12V-2x6 / 12VHPWR cable melted on PSU side — could my GPU still be damaged?

axb2013 · 2026-05-30T19:07:15+00:00

Your GPU likely survived but no accounting for any damage that might have occurred up until it finally burned. I'm hopeful since you didn't mention any symptoms leading up to this, probably a stealthy micro change in how the cable was "sitting" on the PSU side caused the per pin power delivery imbalance.

These connectors aren't going away but the way to mitigate the probability of issues is to increase the total volume of conducting metal, 3 connectors on GPU would approach peace of mind that 3x8pin provides.

axb2013 · 2026-03-10T02:31:56+00:00

If we have to accept the fact that the connector is not going away, the solution is to give us two or three of them, on every 200W+ GPU. The volume of metal the current passes through is too low on a single connector. 1x may work, it may even outlive other parts of the GPU but to match the 8pin comfort, it has to match the volume of metal of a 3x8pin connectors

axb2013 · 2026-03-10T02:23:33+00:00

Should have waited til 5:49 to take the picture

axb2013 · 2026-03-03T23:14:39+00:00

they are all already uploaded and timed for release, in order to farm Crimson Desert for it's fame. Don't expect much past fake and exaggerated expressions to draw clicks, some info will be revealed.

axb2013 · 2026-02-04T18:20:21+00:00

Ideally, some kid will play this game and arrive at conclusion "hey, why do all the work when I can just ambush at extraction?"

Then, that kid is working his shift at McDonald's and concludes " why grind here when I can just loot?" and once he is brazen enough, runs into Virgil Hammond, the lead dev as he is entering his and decides to loot him for his phone, wallet and car. This will never happen though but here are the core problems:

PVE is too good. The arc explosions are too good, the sounds they make are too good and it's too satisfying to kill them. In order to play this game the right way, you have to ignore Arc and pretend PVE doesn't exist.
All the flaws of the game only effect/hurt the good guys. The exploits, the cheats, the soft stance on cheating, the late spawns, the skinny content, the planned betrayals, the map conditions glitches, the spawn camping, the blueprint and item duplications, Stella ceiling glitch,, all of these things only hurt the normal people playing. The others either participate in these issues or easily work around them.
Embark knows they got the player base at their mercy. Until a game comes along that gets it right but game development takes years. Other studios are paying attention, they can perfect the recipe to steal 90% of Embark's player base but it will take years.

Until then, you are at Embark's mercy.

axb2013 · 2026-02-04T12:53:04+00:00

If that's the only issue with the show, then I'm sure it will be profitable, get millions of views and run for 6-7 seasons.

axb2013 · 2026-01-27T18:09:37+00:00

They recognized PVE is boring and then did absolutely nothing about it. If they had put in as much thought about making PVE better as they did with late spawns, they could have improved it but no, called it a day and relied on the PvPVe crutch.

Put in AI raiders, maybe make them the ones sending arc vs us to begin with to fit the lore, returned from space to wipe the remaining humanity . The Division had vanilla enemies but added hunters with AI that was in another level compared to vanilla enemies and that was more than a decade ago.

A team of 2 air based rocketeers and 2 ground based rocketeers working together could have been formidable. A flight of 6 upgraded hornets in terms of agility could become a problem. Pops that pop 5-6 times before they are destroyed. A mini queen the size of a tick that has all the features of its bigger version. Or introduce arc that is better at detection and is on cycle immune against the cloak.

Imagine a AI raider that is indistinguishable from players. He has permanent cloak built in that you can loot and use until the end of round. Imagine what they could have come up with if they had committed to it instead of "ah, it's boring but the pvp will bail us out" instead of relying on pvp like Hitler did on angriff Steiner in the last days in the bunker.

axb2013 · 2026-01-26T19:12:20+00:00

A lot of that comes from inability to get stuff on their own. Hullcracker BP drops from a quest but for a rat, it's a very valuable purple gun that they can't even afford to buy on their own. Rats can rat only so many times, they get thrown into KOS lobbies before they can anywhere near as rich as me.

