SATA power connecotr replacement

O

olaf2821

[H]ard|Gawd
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Aug 24, 2000
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I was wondering if anyone has replaced their Molex connectors with SATA ones directly on their PSU. I was looking at replacing 8 Molexes with 90 degree molexes, but thought if I am going to do that, I may as well use SATA (since the drives have both) and was wondering if it was possible. Thanks in advance.
 
I personally haven't done it, but looking at the power supplies that come with them already on it, there is a strange orange wire running to the SATA plug from the PSU.
strangewire.jpg


It may be possible, but it would require running an extra wire from somewhere inside the PSU.
 
Short answer: No
Long answer: If you have the time

SATA power connectors carry more than just the +5 and +12 volt lines we all know and love in our molexes. IIRC, it's 3.3 volts. It is possible to tap the necessary voltage out of the 20-pin ATX connector, but that is a more serious mod with potential for a mix up to send bad voltages straight in to your mobo.

If you want SATA power, get a PSU that already has it.
 
The third voltage line, labeled by the orange wire and accompanying ground (black), is the +3.3 V line. It may be used by 3.5" hard drives in the future, but it's not used yet and is thus unnecessary for the moment. Its main use will be for the smaller 2.5 and 1.8" drives that will receive Serial ATA support in the coming years. The ATX power connector has the +3.3 V line as well, but the voltage of course originates at a cluster of solder points on your PC power supply's circuit board. With most power supplies, these solder points are clearly marked, and you could potentially solder in a new wire for the Serial ATA power connector.

I think that the biggest problem is that the connector is hard to disassemble. All of the Serial ATA power connectors I've seen are nearly impossible to scavenge because the connector-wire assembly is done in a factory and cannot be taken apart like traditional disk drive power connectors. If you can find a user-replaceable Serial ATA power connector you'd be in business. I have not seen one, though.
 
In the picture I found of a PSU that comes with one, it looks like it accepts pins just like the regular molex connectors. The only thing we're unsure about is what exactly the orange wire is and where ot purchase some SATA connectors. The power supply in the picture is a SilverStone Technologies one. The two models they carry that come with a SATA connector are the SST-ST360 and SST-ST400.
 
Thanks for all your help guys, I went and looked at my PSU with integrated SATA connectors and hadn't noticed the extra wire. Right angle connectors it is. As for getting a PSU that has them, already do, I just need a 500+ watt PSU with 8-10 of those bad boys on it, that i am going to be waiting for.
 
OK, but here's something to think about:

The PSU's with SATA power native have the extra 2 wires. But compannies like Directron are selling ATA/IDE power adapters for SATA drives, like these , that take the 4 wire power from a normal PSU and make it into an SATA power plug, all while only using the regular 4 wires.

So, do we actually NEED those extra 2 wires for 3.5" devices? If these power adapters work, why not just re-wire for SATA directly like olaf2821 wanted to in the first question?
 
Something I have been looking for is these 90 degree SATA connectors. I think this Y connector came with my DFI Lan Party board.

Picture_022.jpg
 
Originally posted by Impact9
Something I have been looking for is these 90 degree SATA connectors. I think this Y connector came with my DFI Lan Party board.
Click to expand...

See that little label on the bottom that says "Comax"?

SATA Power Adapter

See, 4 pin, like I was talking about.
 
Bingo! Now where can we get these things in mass quantity? Pretty fast finding that Prophet, I kept running into Silicon Image and lots of ¶àÈÎÎñ¿ØÖÆÆ÷
 
E-Mail 'em. See if they do volume discounts/shipping. What company DOESN'T want to take money?
 
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