UK Plug cables interchangeable?

handyandy24

handyandy24

handyandy24

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So I picked up a sf850 used off Ebay and the chap sent it without the UK Plug. I've messaged him but in case he can't come through my question is does it matter what cable I use. Could I just use the cable from my current psu?
 
Yeah. At one point it was pretty standard to sell electronics with bare wires and you'd wire your own plug yourself.

The main thing is to check that the fuse is appropriately rated for the intended power draw, but if it's from your old PSU it should be fine.
 
UK 3 pin plugs are rated for 13 Amps but ideally you would hard wire anything pulling that to a fused spur.
The IEC C15 "kettle lead" end that fits in to the PC is often rated at 10 Amps (it should be stamped on the connector).

The cable will be stamped / printed with the conductors diameter

0.5mm = use a 3 amp fuse (750w)
0.75mm = use a 5 Amp fuse (1.2Kw)
1.0mm = ideally use a 10 amp fuse (2.4Kw)

I've only come across one 0.5mm cable which I think came with a power brick for something its visibly quite thin compared to the others and I'd think twice about using it on a PC but even that cable is rated for 750w.

Plug top fuses are already slow to blow and will allow much higher currents for a while before they blow.
I've often taken the 13 amp fuse out of IEC 15 cables for low powered PC's when replacing ICT suites in schools and replaced them with a 3 amp.
 
surely the worst that happens is the fuse blows? as long as its correctly rated and the cable won't catch fire
NetMan said:
I've only come across one 0.5mm cable which I think came with a power brick for something its visibly quite thin compared to the others and I'd think twice about using it on a PC but even that cable is rated for 750w.
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what pc is pulling 750watt though?

4090 is pulling like 450 ish max, usually a lot less, rest of pc maybe 100-150watts?


I have a 4090+12700k and the highest power draw I saw from a UPS was around 630 watts, that included the monitor being plugged in to the same UPS

right now browsing this forum post it shows
zVH6vcx.png


people over estimate how much power draw their pcs really need
 
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arknor said:
surely the worst that happens is the fuse blows? as long as its correctly rated and the cable won't catch fire

what pc is pulling 750watt though?

4090 is pulling like 450 ish max, usually a lot less, rest of pc maybe 100-150watts?


I have a 4090+12700k and the highest power draw I saw from a UPS was around 630 watts, that included the monitor being plugged in to the same UPS

right now browsing this forum post it shows
zVH6vcx.png


people over estimate how much power draw their pcs really need
Click to expand...

Depends on a lot of variables. A RTX 5090 alone can pull 600watts DC. At say .8 power factor and 230volts, that would be 750watts and 3.3amps on the AC side. That’s asking a lot from a made in China by the lowest bidder, IEC lead in a home environment and would degrade a 0.5-0.75mm2 cable over time.
 
arknor said:
surely the worst that happens is the fuse blows? as long as its correctly rated and the cable won't catch fire
Click to expand...
Fuses have a wide operating range and allow far greater currents than people realise before they blow:

A 3 amp fuse will allow 5 amps without blowing almost indefinitely and a 13 amp fuse will allow about 20 amps without blowing almost indefinitely.

Why does a 13A fuse not blow at 13A?

A 13A BS 1362 fuse is not designed to blow at 13A. Learn about non-fusing current, fusing current, and the time/current characteristics.
www.pat-testing-training.net www.pat-testing-training.net

People also sometimes use the wrong fuse and will stick a 13 amp fuse in something that is not rated for such high currents.


arknor said:
I have a 4090+12700k and the highest power draw I saw from a UPS was around 630 watts, that included the monitor being plugged in to the same UPS

right now browsing this forum post it shows
Click to expand...
Lol - of course browsing the web isn't going to tax a PC I can do that on a tablet drawing 5 watts from a USB charger.

Your power draw will be a lot higher when the PC is under load try running FurMark* etc...

*I've seen photos of burnt VRM's on old GPUs because people have ran FurMark, its just an example of how the power draw will be a lot higher when running certain tasks because I can be almost certain that you didn't buy a 4090 just to browse Overclockers so if you run it and cooks your GPU don't blame me.


arknor said:
what pc is pulling 750watt though?
Click to expand...

5090 is what 600w with a recomendation of a 1000w PSU?
Whats a high end threadripper cpu pulling 350w+ ?

Maybe ask the people that are buying these things what they are running, maybe they know how bad the 60xx series are going to be:

 
arknor said:
not during gaming, theres almost 0 situation where a gpu and cpu will be maxxed at the same time outside of multiple benchmarks at the same time.
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My PC is a potato and it takes very little to max it out, SLI / Crossfire used to be a thing, people are using desktop PC's for AI, distributed computing etc... not everyone is just gaming.

It's not just the power draw 0.5mm cable is also more fragile and less resilient if you run it over with the casters on your chair etc...

It's very unlikely that OP has a 0.5mm cable its probably at least a 0.75mm in which case it will be fine with an 850w PSU but you can't make assumptions.
 
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