[SOLVED] Another GPU + Riser Card Question

[Its_Nightfall]

After searching about 60 threads from the past two years, and not finding a straight answer anywhere, I thought it was enough due diligence to warrant registering and making my own post with my setup and seeing if I can get a clear answer to avoid a future house fire with my rig.

First, the part I am mostly sure is okay but want to check before I get to the part where I can't find any clear answer. I am set up with an ASUS Prime Z390-P motherboard running 5 MSI 3070 GPUs. My PSU is a Super-Flower Leadex 1600 Platinum. My cards are all connected to the PSU via a splitter cable that came with the PSU that has two 6+2 pin headers. As far as I have seen (though want clarification), it is safe to have both of the GPUs 6+2 ports connected to the PSU's VGA PCIe port through one cable (VGA PCIe to dual 6+2 pin headers). Otherwise, having only 9 VGA slots on the PSU, I could never power 5 or 6 cards.

Now, assuming that part is not a safety hazard, I really need an answer about the riser cards. I have the usual risers with two 6-pin ports, as well as a molex connector. The risers came with the usual 6-pin to SATA adapter cable, but we all know SATA is a fire hazard waiting to happen, as I have seen the Reddit bot remind people in every thread I have read, and have also seen countless warnings here on the Tom's Hardware forums. That being said, which is the correct option? There are no cables that go from the 6-pin port on the riser to my PSU's SATA/Peripheral port, right? So far, it seems the answer is the 4-pin molex on the riser. I currently have one cable that splits into 3 male molex headers. Since I heard two risers can safely be powered by one cable, I have two of the three molex connectors connected to two riser cards.

The only other cable the PSU came with is a peripheral cable that has one molex connector and two SATA connectors. I have a third riser card connected to the molex connector, but I am worried the cable may not be rated high enough for the wattage if it has SATA connectors on it (or is it only the SATA connector itself that is the problem?).

Regardless, that still leaves two cards to power risers for. If someone knowledgable confirms that what I did with the dual molex cable works, I was going to just have CableMod make two molex cables with the dual connectors for my PSU (their Japanese store makes custom cables for the SuperFlower PSU) and be done with it. All I need is peace of mind that I don't have a fire hazard in my guest bedroom. I have only read SATA is bad to power risers with without getting a fully clear answer on whether my cards are powered properly on one VGA cable to dual 6+2 and whether the 4-pin molex port on my risers is the way to go for powering them, completely ignoring the 6-pin port on the riser card

I have seen confusing info about the 6-pin port being better than molex, but I think that may have been because some adapter with molex was involved, so I need a straight answer about how to directly connect these risers to my PSU and whether my powering method for the 3070's is also safe. Sorry for the long read but I have been going in circles for three days all over Reddit, Tom's Hardware, and the Internet. Any and all help will be most appreciated!

 

[hang-the-9]

What are those exact risers you are using? The riser just needs power enough to run the PCIe power spec. If the riser cards came with those SATA adapters, it's not likely they were made to be used with any sort of direct connection to them form the PSU aside from SATA power. You need to look at the manuals to them.

 

[Its_Nightfall]

What are those exact risers you are using? The riser just needs power enough to run the PCIe power spec. If the riser cards came with those SATA adapters, it's not likely they were made to be used with any sort of direct connection to them form the PSU aside from SATA power. You need to look at the manuals to them.

Thank for the reply. Unfortunately, the risers did not come with any manual. You can check them out for yourself below (I believe you can see them without having an Amazon Japan account):

https://www.amazon.co.jp/BSTKING-最新...9e911&pd_rd_wg=TNvGV&pd_rd_i=B08W8NPVYC&psc=1


I thought that with SATA, the problem is with the SATA 15-pin connector, not the whole cable itself. Is that not right? If it is the connector, then theoretically, could I not have a 6-pin cable coming from the SATA/PERIPHERAL port on the PSU directly to the 6-pin on the risers? I would likely need a cable like that made at somewhere like CableMod though. More importantly, a SATA cable with molex header should be fine, right? It goes directly from the PSU using the SATA/PERIPHERAL port to the connector on the card. I have not seen anything about the molex connector being unable to withstand a 75w pull, but I need to make sure. So far, I have seen some people saying you can use one cable with a dual molex header to power two risers and others saying not to do that and use just one header per cable if possible.

I guess I really need to know if molex is okay at all. The only other option is getting $28 custom cables that do 6-pin from SATA/PERIPHERAL to the 6-pin on the riser. Again, any help or advice would be appreciated.

 

[hang-the-9]

There is nothing wrong with the sata connections that come from the power supply. The issues come up from using adapters and the wiring in them.

In the product description on that link they say
"Note:
Molex 4-pin 6-pin PCI-E power interface integrated on PCB, only one power input required Do not connect 2 or 3 power interface at the same time. "

Since the product comes with power adapters made to be used with them, use those power adapters.

 

[Its_Nightfall]

There is nothing wrong with the sata connections that come from the power supply. The issues come up from using adapters and the wiring in them.

In the product description on that link they say
"Note:
Molex 4-pin 6-pin PCI-E power interface integrated on PCB, only one power input required Do not connect 2 or 3 power interface at the same time. "

Since the product comes with power adapters made to be used with them, use those power adapters.

But isn't the issue that those adapters are not actually meant to handle more than 54w and there is the potential for risers to draw up to 75w in power, thus melting/burning out those adapters? That is the whole reason behind my questions as everyone on forums like these has said to not use risers with SATA adapters.

 

[hang-the-9]

But isn't the issue that those adapters are not actually meant to handle more than 54w and there is the potential for risers to draw up to 75w in power, thus melting/burning out those adapters? That is the whole reason behind my questions as everyone on forums like these has said to not use risers with SATA adapters.

It's not the adapter it's the SATA power standard.

Read this from EVGA

EVGA FAQ

EVGA North America's #1 NVIDIA partner.

www.evga.com

.

You can also simply see what other people are using for risers, I don't use them myself for anything.