Chaining 5 powered risers into one port on PSU?

[MZD]

I have two RAIDMAX RX-735AP 735W PSUs powering my rig but they don't have any native molex connectors. Instead they have this adapter cable with a couple of female molex connectors attached to it. Can I plug all 5 of my powered risers into this one cable without it over loading the port on the power supply. I figure I can because it will only be 250 watts and it won't max out the PSUs total power.

Am I missing anything? I don't want to fry 2k worth of equipment....again.

[Jamoke]

The riser cables have a molex adapter so that they don't draw power from the motherboard, but instead draw power from the PSU directly.  I don't know where you are getting the 250 watts number from, but you need to figure out how much power is provided on the "one cable" you've indicated.  Each PSU provides a different configuration for the Molex cable.  There is a big difference in the load you can put on a 5v rail vs a 12v rail.  It's not about maxing out the total PSU power, but maxing out each individual rail within the PSU.  Best solution is to research more about your PSU

PSU specifications:
http://raidmax.com/psu/rx_735ap.html

Looking at the above link, I think you would be fine to plug all the Molex adapters into the 12v rail (636W), but only if you plugged all of your video cards into a separate power supply.  But I think your question was about using the default Molex cable, which is on the 5v rail, and only has capacity for 100w.   So, don't do that...

Also:
http://www.tomshardware.com/answers/id-1812934/735w-raidmax-735ap-modular.html

[Gazza1]

You need at least two 12v (yellow) lines to run 5 powered risers for those cards.  Do not use the adapter if there is only a single yellow line running back to the psu, the wire will get extremely hot and eventually cause damage.  3 12v lines is better.  Each line must have it's own metal pin going into the psu.

Not an adapter with twin molex as that is still only one 12v line running back to the psu.

Just use two of those cables you are talking about and you will be good to go.

[MoneyMorpheus]

How many 16x pci-e slots does your motherboard have? you only need to power the non 16x pci-e slots. Taking that out each card can draw up to 70w from the pci-e slot and the mobo can supply up to 355w threw the atx connector to the whole machine.

[MZD]

The riser cables have a molex adapter so that they don't draw power from the motherboard, but instead draw power from the PSU directly.  I don't know where you are getting the 250 watts number from, but you need to figure out how much power is provided on the "one cable" you've indicated.  Each PSU provides a different configuration for the Molex cable.  There is a big difference in the load you can put on a 5v rail vs a 12v rail.  It's not about maxing out the total PSU power, but maxing out each individual rail within the PSU.  Best solution is to research more about your PSU

PSU specifications:
http://raidmax.com/psu/rx_735ap.html

Looking at the above link, I think you would be fine to plug all the Molex adapters into the 12v rail (636W), but only if you plugged all of your video cards into a separate power supply.  But I think your question was about using the default Molex cable, which is on the 5v rail, and only has capacity for 100w.   So, don't do that...

Also:
http://www.tomshardware.com/answers/id-1812934/735w-raidmax-735ap-modular.html

Crap! Literally. So the cable they gave me only has one yellow line going into the PSU which automatically means 5v rail?! Is that 100 watts total or just per connection? Can I just use two cables so I can put it on two separate sockets of the PSU?

[Gazza1]

The yellows are 12v, the red are 5v.  The reason 1 yellow cable isn't enough is the power load is too much for a single wire, it will get very hot and eventually cause something to burn out.

Yes you can just use two cables that go into 2 slots on the psu.

[MZD]

Thanks to everyone here for their help!



1. Ground 2. Ground. 3. Red. 4. Yellow.


So yeah looks like I'll need two cables.

Maybe I'm just being brain-dead....but I'm having trouble finding a pcie connector with that exact pinout...

Most look like this: