12VHPWR is a Dumpster Fire | Investigation into Contradicting Specs & Corner Cutting

Sponsor: Antec C8 with fans on Newegg - and without fans on Newegg This investigation digs deep into the 12VHPWR and 12V-2x6 specifications, highlighting the contradictory design documents leading to confusion as manufacturers cut corners. We talk about the CableMod recall of its angled adapters, including a deep-dive failure analysis into its solutions that we hired a lab for. We also cover PCIe 6/8-pin melting failures of the past and the differences with 12VHPWR. For this content, we collaborated with Aris of Cybenetics (Hardware Busters), Der8auer, Elmor of Elmor Labs, and others to fact check the research. With the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 on the horizon, now is a good time to revisit the 12VHPWR standard (and its follow-ups, like 12V-2x6) to try and come to an understanding as to what it all means. This also covers the differences between 12VHPWR and 12V-2x6, alongside other connector standards. If you’d like to support our deep-dive research pieces, please visit the store: Soldering & Project mats that fund our work: 3D drink coaster packs: PC building modmats: Like our content? Please consider becoming our Patron to support us: HUGE THANKS to our fact checkers & peer reviewers. Find them below! Aris (Hardware Busters & Cybenetics): @HardwareBusters & Roman (Der8auer): @der8auer Elmor Labs: (they sell great tools for PCs) TIMESTAMPS 00:00 - 12VHPWR is a Mess 01:54 - Peer Reviewers 04:25 - CableMod Failure Analysis (vs WireView & Corsair) 11:22 - Conclusions of Failure Analysis (CableMod) 12:55 - Why Connectors Melt (Energy) 16:36 - PCIe 8-Pin Failures & Melting 17:53 - Why 12VHPWR Even Exists 21:25 - NVIDIA’s Domineering Strategy 27:01 - CHAOS 38:50 - The Melting, CableMod Edition 47:52 - The Recall 51:18 - Conclusion & What You Should Do ** Please like, comment, and subscribe for more! ** Links to Amazon and Newegg are typically monetized on our channel (affiliate links) and may return a commission of sales to us from the retailer. This is unrelated to the product manufacturer. Any advertisements or sponsorships are disclosed within the video (“this video is brought to you by“) and above the fold in the description. We do not ever produce paid content or “sponsored content“ (meaning that the content is our idea and is not funded externally aside from whatever ad placement is in the beginning) and we do not ever charge manufacturers for coverage. Follow us in these locations for more gaming and hardware updates: t: f: w: Our policies, processes, and ethics statements relating to review samples, advertising, travel, errors, and more are transparently and publicly available on this page: Steve Burke: Host, Writing Patrick Lathan: Research, Writing Vitalii Makhnovets: Camera, Video Editing Tim Phetdara: Camera Andrew Coleman: 3D Animation, Timeline