x16-x16 riser cable NOT to by

[drknark]

I bought some cables from http://www.b2c-support.com/pcie-pciexpress-16x-riser-card-extender-ribbon-cable-p-4154.html.

The first two out of the five I tried refused to recognize the card. The third one however, is when it gets really interesting.. I plugged it in, standard procedure. Made sure there was no possibility of shortcircuiting the exposed (why exposed?) contact points.

So I'm all set up and ready to go. I flip the PSU into on, and hit the power button. First I noticed some really thin smoke, it was barely visible. Then the smell of burning plastic and suddenly a lot more smoke. This is what I pulled out:

http://i1081.photobucket.com/albums/j349/drknark/IMG_0517.jpg

Luckily all my hardware survived. Since their support ignored me I had to issue a paypal dispute to get my money back. So don't buy cables from that site I would even be wary of similar looking cables at other sites, might be the same manufacturer.

[SlaveInDebt]

Single ribbon, most use dual.

[crazybernie]

*blinks*  one.... two....
*blinks*  one.... two....
*blinks*
*blinks*  Huh?


*** Edit ***

Aha!   I get it now! 0_o

[Jack of Diamonds]

Buy from Cablesaurus, these work 100% fine even in 24/7 use, and I bought a version with a Molex power feeder injected in the ribbon = even less risk of something like that.

BTW, my 4th card wasn't detected either when using the riser from CS, until I plugged in the extra power cable.

[drknark]

Yeah, I tried one from cablesaurus after this incident. It works fine, so I have ordered a bunch of them now

[SgtSpike]

Yikes!   

I bought mine (just a single one) from that cryptoanarchy store, and it works great.  Also bought some resistors from them... good experience all around though!

[zerokwel]

Lucky escape. Could of killed hardware

For me if I ever need anything I will use cablesaurus Its worth the extra not to fry my hardware.

[airdata]

i got 4 $5 16-16's recently and couldn't get my cards to show up.

Got 3 other x1-x16's today and cards showed up right away.
All cables I've gotten from cablesaurus have worked fine.

[hugolp]

Another satisfied cablesaurus costumer here. And you can pay with bitcoins.

[MaGNeT]

When I look at the picture I think one of the connectors wasn't aligned correctly.
And when you look at the upper left connector it even looks like 2 pins are bent because there isn't a hole where they fit in.

[teflone]

When I look at the picture I think one of the connectors wasn't aligned correctly.
And when you look at the upper left connector it even looks like 2 pins are bended because there isn't a hole where they fit in.

I also think you messed this one up yourself, there are multiple loops in a slot..  looks like you shorted out your pwr supply +v

[chungenhung]

same thing happened to one of my cables.

[drknark]

I also think you messed this one up yourself, there are multiple loops in a slot..  looks like you shorted out your pwr supply +v

Messed it up how? I'm confused. The connectors on each side were already mounted when I got the cable. The pci-e connectors seemed to fit tightly in the slot / on the card, I don't see how I could have gotten that wrong.

[malevolent]

What GPU(s) and PSU(s) were you using?

[erek]

what is the point of these riser cables? like why do you guys want to use them??

[malevolent]

Better airflow.
Without them, in many motherboards no more than 2-3 cards would fit.

[Jack of Diamonds]

what is the point of these riser cables? like why do you guys want to use them??

Motherboards usually have horribly placed PCI-e slots. Maybe to discourage the use of tons of GPU's.

With risers, you can actually utilize all 8 PCI-e slots on a board like MSI BB Marshall.
Which would be impossible normally, because a single card (even a 5770) takes 2 slots on the board.

No comment on whether it's safe to draw 8x75 (600W) from the board 24/7.

[drknark]

What GPU(s) and PSU(s) were you using?

The test was done (one cable at a time) with a Corsair HX750 and a 5750. Using other cards where the cables were supposed to go finally of course.

[Inaba]

No comment on whether it's safe to draw 8x75 (600W) from the board 24/7.

It's not.  You'll fry all sorts of good stuff.

[hennessy]

Are those some old recycled IDE cables???