[SOLVED] 130W GPU on a 16A rail?

[Eezo]

Greetings!

This is my very first post here. I'm basically an ultra low-end gamer with a very old machine* and a low wattage PSU with no dedicated 6-pin connector. I currently have a GT440 but a friend of mine is more than wiling to hand me his aging (aged) 550Ti 1GB for free. The card is in decent shape and appears to have enough muscle to run the 'vintage' games I'm interested in (Mass Effect 1-3, Crysis 1-3, GTA-V, Skyrim, Fallout 3 + NV etc.) at 720/900p30 (locked FPS via RTSS) so the performance aspect of the card doesn't bother me at all. In fact, it might even be able to push some games at Full HD.

Problem, however, is the PSU (pictured). It lacks a dedicated 6-pin and has 2x 12V rails at 16A (192W) each. One rail appears to be 100% reserved for the CPU (YEL/BLK cables only go into 4-pin CPU connector, as far as i can tell) whereas everything else appears to run on the primary +12V1 rail.

The PSU may be old but it's very well built, still has good enough voltages (~11.54-11.58V at load/idle), doesn't overheats itself (always a little cool to the touch) nor the capacitors etc. so the ripple is likely within tolerance as well (I'm no expert, however). Plus, each molex connector has two 12V wires going inside (for some reason) so I don't think it's going to melt the cables as the current will be distributed between 4x 12V cables, instead of 2x. If anything, it seems to be a better setup than the standard 6-pin which has 3x 12V cables, but again... I'm no expert!

TL;DR

I want to run a ~130W 550Ti on a 16A rail via a 6-pin molex adapter. The PSU is already running 2x 7.2k HDDs + a 120mm fan + an optical drive on the same rail as the other rail appears to be 100% reserved for the CPU. Do you think it's a bad idea / potential fire hazard?

*Specs:
Xeon E3-1220 a.k.a i5-2400.
Gigabyte H61 (S2PV),
GT440 a.k.a GT730 DDR3.
Kllisre 1,333MHz 2 x 4GB RAM.
Antec NSK4480.
PSU (pictured):

 

[--SID--]

A molex cable has one 12v wire, 6 pin pci-e has three. With a molex adapter you pull all de power of pci-e via that one 12v molex wire. That's not recommended.

 

[Archaic59]

Greetings!

This is my very first post here. I'm basically an ultra low-end gamer with a very old machine* and a low wattage PSU with no dedicated 6-pin connector. I currently have a GT440 but a friend of mine is more than wiling to hand me his aging (aged) 550Ti 1GB for free. The card is in decent shape and appears to have enough muscle to run the 'vintage' games I'm interested in (Mass Effect 1-3, Crysis 1-3, GTA-V, Skyrim, Fallout 3 + NV etc.) at 720/900p30 (locked FPS via RTSS) so the performance aspect of the card doesn't bother me at all. In fact, it might even be able to push some games at Full HD.

Problem, however, is the PSU (pictured). It lacks a dedicated 6-pin and has 2x 12V rails at 16A (192W) each. One rail appears to be 100% reserved for the CPU (YEL/BLK cables only go into 4-pin CPU connector, as far as i can tell) whereas everything else appears to run on the primary +12V1 rail.

The PSU may be old but it's very well built, still has good enough voltages (~11.54-11.58V at load/idle), doesn't overheats itself (always a little cool to the touch) nor the capacitors etc. so the ripple is likely within tolerance as well (I'm no expert, however). Plus, each molex connector has two 12V wires going inside (for some reason) so I don't think it's going to melt the cables as the current will be distributed between 4x 12V cables, instead of 2x. If anything, it seems to be a better setup than the standard 6-pin which has 3x 12V cables, but again... I'm no expert!

TL;DR

I want to run a ~130W 550Ti on a 16A rail via a 6-pin molex adapter. The PSU is already running 2x 7.2k HDDs + a 120mm fan + an optical drive on the same rail as the other rail appears to be 100% reserved for the CPU. Do you think it's a bad idea / potential fire hazard?

*Specs:
Xeon E3-1220 a.k.a i5-2400.
Gigabyte H61 (S2PV),
GT440 a.k.a GT730 DDR3.
Kllisre 1,333MHz 2 x 4GB RAM.
Antec NSK4480.
PSU (pictured):

Using an old relic PSU not made for the job, using adapters, will probably not end well. A new, budget model PSU does not cost very much and would be much safer. The PSU is the most important component in the system. You have to replace the old thing sometime and now sounds like a good time.

 

[scout_03]

dont put yourself in trouble get a new psu .

 

[Eezo]

Using an old relic PSU not made for the job, using adapters, will probably not end well.

Personally, I'm not much concerned about the adapters as I don't think they're any worse than modular PSUs, in terms of DC noise. Not ideal, no doubt, but not a total deal breaker and/or a guaranteed fire hazard, as far as my admittedly limited knowledge goes.

Besides, new Ampere cards require an adapter, after all!

I'm mostly concerned about tripping the absolutely minuscule 12V/16A rails. An entire rail is reserved for the CPU 4-pin connector (for some reason) and the rest of the system is entirely at the mercy of the other 16A rail.

dont put yourself in trouble get a new psu .

I truly understand but... it's a 10 year old machine! I honestly don't want to dump any more cash in it as I plan to build a Ryzen machine in the coming year(s). Besides, the prices are absolutely MENTAL at the moment!

 

[scout_03]

then the thing you could is to buy the psu on the option for your new build you will already have a psu .