I'm planning to use an ATX power supply to power a small set of 12v devices. I've read plenty of guides about adapting ATX -> bench supply, but I can't seem to find any mention of the connector material for the pins themselves.
I'm primarily interested in the ATX12V 8-pin connector, but the same question also applies to the ATX 24-pin. I'd like to connect directly from the 8-pin connector to a device without going through a board first, so just wire-to-wire.
I've found the appropriate housing parts from Molex: (8-pin and 24-pin).
The documentation for both of those housings lists the compatible connector pin types (it's the same pins for both). The problem is that I have no idea which pin material to choose. Broadly, the options fall under tin or gold, and within each of those two categories, there are several sub-choices. For example, there are many choices for 16 awg pins.
My understanding is that gold coating is better for many reasons, but more expensive. However, gold/tin matings are the worst. This is a small scale project, so I'm not worried about the cost. I don't want to buy gold if the PSU pins are tin and vice versa. I've been unable to find any documentation to suggest which of these materials is used (either mandated by spec or just typically in practice).
TL;DR:
- Does the connector pin material matter (tin vs. gold)?
- If so, which should I get for interfacing with a standard mid-to-high-end ATX power supply?