I am simply as prone to a flashy OLED display screen or over-designed chassis as the subsequent particular person, however I will be damned, I feel the 2 favorite issues I’ve seen from Computex this 12 months have been on energy provides, of all issues. Yesterday there was the PSU with a swiveling energy connector, and in the present day we’re seeing that ASRock is making energy provides that match 12V-2×6 energy connectors with additional sensors to verify for overheating.That is presumably as a response to the obvious points some RTX 50-series graphics playing cards have with overheating energy cables. The entire ‘melting RTX cable’ began final technology with the RTX 4090, however there have been some issues this technology, too.(Picture credit score: Future)We first heard about some RTX 5090 energy connectors melting not lengthy after launch. And simply final month there was a report of a melted energy cable on an RTX 5070, too—not even a high-power RTX 5080 or RTX 5090.
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Tech YouTuber Der8auer investigated with a thermal digital camera and found that there was a number of variance in how a lot present is flowing via every of the 12 wires on the 12VHPWR cable, and that two of the 12 wires have been a lot hotter than the others. This was recognized as a attainable reason behind the reported melting.We do not know to what extent every of the studies of RTX 50-series melted cables is right down to person error, in fact, equivalent to may be attributable to not having the ability cable inserted totally.That is one thing yellow connector pins are supposed to assist with, and naturally it is one motive behind the change from the 12VHPWR cable’s authentic, shorter connector pins to the brand new, longer 12V-2×6 pins.(Picture credit score: Future)But when there are measurable drastic variations between the ability flowing via completely different wires of the cable, it is exhausting to think about that it is solely the top person’s fault.Maintain updated with crucial tales and the very best offers, as picked by the PC Gamer crew.In concept, RTX 50-series playing cards might have per-pin energy sensing to cease such variation, however not all do and apparently even Nvidia’s personal Founders Version RTX 5090 design would not have it.Computex 2025(Picture credit score: Jacob Ridley)Meet up with Computex 2025: We’re on the bottom at Taiwan’s largest tech present to see what Nvidia, AMD, Intel, Asus, Gigabyte, MSI and extra have to point out.Which suggests some further safety must be helpful, and ASRock appears to have that in thoughts right here with its PSU and cable/connector design. It appears to be like like the brand new energy provides (within the firm’s Taichi or Phantom Gaming line-ups) have two commonplace 12V-2×6 connections however with further two-pin sensors off to the aspect, with the 12VHPWR cables having a corresponding two-pin sensor to plug in.This could verify for cable temperature and shut it off if it will get too scorching—a pleasant additional little bit of safety. Plus you get these yellow pins so you may extra simply verify the pins are totally inserted. We do not understand how effectively it really works but ourselves, in fact, but it surely’s an amazing, sensible concept.Now, with the good and smart out of the best way, let’s get again to these flashy OLEDs. Would possibly as effectively stick one in every of these PSUs, too.