A gamer wanted to build a computer and used a modular power supply. But that almost led to his downfall to become.
Anyone who wants to build a gaming PC has to avoid many pitfalls and stumbling blocks so that everything works smoothly in the end. Other users need to find a hidden error before they can use their PC.
A user has now encountered a particularly annoying error. He had only replaced a power supply. But in doing so, he made an unintended small mistake.
Gamer installs modular power supply and uses cables from another power supply
What exactly did the user do? The builder said on reddit that he replaced the power supply in a computer. He used a modular power supply. The advantage of a modular power supply is simple. You can connect the cables to the power supply yourself and thus ensure better cable management.
But those very cables almost led to the user’s downfall. Because he replaced the power supply but used the old cables from the previous power supply. As soon as he started the computer, it already smelled of burnt plastic.
He describes his post with the sentence: “Don’t change power supplies without changing the cables.”
There is no official cable standard for power supplies
What exactly is the problem? The cables from power supplies are not standardized. Many modular power supplies use different cables that you can then connect to the power supply. A user explains on reddit that this is the biggest problem with such power supplies:
Modular power supply (PSU)? That is due to the fact that there are no standards for modular power supplies. We need to fix that.
When you buy a modular power supply, it usually comes with the right cables for the device that you can and should use directly.
Manufacturers are free to design their power supplies as they wish. This means that, in the worst case, you might plug a connector into your power supply that has totally wrong pins. One user describes the resulting outcome on reddit: “Trying to plug a power connector from the 24-pin connector into a ground connector = Smoke.”
Community believes that the cable problem could be easily solved
The community discusses the problem: Some users believe that power supply manufacturers could easily solve these issues: If the manufacturers instead used proprietary connectors, such “accidents” when building PCs could not happen. Because proprietary connectors could then only be plugged into the specific power supply of the corresponding manufacturer.
There are also such protections for other components, so that no one gets the idea to plug DDR3 memory into a DDR4 slot or an AMD CPU into an Intel socket. It seems that no one has thought of the possibility of accidents occurring with power supply cables until now.
Some users claim in the thread on reddit that a few thick warning stickers would suffice to prevent worse incidents.
Wrong cables can be dangerous: How dangerous seemingly harmless looking cables can be is also shown by a YouTuber. He installed a small cable in his gaming PC to demonstrate how much damage can be caused by doing so:
YouTuber shows how you can ruin your gaming PC with just one cable
