I'm building my first PC with an XFX Mercury 9070 XT, which uses about 340W and has three 8-pin power connectors. My XPG Core Reactor II 1000W power supply came with three PCIe cables, but each one has an additional daisy-chain connector. Should I use two cables with one daisy-chain connector, or connect all three separate cables and leave the extra connectors unused? The dangling connectors look a little messy, so I'm wondering what's electrically best and how people usually manage the extra cable ends.
3 Answers
The extra daisy-chain connectors are meant to be left unused when you only need one connector from each cable. You can zip-tie or carefully tuck each loose connector against its own cable so it doesn’t hang visibly in the case.
Using all three separate PCIe cables is the ideal setup, since each cable carries power independently. Two cables with one daisy-chain connector will probably work, but three individual connections are the safer and cleaner electrical choice for a card with this power draw.
I’ll use all three separate cables just to be safe.
Another valid arrangement is using two cable runs and connecting the third GPU plug from a daisy-chain connector, but with a 340W card and three available PCIe cables, I’d use all three main connectors instead. If appearance matters, custom sleeved cables or extensions can hide the unused pigtails.
That makes sense. I’ll secure the extra connectors to the cables.