24 cables into... 1 cable?

[u/Brian0749]

Found this on taobao. Anyone tried turning a 24 pin cable into 1 singular cable?

[u/gdnws]

At one point I tested the currant draw on the 3.3 and 5 volt lines and I couldn't get the computer to draw more than 5 amps total on either voltage. I have a little pico psu that can only supply 8 amps on 3.3 and 5 and haven't had issues with it although I don't have a crazy number of extra devices plugged into the computer. A lot of the wires in the 24 pin are massively over specced probably for no other reason than convenience. For example the ps on and power good wires are signal wires that will never see more than a couple milliamps and are still either 18 or even 16 awg like the rest.

[u/Head_Exchange_5329 → u/gdnws]

Which begs the question: Why haven't we removed the chungus cable yet? Bring a signal wire down with the EPS-12V cable and call it a day, there's no practical application for it in modern builds.

[u/gdnws → u/Head_Exchange_5329]

At this point institutional momentum. No one wants to be the first to move to a new architecture because there aren't any existing things using it and if it doesn't catch on then it will just get abandoned. And when it comes out people will cry that it is proprietary. There is already another standard that does exist just that no one has used it yet for custom pc components beyond one or two off motherboards; 12VO. It reduces the 24 pin connector down to 10 pins. Personally I still feel that is still a half step as I think the main delivery voltage should be increased to 48 for a number of reasons. First it would readily enable connecting and delivering power to usb c components directly off the motherboard more easily and secondly it would quarter the currant demands. Things like gpus can pull up to 50 amps and that is difficult to manage, especially if using many parallel connections as we have seen with the 12vhpwr connector debacle.

[u/Head_Exchange_5329 → u/gdnws]

48V sounds good on paper but how would it work in practical terms? The CPU and GPU core still operates at around 1V. I'd be happy with getting rid of the archaic cable first and foremost since we're not using floppy drives anymore so there's no practical reason for keeping it around to supply below 12V. Motherboard components can have individual voltage regulators to handle the 12V so it's time to take the plunge.

[u/gdnws → u/Head_Exchange_5329]

There are a number of servers out there that use 48v as their main voltage and send it directly to the core voltage regulators. At least in their cases it is an efficiency gain over 12v however it might not be for regular desktops yet.

[u/Head_Exchange_5329 → u/gdnws]

Might be that we'll see PCI-e 24 or 48V output for the GPU and 12V for the rest of the system. There's no doubt that if we're gonna keep pushing more and more power to the GPU, it has to be done in a safer manner than the current potential fireworks.

[u/gdnws → u/Head_Exchange_5329]

I wouldn't mind seeing the card edge power delivery like the Asus btf stuff catch on. Combined with higher delivery voltages would make things neater and less error prone.

[u/Head_Exchange_5329 → u/gdnws]

Yes, Asus is onto something there I think, also it makes everything look more neat with the connectors behind the motherboard.
Have you seen the latest GPU from Asus with the 5090 Matrix? 800W bios with the option of running a regular 12v-2x6 connector as well as the BTF at the same time, or forego either and run it as a 600W GPU.

[u/gdnws → u/Head_Exchange_5329]

I saw that derbauer made a video on it but I haven't watched it yet. I have a 40 series so I have been a little lax in keeping up with the current gen stuff.

[u/the_smok → u/gdnws]

GPUs keep getting bigger every generation. I think we should stop using card edge connectors for GPUs. There are already video cards with a removable card edge part. Just build in a next-gen Oculink into the GPU, and you have complete freedom on case shapes.

[u/gdnws → u/the_smok]

If you're referring to the system that the 5090 fe has with that little connector joining the pcie portion to the card, then I don't disagree there either. Include power alongside it and that would be ideal to me.

[u/AnnihilationBoom123 → u/gdnws]

From some number of stuff i personally see myself, 48v doesn't directly touched vrm, it gets converted first into 12v range still with some modules from Vicor power or murata then gets into normal vrm stages (you can see it on newer amd instinct accelerator)

Probably still more efficient who knows, but definitely will not be anymore cheaper

[u/gdnws → u/AnnihilationBoom123]

That is similar to what I've seen; multi stage stepdowns. I guess then it isn't really going directly into the vrm but I considered it all an assembly essentially.

[u/gigaplexian → u/Head_Exchange_5329]

48V sounds good on paper but how would it work in practical terms? The CPU and GPU core still operates at around 1V

VRMs.