Confused over 6pin and 8pin, and power capacity of pcie plugs

[0o0]

I've read that the 6pin provides 75w while 8pin provides 150w, and I believe the black wires are always ground wires, so I'm quite bewildered about how an extra 2 ground wires doubles the capacity In theory, three 12v wires would perfectly balance three ground wires? (Sorry I'm still in gr 10 science not too good with electricity).

I've also seen some manufacturers distribute these crazy adapters that split up one single 12v wire into 3 wires of the same guage, for example the one that came with my 4870 that splits up one 12v wire from molex to feed a 6pin pcie, is this stuff safe? Even the HX650 splits a 6pin pcie into 2x6pins, would that mean each plug only receives half of 75w? Or are these just random numbers that the ATX guys pulled out of their ear to discourage us from doing crazy stuff with their plugs?

Thanks

[E}{ile BFG OC 4GHZ]

In theory if you have a single 12v channel on your power supply you can get the maximum 12v power output that the psu can give you (depending on model) from any yellow wire (+12) but the limitation is because of the wire a single 18 gauge wire can carry the max of 120w of power but this will create inefficiencies and the wire would probably heat up. So designers played it safe and usually a single wire is not loaded more than 45-50w

[0o0]

ahh ok, I'm too lazy to search this up, so basically what this means is that a standard 18 guage psu wire can carry 120w or 10amps of 12V maximium? Is there differences between the material used in the wire, or are all wires made of the same material? Thanks

[MarkOne]

all true you will find aluminum wire in some bad electrician work who wat save money .... in the computer you have only copper one.

[0o0]

alright thanks, so does anyone know how 2 extra ground wires in the pcie 8 pin provides an extra 75watts?

[Sushi Warrior]

Ummm, unless what you see is not what you get all the wire I see is stranded aluminum. I didn't see a spec of copper when I spliced wires, unless it was coated.

[0o0]

if you cut it and look on the end, it kinda looks yellow-ish

[E}{ile BFG OC 4GHZ]

Most of them are zinc plated to prevent corrosion