Gaming PC Catches Fire : Was It The RTX 3090 Or The PSU?

A Chinese gamer recently found his gaming PC on fire. Not like raking up the FPS in a game, but literally ON FIRE.

Take a look at the pictures, and tell us what do you think was the culprit!

 

Gaming PC Catches Fire : Was It The RTX 3090 Or The PSU?

A Chinese gamer came back from lunch, to find out that his PC was smoking and then, it caught fire and burned to a crisp. The fire took out the PlayStation 5 that was next to it.

He shared that his gaming PC was assembled in January 2020, and he only upgraded it last week with the ASUS ROG Strix RTX 3090 graphics card, and the Seasonic PRIME TX-1000 power supply.

That led to claims that it was either one of those two components that caused the fire. Take a look at these pictures, and see if you can figure out what happened…

Those who claim that no PS5 were injured in this fire, you can actually see the melted PlayStation 5 console to the left of the burnt gaming PC.

This was what it looked like inside the Cooler Master C700M chassis, after the fire was extinguished.

The yellow powder is ammonium phosphate, which is the main compound in dry chemical fire extinguishers. Great for quickly dousing electrical fires, but horrible for cleaning up.

There is literally nothing to salvage from this gaming PC – ammonium phosphate is corrosive and sticks to everything.

This is what the ASUS ROG Strix RTX3090 graphics card looked like after being strayed with fire extinguishing powder.

Note that the three 8-pin PCI Express power cables connected to the card have been burnt down to their copper wires, which turn green when oxidised.

Good cable management didn’t help against the fire… The green “fibres” are exposed copper wires in the cables – copper turns green when oxidised.

Here is what it looks like from the back of the motherboard tray…

While the Seasonic PRIME Titanium TX-1000 power supply appears intact, it is still a suspect and a possible accessory to the “crime”.

In fact, it looked like the power supply continued to supply electricity to whatever short circuit set off the fire, turning it into a major blaze.

Update : The gamer pointed out that he used only the original PSU cables. No third-party cables.

The wall behind the PC was scorched, and while the power points were initially suspected to be the cause, they were later ruled out – they are still working.

 

What Do You Think Made This Gaming PC Catch Fire?

This was the system specifications of his gaming PC :

CPU : Intel Core i9-9900KS
CPU Cooler : Corsair Hydro H150i Pro
Motherboard : ASUS ROG Maximus XI HERO
RAM : 4 x 8 GB G.SKILL DDR4-3200
Graphics Card : ASUS ROG STRIX RTX 3090 Gaming *
Storage : 2 x 500 GB Samsung 970 Evo Plus, 2TB Hikvision C2000 Pro
Chassis : Cooler Master C700M
Chassis Fans : 6 x ThermalTake Riing Plus 12

Power Supply : Seasonic PRIME Titanium TX-1000 **

* it was called an ASUS ROG RTX 3090 Raptor in the translation, apparently ASUS used 猛禽 instead of Strix in China, and that translates as Raptor.
** for those who have never heard of Seasonic, it is one of the largest PSU makers in the world

So what do you think set off the fire? Could it really be the ASUS ROG Strix RTX 3090 Gaming graphics card? Another case of overheating ROG graphics cards?

Or was it the Seasonic PRIME Titanium TX-1000 power supply? It may be top-of-the-line, but nothing is infallible!

Or could it be some other component? Like the motherboard? Or did the CPU water cooler leak? Tell us what YOU think!

 

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