Question Will My Power Supply Blow-Up?

JudithWright

Commendable
Oct 5, 2021
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2
1,535
I have an unused power cable, that I believe came from a Dell PC.

On the power cable near the plug, it says: 10A - 125V
On the wire itself, it says: 18AWG 300V

PC Specs:

CPU
: AMD Athlon X4 950
Motherboard: MSI A320M Pro-VH
RAM: 16GB XPG 3000MHz
Case Fans: 3 Uphere RGB fans
Case: Gamdias Mars E2
Power Supply: Thermaltake Smart 430W 80+ Black Continuous Power ATX 12V V2.3/EPS 12V Active PFC Power Supply PS-SPD-0430NPCWUS-W

If I use this power cable, will my Power Supply blow-up or catch on fire?
How do I know if it is okay to use?
 
I don't have a power cable for this power supply.

What can I do? How do I know which type of cable to use?

You are on shaky ground if you do not have the original cables that came with that specific power supply.

You shouldn't try to use a cable that simply appears to be the same.

I'd get another power supply.

You can take your chances doing something else. I would not. Your choice entirely.

Would you spend 1 hour or 100 hours trying to find a replacement?

You'd probably never be sure it would work without trying it....which could have a bad result.....of unknown type. Maybe no damage. Maybe significant damage. Your choice to take that risk.
 

Karadjgne

Titan
Ambassador
It's very simple. You have a 430w 80%. So at the absolute most that psu could pull would be 540w from the wall. P = V x A. So 540w / 120v = 4.5Amps. That's a 10Amp rated cable, so has Double the capacity of the very most your pc can use.

It's a standard basic pc power cable, it's the same power cable used universally by any other psu or pc monitor for the last 20? years.

The only exceptions are the cables that come with high wattage psus, those are rated at 15Amps, but you'll only get those on @ 750w + psus and some Premium psus may include the higher rating cables instead.

So yes, you are perfectly fine to use that cable and no, your psu isn't going to blow up. That only applies to cables used Inside the pc, not outside.