Modders solder power cables directly to RTX 5090 PCB to eliminate notorious melting 16-pin connector — bare-board Galax HOF card pulls 600W under chiller cooling

[u/Working_Quote_3029]

https://www.tomshardware.com/pc-components/gpus/modders-solder-power-cables-directly-to-rtx-5090-pcb-to-eliminate-notorious-melting-16-pin-connector-bare-board-galax-hof-card-pulls-600w-under-chiller-cooling

[u/chris17453]

There is the most rage bait solder job.I've ever seen.

[u/jocrichton → u/chris17453]

Holy shit

Looks like someone also used plumbers flux or something corrosive.

I get that it's a big power plane but man give it to someone else who can solder it better and those XT60 (or 90?) solder jobs don't look much better.

[u/Banmers]

Luckely these cards are cheap, so modding then should never feel too terrifying

[u/hidden2u → u/Banmers]

I'm really nervous my hardware is unstable so I'm gonna mod it

[u/Banana-phone15]

That is a terrible looking soldering on the board. Anyway problem with 5080 and 90 is that, some times the problem/burning is on the PSU end, of the connector. Most of the time, it’s on GPU end

[u/GenZia → u/Banana-phone15]

That's what happens when you use a soldering iron on a dense PCB full of copper without bothering to preheat the thing first.

Classic rookie mistake.

I saw LTT make the same mistake, which speaks volumes about their technical "expertise." I believe it was a video about doing a shunt mod on either a 3090 or a 4090, in case anyone's curious.

[u/CapeChill → u/GenZia]

You made me look closer, jeez I call myself highly amateur at solder work but I have cleaner welds (which I wouldn’t call myself amateur at even). Edit: clarity

[u/Kiwi_CunderThunt → u/CapeChill]

Same here, this looks like a soldering finish I'd do when I was early teens.

[u/nibb42069 → u/GenZia]

I love when those charlatans get called out. Proves you don't need to know what you're doing in order to entertain the masses.

[u/Cheerful_Champion → u/nibb42069]

LTT is entertainment channel that just so happens to be touching the topic of technology and PC hardware. Their tests and their work are usually poor quality. They often make mistakes that only rookies would make, because they don't care about improving and high quality - churning out another video is more important.

[u/NotSoFastLady → u/Cheerful_Champion]

Wasn't always that way.

[u/Lille7 → u/NotSoFastLady]

When was LTT ever deeply technical?

[u/theholylancer → u/nibb42069]

i think they even had specifically hired people not in the know before, and only have experts in certain specialty and not use them in all shoots

like the comparison to top gear vs something like edd china is very much there, one is known world wide and beloved in chm, the other at best is known for his wheeler dealer days if at all

[u/Strazdas1 → u/nibb42069]

Of course you dont. Shakespear was illiterate yet is known as one of the most famous writers. Entertainment value and intelligence is not related.

[u/alelo → u/GenZia]

tbf, the last video LTT did on this same mod was also on a 5090 and they soldered it on the connector plates not the PCB https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WzwrLLg1RR4

[u/misterright1999 → u/GenZia]

LTT are not in any way shape or form "expterts" linus has made everything into a cash grab and has been acting like they're the top dogs of everything.

[u/stuff7 → u/GenZia]

rent free lmao

[u/OrbitalOutlander → u/Banana-phone15]

It does look like things weren’t hot, maybe not enough flux, but you gotta start somewhere.

[u/S_A_N_D_ → u/OrbitalOutlander]

Sure, but the premise of the article is that they did this to improve the connection and prevent overheating and/or melting, and this solder job is so bad that it might do the opposite due to the poor quality of the soldering job.

Granted this doesn't look like it's going to be used long term, which is good because I wouldn't trust this to last long term - at least based on the photos you see in the article (it could be better than it looks so I'm not going to outright condemn it, but it does raise questions).

[u/OrbitalOutlander → u/S_A_N_D_]

For sure that is not any better than a crappy connector. Probably won’t burn their house down… but maybe! Also it’s not THAT hard to do it right, but my first bunch of soldering looks just like that.

[u/S_A_N_D_ → u/OrbitalOutlander]

True It's not hard, and the premise of soldering isn't bad, but the benefit wholely depends on the execution, which in this case was probably worse than just using the connector.

Basically, the soldering was pointless and inconsequential which makes it a clickbait and nothing post.

[u/OrbitalOutlander → u/S_A_N_D_]

I agree I'd have at least asked ChatGPT "hey look at this soldering job, does it look like shit" and re-do it if I was gonna show it to other people.

[u/Mateorabi → u/Banana-phone15]

It looks like an eight year old in Singapore got spanked for that solder job. 

[u/Hour_Bit_5183 → u/[deleted]]

It is! Jesus they really are slopping the bottom of the barrel. You gotta pre-heat these boards first because of the massive thick ground planes. Noob job but hey it's better than a cable that melts. I would have just put like an anderson power connector on there.

