November 24, 2020 | 12:20
Sometimes the small things are the most charming, or conversely they can be the most irritating. When you are building a PC and aiming for a beautifully neat and tidy build some of your chosen components might not be very helpful in achieving your goal. One of the biggest bugbears of modern day builders is graphics card power connector size and position and even the most premium, modern, cutting edge graphics cards will annoy some builders due to this design choice.
PC builders often take particular pride in their designs and put the graphics card centre stage but the overall effect isn’t that striking due to the unsightly wire spaghetti that is clearly visible emanating from the edges of these products. It was quite common to have the power connectors at the end but recent Nvidia Ampere designs with short PCBs and long shrouds mean that clumps of power connecting wires may be even more unsightly – sprouting from the middle of the PCIe card’s length.
Top latch (left) bottom latch design (right)
If the above tells a familiar story to you, a little known Japanese PC accessories maker by the name of Ainex has come up with an ingenious range of solutions to your wiring woes. It has a set of C- or you might say U- shaped connectors that provide a flush connection to the GPU with the cable plugged in around the back. The design might appeal equally, whether you have your GPU traditionally mounted or in a bracket so the spinning RGB fan array shows itself to full effect in your tempered glass case window.
As there are multiple PCI power connection options across the canon of PC graphics cards Ainex provides a set of C- shaped solutions which should cover most bases. Thus is it has designs for both 6- and 8-pin connectors with latch options for the top or bottom, making four designs in all.
You might need to buy two of these power accessory products, depending upon your GPU. However, they aren’t pricey at the equivalent of approx GBP£5 per piece or less in Japan where they will go up for sale from 25th November. I’m not sure about shipping or availability outside of Japan but if they aren’t distributed worldwide I’m sure some clones from another Far East country will begin to proliferate.