It’s been about a year since the USB Implementers Forum announced an update to the USB Type-C specification that, among other things, adds support for 240W charging. Now the first USB cables that actually support that feature have arrived.
As spotted by Tom’s Hardware, a company called Club3D has introduced three new USB Type-C cables that you can use to charge a reasonably powerful gaming laptop (assuming you’ve got a compatible wall charger to plug them into).
The USB Type-C specifications are rather complicated, so keep in mind that a cable with 240W fast charging support doesn’t necessarily support blazing-fast speeds… but it could. With that in mind, here are the first three 240W cables that Club3D has introduced:
- CAC-1573: 6.6 foot (2 meter) USB 2.0 Type-C cable with 480 Mbps speed and 240 (48V/5A) charging
- CAC-1575: 6.6 foot (2 meter) USB 4 Gen 2×2 Type-C cable with 20 Gbps speed, 4K/60Hz video output and 240W (48V/5A) charging
- CAC-1576: 3.3 foot (1 meter) USB 4 Gen 3×2 Type-C cable with 40 Gbps speed, 8K/60Hz video output, and 240W (48V/5A) charging
But while these new cables will pave the way for a future where you can charge high-power devices via USB, we’re not quite there yet. The cables have been announced, but don’t appear to be available for purchase yet. And more importantly, I’m not aware of any 240W USB-C chargers you can plug them into yet, or any laptops or other devices capable of accepting that much power over a USB-C connection in the first place.
via Tom’s Hardware and Club3D (Facebook)
Stage 1 could be a high efficiency 4 to 1 divide ratio:
48V@5A / 4 = 12V@20A
Most desktops and servers run from a 12V DC rail.