Using a 6A power strip with a 10A psu cable, but only for coding and watching youtube

Dandapani · April 4, 2020

Recently my power cord exploded as i was using a 600Watt psu that was drawing 10A from a 6A power strip.

I have replaced the psu power cord with a new 10A rated one, but I'm still using the same 6A power strip (due to lockdown, i am not able to find one currently).

I have noticed during gaming the power strip makes a buzzing noise after a few minutes of gaming - Is the power strip fuse damaged or the new psu power cord ?

As of now i have stopped playing games, just using the pc to do some programming and watching youtube. There is no noise in this case. - Will this cause any problems to my PC components (like psu chord, psu)

Electronics Wizardy · April 4, 2020

Those ratings are the max, and since you have a 600w psu, you won't use those 6a anyways, so ti will be fine.

jj9987 · April 4, 2020

600W PSU, let's say 650W max.

At 110V, that's about 6A, at 230V below 3A. So no, your PSU definitely did not draw 10A.

If a power strip makes noise, I wouldn't risk using it with a PC tbh. Is not normal behaviour.

mariushm · April 4, 2020

That is the maximum rating of the cable and the insulation ... higher value means that the cable will be warmer and that it's possible for the connectors to go bad over time.

Your power supply only takes as much power as needed, so if your computer components consume 100 watts, then the power supply will only take around 110-130 watts from the mains.

If you're in a 110v AC country, that means around 0.8A of current.... 110v AC = ~ 150v DC ... so 130w / 150v = ~0.85A

I doubt your computer actually consumes 600 watts, because the most power hungry video card will only reach 300 watts. A processor averages around 60-100 watts and the rest of a typical system doesn't consume more than 50w.

If you have a single video card, most likely your computer doesn't consume more than 300-400 watts when gaming, which is an average of around 3-4 A of current.

Buzzing can be caused by loose connectors (if the metal strips or blades or whatever inside the plastic of the strip are too loose and don't grab tightly on the power cable of your computer...

Same can be said about the actual IEC connector in the back of your psu...

I wouldn't worry too much about it... as a "paranoid" safety measure move the power strip and cable on the floor and not on some carpet or stuff that could get hot or burn, and from time to time look at the power strip and make sure the plastic doesn't melt or something like that.

April 4, 2020

1 hour ago, Dandapani108 said:

Recently my power cord exploded as i was using a 600Watt psu that was drawing 10A from a 6A power strip.

I have replaced the psu power cord with a new 10A rated one, but I'm still using the same 6A power strip (due to lockdown, i am not able to find one currently).

I have noticed during gaming the power strip makes a buzzing noise after a few minutes of gaming - Is the power strip fuse damaged or the new psu power cord ?

As of now i have stopped playing games, just using the pc to do some programming and watching youtube. There is no noise in this case. - Will this cause any problems to my PC components (like psu chord, psu)

You did not "blow up" your power cord because you were drawing 10A. Even if you were using 600W, 10A power draw would mean your mains voltage is only 60V. It was because your power cord was fake.

As others have said: The ratings are max ratings. A PC only uses whatever power it needs.