I'm feeling really overwhelmed with my recent PC build and I'm hoping for some guidance. I recently bought a 750w power supply from Thermaltake, and during the setup, I think I may have plugged the SATA cable into the wrong port. When I powered on my PC, I heard a zap, and sure enough, I fried the SATA cable right at the connection to my control panel. The only visible damage is to the cable and the control panel itself. I'm now worried that I might have caused unseen damage to other components, like the motherboard or fans. Is there a chance that other parts are damaged? Just for context, I was trying to upgrade my GPU, and I know I needed to upgrade my power supply for that. My friend, who is an electrician, looked it over and thinks the internal components are fine, but I'm still nervous about the whole situation since I'm not very experienced with PC building. Any insights would be greatly appreciated!
2 Answers
Just to clarify, when you say 'control panel,' do you mean the fan hub? That makes sense if it's just the hub that's affected, but definitely check if everything else is running fine. If your electrician friend didn't see any other damage, you might be okay!
It's unusual to plug cables in incorrectly since PSUs usually have keyed connectors, but using an old cable from a different PSU could definitely cause issues. If the cable was worn out, that might explain the zap. Just be careful next time!
Yeah, I've heard that using mismatched cables can really mess things up. It could be that too much power was pushed through the cable, which is never a good thing.

Yes, exactly! I wasn't sure what to call it, but yeah, it's the fan hub. I'm hopeful that I dodged a bullet here.