauge wire. Luckily I had to cut the cable apart to find that out, so no one could use it again.
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The wire guage issue happened to me! The 3d printing club at my college a few years ago bought a new printer, and after testing it out, took it to a club fair. After about 2 hours of printing key chains, I brushed again the power cable and felt almost like I had been shocked, it was so hot. The manufacturer used a no-name pc power supply, and that company supplied a power cable that use at MOST 24 gauge wire. Luckily I had to cut the cable apart to find that out, so no one could use it again.
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RYTHMIC
The only motherboard I've ever had fail, failed almost immediately after installing some cheap colored power supply cable extensions. I wanted to get some cables from CableMod but didn't have the money at the time. Bought a cheap kit from Amazon. I had just completed a new build 2 months prior. Complete with a full loop using hard tubing. Imagine my joy when realizing I had to tear all that down to replace my board. Never again.
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The only motherboard I've ever had fail, failed almost immediately after installing some cheap colored power supply cable extensions. I wanted to get some cables from CableMod but didn't have the money at the time. Bought a cheap kit from Amazon. I had just completed a new build 2 months prior. Complete with a full loop using hard tubing. Imagine my joy when realizing I had to tear all that down to replace my board. Never again.
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N1te0wl141
Hey Steve, as someone who is into crypto, perhaps it would be insightful to cover in some news segment or something that mining will soon go away. When ETH 2.0 launches and they move from proof-of-work (PoW) which is essentially mining needed to run a validator node to proof-of-stake (PoS), mining will disappear. The same will happen to all altcoins sooner or later, and BTC isn't worth mining anyway for most people
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Hey Steve, as someone who is into crypto, perhaps it would be insightful to cover in some news segment or something that mining will soon go away. When ETH 2.0 launches and they move from proof-of-work (PoW) which is essentially mining needed to run a validator node to proof-of-stake (PoS), mining will disappear. The same will happen to all altcoins sooner or later, and BTC isn't worth mining anyway for most people
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REEESEY
I have a 310w PSU. just a CPU 4-pin and a custom 6-pin into the board. (12v only) then the board has 2x 4pins that have 4-pin to 2x sata, for hdd's etc.
got a 95w cpu, 75w gpu.
i used to make use of Y-splitters and adapters, but when using usb my wifi would tap out.. concluded that i was overdoing it.
so this is what it can look like if you dont have enough amperage lol
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I have a 310w PSU. just a CPU 4-pin and a custom 6-pin into the board. (12v only) then the board has 2x 4pins that have 4-pin to 2x sata, for hdd's etc.
got a 95w cpu, 75w gpu.
i used to make use of Y-splitters and adapters, but when using usb my wifi would tap out.. concluded that i was overdoing it.
so this is what it can look like if you dont have enough amperage lol
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Martin
After watching the video i am a little confused. As is understand it you can not daisy chain fan hubs on the same sata cable, because 1 fan hub may draw up to 45w of power. So if i want to have many fan hubs in my pc, i have to have a separate sata cable coming from the psu to the fan hub? Or is it safe to use the supplied daisy chained sata cables that came with the psu?
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After watching the video i am a little confused. As is understand it you can not daisy chain fan hubs on the same sata cable, because 1 fan hub may draw up to 45w of power. So if i want to have many fan hubs in my pc, i have to have a separate sata cable coming from the psu to the fan hub? Or is it safe to use the supplied daisy chained sata cables that came with the psu?
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wishus
When I built my file server with chinesium cables, I basically designed it with the blanket assumption that every cable is going to be 22ga. Even if they were actually larger. And even played it safe with that. Its so far so good. But it does make for a bit of a cabling mess when you consider it has 18 hard drives in a double wide atx case.
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When I built my file server with chinesium cables, I basically designed it with the blanket assumption that every cable is going to be 22ga. Even if they were actually larger. And even played it safe with that. Its so far so good. But it does make for a bit of a cabling mess when you consider it has 18 hard drives in a double wide atx case.
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