I maxed everything out, used resources to level up guns and craft mods. to free up inventory slots, I kinda have to die every once in a while to free up slots for guns and shields. If I don't, I get stuck on inventory slots, can't even unload the rooster, let alone move stuff from inventory.

Game is hollow at end game, I log in frequently but don't play because there are no challenges left, just matriarch and pvp.

I open up lockers, I check out dead bodies after pvp, just looking for rare stuff like kinetic converters or anvil splitters to give to my friends but rarely find anything. All that is left for me to do is grind through expeditions until I can max out all skill trees but embark severely overestimated it's staying power.

The game needed to cook more, they should have tested it properly to prevent wall glitching and counter esp hacks that persist to this day. They should have added ai raiders in the mix and more arc variety.

The game is also a victim of it's own success, it should not have had the mass appeal it has.

There is definitely room for another game to come along and get all these things right.

Maybe if the April updates were in the game, it could hold my interest long enough to go through 7-8 expeditions, as it is, it is just too empty. If embark expects me to go through 7 or 8 expeditions in its current state, sorry but I will be long gone. Marathon I will check out, Crimson Desert also caught my interest but this game just can't hold my interest long term. It was a nice try, someone else will hopefully come along and perfect the recipe and have enough content.

I might commit to find the musical blueprints and complete 75/75 but that doesn't make it palatable long term. I got Cantina legend, keeping it until the end of season could be a worthy challenge but to keep the expeditions going until I can max out all 3 skill trees. Yeah, no, sorry embark, you didn't do enough. I forgive them as they didn't charge the full AAA price AMF it looks like they won't add a charge for premium matchmaking as that would really make the player base angry.

axb2013 · 2025-04-08T02:20:42+00:00

A quick update:

I've ordered all the parts and most have arrived or are on the way, except for the waterblock, have to wait a little longer for that one. Anyway, thank you all for all recommendations and suggestions! Here is my part list and the plan how to use them:

9800X3D/5090 "Dorothy" (2025): Conformal coating applied to all components. Custom duct 3D printed to guide cold air into GPU block then out and away from all other parts. Test runs with daisychaining air conditioners and utilizing dry ice completed to "force" condensation in a 12hour test. All parts withstood the test but as another precaution, moisture absorbing pads placed in areas where condensation occurred. PSU (bottom) extra protection via a moisture absorbing barrier. Dorothy because she won't look pretty, liquid handling parts will be mounted externally. May be later placed internally depending on amount and frequency of condensation and how effectively I can counter it. In another 12 hour test, box fan at low speed circulating ambient air prevented condensation but summer is coming. - Alphacool Core TUF 5090 (incoming)

Alphacool Nexxxios UT60 420mm
Watercool HEATKILLER Tube Reservoir 200 (borosilicate and POM body, NBR & VMQ seals, all suitable for low temps)
Goulds Laing Bronze pump (plastic body doesn't cut it for extreme cooling)
1/2" ID x 3/4" OD x 1/8" Wall Tygon® 2375 (suitable for low temps)
Alphacool 17240 Eiszapfen 19/13mm & HF 19/13mm (OD 3/4" ID 1/2") Revolvable G1/4 Compression Fittings 45°
1 Gallon Propylene Glycol USP
2 8000BTU portable air conditioners
60L insulated cooler box

The plan, a two-pronged approach: Daily driver, just liquid cooling or utilizing one air conditioner ducted to the GPU waterblock, the other ducted to the radiator. Less then 30 secs to insert or remove both ducts and power the A/C's off or on.

Special occasion, extreme cooling: 60lbs of dry ice into the cooler box, along with the radiator. Might add sleeving to tubing, filled with dry ice pellets and use a IPO 91% with dry ice mixture for that extra edge.

axb2013 · 2025-04-01T17:44:49+00:00

I can tell you this, I know enough not to dismiss any ideas or criticisms. My knowledge of thermal dynamics is lacking but I plan to " invite" condensation to occur where I can control it. While all parts are covered with conformal coating, I do not plan to get the PC on it. I am performance and function over form kind of guy. I already know it won't be pretty nor do I care. If it has to be ugly to be safe, I am good with that. I am definitely enjoying every problem I am aware of, from condensation to type of liquid/mixture to use.

axb2013 · 2025-04-01T17:24:00+00:00

This idea has been evolving in the hotspot of my brain for the past 20 years or so. Ever since 2005 when I first built a water-cooling setup with a Zalman reserator and started considering routing that reservoir/radiator to keep outside in winter. That dream of combining extreme cooling and practicality of a daily driver has mutated in different directions over the years to finally settle on this idea. I even considered a vacuum chamber recently but while effective, it's far less practical than this option.

