Bitcoin Forum

Anyone still use molex to connect GPU for mining? I've use this for months with no issue my cards are still running and the cables don't get hot either so why is many saying molex is bad generally for crypto mining.

SO you powering your 3090 with molex?

Most say dont use SATA.

Molex is generally fine for riser.  You start powering bigger cards with molex to 6/8pin pcie you will find the thermal limits of your molex connector.

Molex is perfectly fine, usually the pins are much more durable than SATA and almost never did I have an issue where they melted. The issue with molex is that you don’t have much to work with with most PSU. There are usually much more SATA than Molex connectors.

 
If you run out of molex just get those risers with a PCEi connection and use that instead. That will never have issues with melting since the current is way more than enough to handle.

I never have enough PCIe cables so yes I still use Molex. I have a couple of Molex risers and
also adapters to convert 2x Molex to 6 pin PCIe. I only use one riser per Molex cable and never use
it for an 8 pin connection.

The issue with SATA is the connector is only rated for 54W but the PCIe spec allows 75W to be pulled
from the slot. SATA is safe for some cards if you know it draws less than 54W from the PCIe bus.
It's not really the total power that makes the difference but how much of the power is supplied by
the supplimental power cables.

I currently use a SATA cable for a 1070 because it has 2x8 pin connections. I also have a 1080ti with 6+8
and there's no way I'd use a SATA powered riser for it.

I use molex and SATA depending on the GPU i want to power, most power supplies have limited pcie 6pin cables so molex and SATA are good option too, I use SATA for small GPU that use less than 80watt power and use molex for 120watt to 300watt GPU.

The question is who doesn't? Molex is fine for graphic cards only SATA cable is wrong as they melt easily so one have to make sure they use SATA for small cards that doesn't require high watts.

Use 6pin cables to power cards like Vega 56, RTX3070s 3080 and 3090, using molex for high end cards will limit your GPU power but SATA is good for cards like gtx1650, 1660s and 1660super, I use these with my low end GPUs and it works since 2018 with zero issue.

One of the newest motherboards that is also without risers but with 6 Pciex16 slots has another four molex slots in that motherboard and the manufacturer suggest to plug in four molex cables to these slots so you can give extra stability to the cards beside the cards getting their Pcie 6-8 pin connectors.I have this motherboard and the suggestion from the manufacturer is correct so far as I don't have the slightest problems and it is almost 2 weeks running now.

So yes I and many others still use molex,I did since 2016 when I started mining and I have PSU-s with a lot of such connectors fortunately.

https://www.gpuminingresources.com/p/psu-cables.html
I use molex for graphics cards like the GTX 1070 and similar. For the GTX 1080 I'm already using a 6 pin raiser. When using a molex riser on hot RTX 3080 and RTX 3090 graphics cards, you run the risk of damaging very expensive graphics cards.

it is fine as long as you are using 1 molex cable to 1 riser. if you use 1 cable molex to 2 or 3 risers then you will start see party.

The power supply has 3 cables with 3-4 molex connectors and 3 cables with sata connectors. I connect 2 raisers to 1 cable, this is 150 watts of load. This is normal for RX 480/580 or GTX 1060/1070 and similar graphics cards. Cables must be of high quality, for example, from Gold Corsair or Cougar power supplies.

for sata/molex connector powering only one riser for low power GPU, like a 570/580. if connect more than one riser will be burn cable or connector(no matter what quality of PSU/Gold or Platin). Modular PSU not good for this job. tried with cooler master 1200w platin series too. For high power GPU's connecting direct 6 pin pci-e cable from PSU.

I have more than 5 years 2 raisers connected to 1 branch of the power supply. The raiser does not draw more than 75 watts. The only problem is the poor quality adapters that come with the raisers. I do not use them, but connect the power supply directly to the raiser.

I agree with you, but we can't  find everytime good quality components or cables.

As per my research Molex cable is safer to use for mining than using SATA cable and SATA is safer to use with low-end cards like 1660,1660s, 1660Ti and 6600 cards, also use one SATA cable to power only one GPU at a time.

You can not use low-quality power supplies, because these are big risks for video cards that will work for years without interruption. The problem of a video card with a cheap and poor cooling system can be solved, but the problem of a low-quality power supply can only be solved by replacing it.