Tried to fix a GPU coil whine by swapping PSU cables and ended up shorting my SSD instead

I swapped in a different modular PSU cable last week that looked identical but wasn't pinned the same, and it fried my main drive in about 2 seconds flat - has anyone else nearly torched their whole build by mixing cables from different brands?

2 comments

2 Comments

jordan6534h ago

Yeah man that sucks, I've been there. Blew a SATA power connector on a brand new Samsung drive because I grabbed a cable from my old EVGA kit for a Corsair PSU. The plastic was the same shape but the pinout was completely different. It actually popped with a little spark and I just sat there staring at it for a solid minute. Hope you had backups at least, that's a rough way to learn the lesson.

matthew_owens92h ago

Honestly I think people overcomplicate this stuff. As long as the connectors fit snug and don't wiggle around it should work fine. I've used mismatched PSU cables for years without a single issue.