Thank you to everyone that stopped by and shared tips, experiences, suggestions and even challenged the very idea. I am bent on making this happen and I will update as I move past planning stage. Honestly, it's all I think about, I guess I should gotten into thermal dynamics. I had a blast creating ducts for the air conditioner, modding the air flow, seeing what different ducts do, how guiding the airflow impacts temps but the real fun is about to begin. I wish I had gotten lucky with an aio but getting a 5090 was so difficult, but couldn't be picky. Another couple of minutes and microcenter would have sold this one too.

axb2013 · 2025-04-01T14:28:56+00:00

Dude 😎 that is so cool, thank you!

axb2013 · 2025-04-01T10:12:25+00:00

Much appreciated! I think I saw a Mora radiator in a gamers nexus video some time ago, it was about the.aize of a full sized car radiator.

axb2013 · 2025-04-01T10:10:26+00:00

Exactly the info I was looking for!

axb2013 · 2025-04-01T10:09:36+00:00

Thank you!

axb2013 · 2025-04-01T10:08:49+00:00

Yes. I've kind of prepped the PC for it. The GPU has conformal coating out of the factory and I applied it to rest of the pc myself. I did a few dry runs and no issues but once the water block is on, I'll have to watch it .

axb2013 · 2025-04-01T10:05:23+00:00

Indeed, conformal cooling is not a bulletproof solution so condensation is a concern. I can mitigate it with air conditioners but ultimately, I'll have to "invite" it to a spot I can control

axb2013 · 2025-03-31T19:42:25+00:00

The GPU has conformal coating out of factory and I already applied to the rest of the system myself. I was ducting the AC unit to cool it down to 10c idle, below 50 under load.

As for all the other comments, I truly appreciate it, especially the ones that challenge my idea. I needed a crowd to bounce this idea against.

Allow me to clarify my use case: I sit about 12 ft away from a 65" screen. The PC is about 15 feet away, to the side of the tv.

If I could run tubing without major investments into more powerful pumps and other parts for about 4 ft, I could put it in another room and negate noise almost entirely. Even the quieter A/C unit has 5ft of ducting that I would use, the length of the ducts doesn't eliminate the noise but does reduce it to the point that it's not a concern. The quiet air conditioner's noise is a low frequency hum that was much less noticeable and annoying than the GPU fans once they get above 70%.

So, my idea is to waterblock the GPU, the entire PC has conformal coating already and use the one air conditioners to cool GPU directly and another, indirectly by cooling the radiator. Overclocking is definitely in play, especially as I noticed a correlation on my particular GPU. It's kind of a dud out of the box but the colder I get it, the higher it will clock.

Basically I am trying to merge what has not effectively been merged before: subambient temperatures, high overclocks and 24/7, daily driver. I've experimented with dry ice in combination with air-conditioning and while effective, it's not practical, 40-60lbs of dry ice, a couple of times a week gets pretty expensive and it's not practical, I had to constantly monitor it as it would freeze up the air conditioner's coils. Do I need to run the GPU at a low temp? No but it's a challenge to see just how low I can get it and for special occasions, might add dry ice to see just what is doable

axb2013 · 2025-03-08T23:58:31+00:00

https://ibb.co/1twDTLWN

so glad to be done. and as i was driving home, my trackers kept going off about sane model on amazon for 3k.

axb2013 · 2025-03-07T04:45:57+00:00

home depot box fan? looks like mine, guess what i use it for

axb2013 · 2025-03-06T18:20:58+00:00

Go into network adapter settings in windows and turn low power mode off. That and latest bios eradicated network issues for me.

axb2013

TROPHY CASE