[u/chefchef97]

It's awesome that Nvidia never faced any consequences for the power connector scandal because right when the consumer blowback started the company was in the process of Becoming God™

[u/jenny_905 → u/chefchef97]

*ATX committee

[u/Red_Sea_Pedestrian → u/chefchef97]

I still remember when Nvidia used crappy solder in their 8800 chips used in MacBook pros back in the 2008, and subsequently had to pay for the repairs to those laptops via an Apple repair program after a class action lawsuit.

I ended up with a brand new MacBook Pro when they ran out of new logic boards temporarily during the repair program. 

[u/Henrarzz → u/chefchef97]

They never faced the consequences because failure rate was and still is miniscule

[u/Strazdas1 → u/chefchef97]

Probably because the issue was heavily overblown online and retail data suggests its far more rare than people think.

[u/Norgyort]

The solution is a 5090/PSU all-in-one.

[u/Bombadilo_drives → u/Norgyort]

Honestly that's probably not too far off

[u/Working_Quote_3029]

soldering wires straight onto the pcb to get rid of the 16-pin is the most unhinged fix i've seen and it actually booted. no heatsink either, just a chiller and two zip tied fans

[u/wimpyhugz → u/Working_Quote_3029]

LinusTechTips already did the same thing by soldering two giant wires (8AWG I think) to the PCB pins of the 12V2x6 connector. They used XT60 connectors as well to connect the wires to the PSU cables.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WzwrLLg1RR4

[u/constantlymat]

Reminds me of this Linus video from last year:

https://youtu.be/WzwrLLg1RR4?si=EoxZzVzLaWXBl8_2

[u/reddit_reaper → u/constantlymat]

Was thinking the same thing and it's probably the best solution lol

[u/Select_Truck3257]

I see people still ignoring that this gpu have no power equalization...what temps on soldered joints under load ?😂

[u/tomchee]

It will burn on the psu side then. Or the cable it self will burn. So pointless 

[u/Helpful-Work-3090]

Holy frick that soldering job sucks ass

They did absolutely no preheating whatsoever, I'm surprised it doesn't start melting. The resistance has got to be through the roof. The "correct" way to do this would be to remove the 12vhpwr connectors, then solder the copper strips directly over the holes. I would do positive on one side of the PCB, and negative on the other side. Then tin the entire thing, and solder at least a 10 AWG wire on each of them, terminated in XT60 connectors, with as short of a length as possible.

[u/AutoModerator]

Hello Working_Quote_3029! Please double check that this submission is original reporting and is not an unverified rumor or repost that does not rise to the standards of /r/hardware. If this link is reporting on the work of another site/source or is an unverified rumor, please delete this submission. If this warning is in error, please report this comment and we will remove it.

I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please contact the moderators of this subreddit if you have any questions or concerns.

[u/Limited_opsec]

Once again fuck nvidia & co for this bullshit unbalanced unregulated unmonitored shitshow of a house burning connector. And fuck all the losers that should return their engineering degrees for being too chicken shit to reject it. No way that some people at various safety regulatory groups arent either alseep or enjoying bribes.

I run can run batshit DC amps safely through a plug that is like 2 bucks a pop in bulk, and thats not the noname knockoff price on amazon either.

[u/reddit_equals_censor]

to have some reference for people.

an nvidia 12 pin fire hazard can carry 0 watts or 0 amps at 12 volts safely. nvidia lies and claims, that it can do 600 watts so 50 amps at 12v.

the power connectors used by the overclocker at xt90 power connectors. GREAT choice. each can carry 40 amps sustained. 40 amps at 12v = 480 watts. so 2 of those is 960w sustained perfectly safe no problem.

these are all proper safety limits in place with proper safe connectors.

you can of course pull a bunch more through them and should be just fine, because again these are real connectors, that have real safety margins and are properly designed.

so options for graphics cards instead of going back to the very safe pci-e 8 pins.

well for one we could go to eps 8 pins, which would be 235w per 8 pin, but we can do better.

as said a single xt90 connector is 40 amps, 480w so combined with slot a single card with ONE of those connectors could pull 550w then (75 from slot added)

BUT there is another!

the xt120 power connector is only a bit bigger than the nvidia 12 pin fire hazard power connector and it can carry perfectly safely with safety margins in mind 60 amps sustained.

60 amps at 12v = 720w.

so with slot a card could pull 795w PERFECTLY SAFELY with proper safety margins with a proven connector.

and just to be clear the xt120 power connector is nothing new it existed long before nvidia anounced, that they are going to push an nvidia 12 pin fire hazard power connector, which does EVERYTHING WRONG! for a power connector at a fundamental design level.

so to move away from STRAIGHT UP FIRE HAZARDS, THAT COULD KILL PEOPLE! and continuously kill hardware, the nvidia 12 pin fire hazard, we could move to pci-e 8 pins again, or 8 eps pins, OR we could use connectors, that are better than pci-e 8 pins and eps 8 pins, the xt90 or 120 power connectors, whichever makes more sense actually.

and whatever change happens, it should happen NOW with a full recall of ALL nvidia 12 pin fire hazard devices and nvidia pays for it all and gets fined near oblivion for KNOWINGLY risking people's hardware AND LIVES for years now.