Igor’s Lab (opens in new tab) has printed an article discussing a possible resolution to forestall Nvidia’s 16-pin energy adapter from damaging the GeForce RTX 4090, one of many finest graphics playing cards in the marketplace. In keeping with Igor Wallossek, the publication’s editor-in-chief, the answer might be to crimp the connectors, not solder them, since soldering introduces undesirable warmth into the connector itself.
Wallossek contends that soldering is the arch-enemy of the 16-pin energy connector. Soldering causes a number of issues that he says can result in structural failures throughout the connector. His checklist of potential points contains inflexible tinning and soldering a stranded wire that’s already underneath rigidity, processing a stranded wire in a approach it is going to unravel and break, and extra. However, one of many largest issues is the soldering course of, the place air bubbles can type through the course of, resulting in corrosion.
Ideally, Wallossek believes that the producers ought to crimp the person wires within the 16-pin wiring harness, which eliminates all of the potential points concerned within the soldering and introduces higher structural integrity of the wires.
Igor’s Lab says a superb instance of a correct 12VHPWR wiring harness is the one which be quiet!’s Darkish Energy Professional 12 energy provide makes use of, the place two 12-pin plugs convert to a single 16-pin energy connection. Every wire consists of very versatile 18AWG cables – which is able to lead to cooler temperatures of the wire itself, and every connector has a complete of six 12-volt and 6 floor wires every. Connecting the 2 12-pins from the PSU to the 16-pin that goes into the graphics card is a crimped connection maintained on every cable, the place wires from the 12 pins get related and translated right into a single wire.
Wallosek says be quiet!’s design represents one of many most secure strategies of constructing a 16-pin wiring harness; the wires are extremely versatile and enormous, which is able to scale back warmth build-up within the wires themselves and likewise enable customers to govern the wires freely with out vital threat of damaging the connector or the wiring harness itself. Additionally, the transfer to crimp the connections removes any thermal or corrosion issues which may happen from soldering.
The answer applies particularly to a 16-pin wiring harness and never Nvidia’s energy adapter, however the strategies implied might simply be used on Nvidia’s adapter, notably that of crimping the connections as a substitute of soldering them.