Are all power cables the same?

[NEO_STARK]

This might sound like a dumb question but are power supply cables the same? 

Let me explain, So today I heard my cpu power cable spark and immediately shut everything down, one end of the pin was melted, maybe the cable end was loose (My pc is alright). This cable was rated at 9amp 240V

 

So now I have 3 power cables one that came with my power supply but won't work idk the reason. Maybe cause it has European standards and is rated at 13amp 250v I really don't know ( it has some sort of fuse built into it)

 

The other cable is the one that came with my monitor which is rated at 10amp 240v and works perfectly fine for my monitor.

 

The last one is from my previous power supply which is rated at 9amp 240v.

 

So I was wondering If I could switch my monitors cable as my cpus power cable and use my old psu's cable for my monitor. Or is this an horrible idea?

 

 

[Jurrunio]

Higher amps means a thicker cable which is fine and the fuse only blows when current draw goes out of hand. Voltage doesnt have much affect on these things, I think it's at most an indication of how resistant the insulation layer around the wire is. the 13A 250V cable should be fine as long as it fits into the wall outlet without needing an adapter (otherwise the adapter needs a check as well)

[NEO_STARK]

1 minute ago, Jurrunio said:

Higher amps means a thicker cable which is fine and the fuse only blows when current draw goes out of hand. Voltage doesnt have much affect on these things, I think it's at most an indication of how resistant the insulation layer around the wire is. the 13A 250V cable should be fine as long as it fits into the wall outlet without needing an adapter (otherwise the adapter needs a check as well)

The 13amp cable doesn't work though and yes I use an adapter for it which is rated as 13&6A 240V

[Jurrunio]

3 minutes ago, NEO_STARK said:

13&6A

?

[NEO_STARK]

2 minutes ago, Jurrunio said:

?

It's written on the adapter "13&6A" idk if they meant 6A to 13A or something like that.

[Jurrunio]

3 minutes ago, NEO_STARK said:

It's written on the adapter "13&6A" idk if they meant 6A to 13A or something like that.

then I dont know if it's any good.

 

9amp 240v from the previous PSU should still be ok though, dont expect your PSU to draw anywhere remotely close to 2000w.

[mariushm]

The CPU  (EPS) connector has 4 pairs of wires :  (  +12v and ground wire ) x 4

 

Let's say your CPU consumes 200 watts... that's 200 watts / 12v = 16.6 A of current. 

These 200 watts will be sent through those 4 pairs of wires so the current is evenly spread across all pairs, so each pair of wires will carry around 16.6 A / 4 = 4.1A of current.

 

The connector standard used ( Molex Mini-Fit Jr) defines the maximum current through each pin to 9A of current, but the people that defined the ATX / EPS standard restricted the connectors to 7A per pin for extra safety.  There's a variation of the connectors which are rated for up to 13A of current per pin.

 

So even if your CPU uses 200 watts (which is a lot), Ryzen 16 core gets close to this when overclocked, it's still just barely at HALF the rating of the connectors.

 

The wire themselves (AWG 18 or AWG16) are rated for at least around 10-13A so those are also safe. 

 

Most likely the pin inside the plug was a bit loose, or there was something causing some resistance between the connector on motherboard and that pin, causing it to spark or overheat.

 

edit:

 

People above keep talking about mains power cables but you say cpu cable.

 

As for mains power cables... they're rarely a problem, but some are looser than others at the connector end, so if the connection isn't tight, there can be problems.

 

Unless your computer consumes more than 600-800 watts, any power cable should work fine.

Even cheap mains power cables should be rated for at least 10A , which at 110v AC is good for a computer consuming up to 500-800 watts , with some room to spare  ...  800w/110v = 7A + 3A reserves for fluctuations and bursts.

 

 

[NEO_STARK]

8 minutes ago, Jurrunio said:

then I dont know if it's any good.

 

9amp 240v from the previous PSU should still be ok though, dont expect your PSU to draw anywhere remotely close to 2000w.

Nah it's a 650W 80+ thanks for your help

[NEO_STARK]

7 minutes ago, mariushm said:

The CPU  (EPS) connector has 4 pairs of wires :  (  +12v and ground wire ) x 4

 

Let's say your CPU consumes 200 watts... that's 200 watts / 12v = 16.6 A of current. 

These 200 watts will be sent through those 4 pairs of wires so the current is evenly spread across all pairs, so each pair of wires will carry around 16.6 A / 4 = 4.1A of current.

 

The connector standard used ( Molex Mini-Fit Jr) defines the maximum current through each pin to 9A of current, but the people that defined the ATX / EPS standard restricted the connectors to 7A per pin for extra safety.  There's a variation of the connectors which are rated for up to 13A of current per pin.

 

So even if your CPU uses 200 watts (which is a lot), Ryzen 16 core gets close to this when overclocked, it's still just barely at HALF the rating of the connectors.

 

The wire themselves (AWG 18 or AWG16) are rated for at least around 10-13A so those are also safe. 

 

Most likely the pin inside the plug was a bit loose, or there was something causing some resistance between the connector on motherboard and that pin, causing it to spark or overheat.

 

edit:

 

People above keep talking about mains power cables but you say cpu cable.

 

As for mains power cables... they're rarely a problem, but some are looser than others at the connector end, so if the connection isn't tight, there can be problems.

 

Unless your computer consumes more than 600-800 watts, any power cable should work fine.

Even cheap mains power cables should be rated for at least 10A , which at 110v AC is good for a computer consuming up to 500-800 watts , with some room to spare  ...  800w/110v = 7A + 3A reserves for fluctuations and bursts.

 

 

Thanks this will help. Also thanks for your thorough reply really appreciate it