Phanteks extension cables melting

[ali.alawieh.93]

I bought some cable extensions from amazon a while ago, to match my build theme.
These ones: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01G7VSFEI/ref=twister_B01HBN9TLO?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1

They started melting when I replaced my PSU with a better one.

I had a bad PSU before: Thermaltake Smart SE 730, which died on me, and started showing voltage drops down to 10.8V on the 12V rail.

So I replaced it with the Seasonic Focus+ Gold 750. I know it's a great PSU since the lowest reading I get under load is 11.903V.

Shortly after, the PCIe cables, going to the graphics card, started melting right where it makes contact with the card: not the cables themselves, but the plastic tip at the end.

I replaced the cable end with another one, and it held up for a month, until I started playing some more demanding games, like far cry 5. (same cable, just replaced plastic end)


Here are my PC specs, along with other hardware to give you an idea about power consumption:

- i5-8600K @ 5GHz with 1.3V
- 1080Ti, not manually OC'ed, just set set the power slider in afterburner to it's max 120%, and let nvidia boost do the rest
- 8GB ram 2666Hz
- An SSD and an HDD
- A water pump, probably a D5 pump
- an led strip
- 5 fans


It's worth mentioning that the Seasonic cables come with a "bulky" end to them, as if there was some capacitor hidden there. Could it be an incompatibility issue?

As you can tell my PC is watercooled, so thermals aren't an issue at all.

What can be the problem?

Thanks.

 

[Doctor Rob]

a few reviews on those add in cables noted that they have contact issues if the cables are not plugged in straight.. so like if bent at all they do not connect up even when plugged in. What I would get from your description and the others is that the ends that they are using are too loose / not good quality so the connection is not tight between the termination on the device and the cable making thermal build up between the connection.. think of when you see a spark when you plug something in some times.. if the connection is loose or becomes loose it creates more resistance at that point and heats up and can start fires.. One reason in the US at least using copper wiring is mandatory in buildings instead of the cheaper Aluminum wiring. Aluminum expands and contracts a lot more then copper when power is being transferred and causes over time the connections to fail then sometimes get so hot they start fires.

 

[bigpinkdragon286]

I've only seen connectors melt when there was a bad connection at the Molex connector, causing the connection to arc and eventually melt. You can sometimes tell from a slight smell of ozone or hot plastic, or from the usual barely translucent white of the connector having obvious darkening or charring inside.

This can happen if the connector is not well assembled, as the pins and sockets of Molex connectors have spring clips that retain them. Sometimes the spring clips or the socket itself allows the pin to push out rather than properly mating. Check all of your cable ends to ensure the mating pins and sockets are all firmly in place.

 

[luckymatt42]

It may very well be a compatibility issue...the connector end on the MOTHERBOARD side are all standard pin arrangements, but the PSU side of the cables is not standardized. That's why folks recommend that you always use the cables that came with your PSU. So yes, if the pin outs did not match, it would mean bad news...possible to fry the whole MB that way.

 

[ali.alawieh.93]

a few reviews on those add in cables noted that they have contact issues if the cables are not plugged in straight.. so like if bent at all they do not connect up even when plugged in. What I would get from your description and the others is that the ends that they are using are too loose / not good quality so the connection is not tight between the termination on the device and the cable making thermal build up between the connection.. think of when you see a spark when you plug something in some times.. if the connection is loose or becomes loose it creates more resistance at that point and heats up and can start fires.. One reason in the US at least using copper wiring is mandatory in buildings instead of the cheaper Aluminum wiring. Aluminum expands and contracts a lot more then copper when power is being transferred and causes over time the connections to fail then sometimes get so hot they start fires.

I replaced the plastic cable ends ( please help me to give those a name ), with the ones that were on the thermaltake which lasted for a year. But still they melted as soon as I started playing some heavy games. But still they melted. I might have not done a great job at replacing the pins, since it's kinda tricky. But can I be that unlucky?

Could help add to the problem that most users don't own a 1080Ti (not bragging ofc, just giving an example), so those reviews on amazon are probably fine for most people. Except when a 1080Ti draws the power that it needs. This happens

I'll try the stock cables for now, and see what happens. My brother will be playing far cry 5 at 1440p, so we should have our answer soon enough.

 

[ali.alawieh.93]

It may very well be a compatibility issue...the connector end on the MOTHERBOARD side are all standard pin arrangements, but the PSU side of the cables is not standardized. That's why folks recommend that you always use the cables that came with your PSU. So yes, if the pin outs did not match, it would mean bad news...possible to fry the whole MB that way.

True, but very unlikely in my case, I'd say. Since I don't have drastic results. And it took like a month for problems to show. Plus it's really just limited to one pin on the PCIe end where it makes contact with the VGA

 

[bigpinkdragon286]

Your 1080 Ti hardly beats AMD's Hawaii architecture for power draw, and you don't hear a bunch of complaints about AMD sockets melting. It's your poor connection at the GPU power sockets that are causing your problem, almost guaranteed. If you mis-wired your connector end, or you had a different electrical incompatibility, you would have an immediate electrical fault the moment you power the machine on and your computer troubles would have taken a completely different route than they have.

 

[ali.alawieh.93]

I contacted Seasonic customer support yesterday night, they replied this morning asking for specs.
Their response was that it's very unlikely to be an incompatibility issue with the extensions. It could be either the a loose connection, or the slot itself has wear.

They also asked me to use 2 cables instead of one PCIe cable, to balance load.
I'll try replacing the plastic once again, and this time hook it up to 2 slots on the PSU instead of one. And see how it goes.