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Comment by Sakos | Hacker News Reader

The last time I commented on a previous story about this debacle, people pointed out that molex melt all the time and that this wasn't a big deal. I saw that they were right that molex do melt sometimes, but these adapters have been on the market for what, a week? It felt like there was something wrong with the quality for it to happen so often with specifically these parts.

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Melty Molices mostly affected the old 5 1/4" HDD connector and that was only really a problem because of extremely poor tolerances in third-party connectors leading to bent-open sockets. Mate-n-lok, which is the same type of connector (available in a gazillion variations), is used in huge numbers to this day and has zero reliability issues because the connector design is unproblematic if done correctly.

What's sorta new here is that these are genuine connectors - not aftermarket dreck - and they're already having issues at, as I understand it, around 70-80 % of the specced load (specified for >600 W, while these GPUs are normally limited to 450 W or so).

Molex connectors do indeed melt but rarely catch on fire. Molex connectors are made of nylon which melts as low as 170C.

The pictures of the internals of this adapter are absolutely horrifying. This is 737-MAX style gross negligence: Several consecutive worst practices/shortcuts that ensure catastrophic failure one way or another.

Hook up wire generally doesn't have an insulation rating over 105C (dry), so 170C melt point is fine (assuming that is some real transition temp, and it isn't just melting slower at 100C)

> people pointed out that molex melt all the time and that this wasn't a big deal.

They're insane.

I've been building my own PCs for over 20 years. I've NEVER had a connector melt.

I've never HEARD of anyone having a connector melt outside of maybe a post to /r/WellThatSucks of a single melted connector.

molex-to-SATA adapters melt all the time because the "molded" SATA connectors use thermoplastic that starts to soften well before it actually melts... and those plastic temperatures are low enough that you hit them in an average case. They are unsafe even for HDD usage let alone the (insane) people who use them for GPU mining rigs. Just get some custom 6-pin strings made, people, it's cheaper than burning your farm down lol

that said it's the SATA side that's the problem, not molex.

molex does have a reputation for scorching and arcing at higher current levels though. So does the Tamiya connector that is super common in the RC car world, terrible connector.

How often does it happen? I cannot tell from the article.

Too early to tell. Not only are the cards with these adapters just now getting into the hands of consumers but some people didn't realize there was melting taking place until they unplugged the adapter.

Fun fact: it doesn't even need to happen once for a company to be guilty of gross negligence when there's a public paper trail that shows they knew about the problem, then went ahead with selling products with that problem.

But: it's happened more than once now, which is the exact bar required to clear to count as evidence of a pattern of real world damages in court.

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