safe to use 2 molex to 8 PEG adapter

[Newlaugh]

need more power to run graphics card, can i use a 2 molex to 8 pin pci graphics adapter?

 

• Windows 7 64 bit
• P8 H61-M LX3 R2.0
• i7 3770 3.4GHz
• 2x8gb ram
• EVGA 960 SSC edition
• Penguin 550W

[Bittenfleax]

Your PSU does not have 2 x 4 pins?! I am not 100% sure about the molex for power, someone else could clarify? 

[Newlaugh]

i have 2x4 pin molex

 

i can see the huge error in my title lol

[dadasmithywinkle]

i have 2x4 pin molex

 

i can see the huge error in my title lol

Welcome to the forums. If you have the adapter, then yes it is perfectly safe to do it.

[Bittenfleax]

i have 2x4 pin molex

 

i can see the huge error in my title lol

 

Oh, I meant from your PSU there "should" or "most likely" be 2 (or 1) power connector(s) saying PCI/PCI-E on them and it should be a "square" with 4 pins in the socket?

[Aniallation]

 

need more power to run graphics card, can i use a 2 molex to 8 pin pci graphics adapter?

 

Don't do it. I'd suggest upgrading your PSU regardless, it's not a great PSU and if it does not have a PCIe power connector, it's not designed to run a dedicated GPU that requires one.

[Aniallation]

Welcome to the forums. If you have the adapter, then yes it is perfectly safe to do it.

No it's not. It completely depends on the PSU. If you have a good quality power supply and enough wattage but not enough connectors, then yes it's safe in that case. However in OP's case with a hella generic brand PSU ("Penguin", wtf) that doesn't have even a 6-pin PCIe power connector in the first place, it's NOT recommended in any way to use a molex to PCIe power connector. Any good PSU with more then even 350W will have at least one 6-pin PCIe power connector.

[dadasmithywinkle]

No it's not. It completely depends on the PSU. If you have a good quality power supply and enough wattage but not enough connectors, then yes it's safe in that case. However in OP's case with a hella generic brand PSU ("Penguin", wtf) that doesn't have even a 6-pin PCIe power connector in the first place, it's NOT recommended in any way to use a molex to PCIe power connector. Any good PSU with more then even 350W will have at least one 6-pin PCIe power connector.

It doesnt really matter... it's not going to pull more from those Molex cables than they're designed for. I've done it numerous times and it's always worked fine. GPU manu's wouldnt make those adapters if it wasnt safe. I agree with your other comment of upgrading the PSU, but that's not always a feasible option.

[Aniallation]

It doesnt really matter... it's not going to pull more from those Molex cables than they're designed for. I've done it numerous times and it's always worked fine. GPU manu's wouldnt make those adapters if it wasnt safe. I agree with your other comment of upgrading the PSU, but that's not always a feasible option.

 

It's not the cables that are the problem. I never said it was. The problem is that you'll be pulling more power  from the PSU itself then it can handle. Do you seriously think that OP's "penguin" 550W PSU can actually deliver close to 550W? Cause if so you are more then just wrong, you're putting OP's PSU and everything else connected to it at risk.

 

Go get a "500W" Diablotek yourself and try to see if you can safely pull 500W from it, then speak from experience. 

 

R.I.P my Athlon X2, MSI tomato soup mobo and 8800GTS from a cheapo 465W PSU because I didn't know better at the time to get a good brand PSU. But hey, at least that 465W fire hazard had a native 6-pin PCIe power connector.

[DildorTheDecent]

It's not the cables that are the problem. I never said it was. The problem is that you'll be pulling more power  from the PSU itself then it can handle. Do you seriously think that OP's "penguin" 550W PSU can actually deliver close to 550W? Cause if so you are more then just wrong, you're putting OP's PSU and everything else connected to it at risk.

 

Go get a "500W" Diablotek yourself and try to see if you can safely pull 500W from it, then speak from experience. 

 

R.I.P my Athlon X2, MSI tomato soup mobo and 8800GTS from a cheapo 465W PSU because I didn't know better at the time to get a good brand PSU. But hey, at least that 465W fire hazard had a native 6-pin PCIe power connector.

Anything is possible if you try. 

[dadasmithywinkle]

Do you seriously think that OP's "penguin" 550W PSU can actually deliver close to 550W?

Not really, but the system, with the i7 and the 960, wont pull more than 400, if that, under load.

[Syfes]

Not really, but the system, with the i7 and the 960, wont pull more than 400, if that, under load.

 

What he said. That setup probably won't even come close to reaching 400W under load. Using an adapter will be quite safe in your system.

 

The only thing you should really worry about when using a no-brand PSU like that is the PSU dying prematurely because of cheaper components or unstable/decreased voltages when under heavy load (shouldn't apply to your system). Both are extremely annoying but won't damage other components. 

[s3ns3]

Not really, but the system, with the i7 and the 960, wont pull more than 400, if that, under load.

more like 200W

 

even lower while gaming

[Aniallation]

The only thing you should really worry about when using a no-brand PSU like that is the PSU dying prematurely because of cheaper components or unstable/decreased voltages when under heavy load (shouldn't apply to your system). Both are extremely annoying but won't damage other components. 

PSU dying CAN damage other components. Please stop spreading misleading information.

[Syfes]

PSU dying CAN damage other components. Please stop spreading misleading information.

 

I suppose I did not phrase that correctly. A dying PSU by itself has a small chance of damaging other components, but you'll find that in 95% of cases the cause is a power surge or such, not the PSU itself dying. Cheaper power supplies indeed offer less protection in such events.

[Aniallation]

I suppose I did not phrase that correctly. A dying PSU by itself has a small chance of damaging other components, but you'll find that in 95% of cases the cause is a power surge or such, not the PSU itself dying. Cheaper power supplies indeed offer less protection in such events.

There's still a chance that the PSU itself dying can cause a power surge to components. It might not be as big of a deal as line-level power surges, but you still don't want 12V going to your SSD when it's expecting 5V or 3.3V

[redab007]

PCPartPicker Part List

Type	Item	Price
CPU	Intel Core i5-6500 3.2 GHz Quad-Core OEM/Tray Processor	$190.22 @ Amazon
Motherboard	MSI B250M PRO-VD Micro ATX LGA1151 Motherboard
Memory	G.Skill Ripjaws V Series 8 GB (1 x 8 GB) DDR4-2400 CL15 Memory	$32.99 @ Newegg
Memory	G.Skill Ripjaws V Series 8 GB (1 x 8 GB) DDR4-2400 CL15 Memory	$32.99 @ Newegg
Storage	Corsair MP510 480 GB M.2-2280 NVME Solid State Drive	$89.99 @ Corsair
Storage	Toshiba 1 TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive
Video Card	Sapphire Radeon RX 5600 XT 6 GB PULSE Video Card	$283.98 @ Newegg
Optical Drive	Lite-On iHAS124-14 DVD/CD Writer	$19.98 @ Amazon
Operating System	Microsoft Windows 10 Home OEM 64-bit	$108.78 @ Other World Computing
	Prices include shipping, taxes, rebates, and discounts
	Total	$758.93
	Generated by PCPartPicker 2020-06-25 14:56 EDT-0400

 

I have an antec vp450p psu https://antec.com/product/power/vp450p.php
Can I use dual molex to 8 pin on the gpu??