Hacker News new | ask | show | jobs
by Workaccount2 491 days ago
I work in power electronics and there are ample connectors that can handle any type of power requirement.

What is happening in the computer space is that everyone is clinging to an old style of doing things, likely because it is free and open, and suggestions to move to new connectors get saddled with proprietary licensing fees.

D-sub power connectors have been around forever (they even look like the '90s still) and would easily be able to power even future monster GPUs. They screw in for a strong connection too, but no reason you couldn't make ones that snap in too.[1]

[1]https://i.ebayimg.com/thumbs/images/g/A0MAAOSwYGFUvkFg/s-l50...
2 comments
unshavedyak 491 days ago
Man would i prefer screw in. I hate snap. All of those things in motherboards that require serious force and if you don't know what you're doing it's quite easy to not realize the reason something isn't going in is because of a block/issue, rather than not enough force. So the user adds more force and bam, something breaks.

Then of course there's just so much force in general it's easy for a finger/hand to slip and bump/hurt something else, etcetc.

I tend not to enjoy PC building because of that. Screws on everything would be so nice imo. Doubly so if we could increase the damn motherboard size to support these insane GPU sizes lol.

link
rasz 491 days ago
You are proposing connector with exposed live 12V pins.
link
RavSS 491 days ago
Would it be any less safe than a Molex connector? They sometimes still come with brand new PSUs for compatibility. They have 12 volt pins too (yellow wire) if I remember correctly that can be very loose. Back when they were more standard, I'd seen sparks go off after they touched a case's chassis, as a cable to the PSU could have multiple unused/unplugged Molex connectors on it just hanging somewhere. The older PSUs I've used never came with full covers for them, so wrapping them in electrical tape was the "fix".
link
xg15 491 days ago
Not a hardware guy, but I wonder if that's a factor in connector choice. Basically, if a significant fraction of PC building is done by teens or young adults building their gaming rig in their living room, with neither formal training nor oversight, do designers have to make sure this is "teenage proof"?
link
Workaccount2 491 days ago
The GPU and PSU would have female ports and the cable would be male.

12V isn't dangerous to humans, but it could spark quite a bit if it hit the computer chassis.

link
aaronmdjones 491 days ago
On the contrary, a system like this would most certainly be designed such that the PSU outlet is female, the GPU inlet is male, and you'd use a male to female power cable. This way, a cable plugged only into a device leaves exposed but dead pins on the other end, and a cable plugged only into a PSU leaves non-exposed pins on the other end.

Just like UPSes have C13 outlets, ATX PSUs have C14 inlets, and you plug a desktop PC into a UPS with a C14 to C13 cable.

link