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SATA Power Question

R

runt

2[H]4U
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Joined
Mar 16, 2000
Messages
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will it hurt a sata drive if you do not run the 3.3volt line to it? i have a right angle sata power connector that i am going to be using, and while it was detected fine when i tested it without the 3.3v line i just want to make sure it won't harm it if i don't use said line.
 
Should work fine. I have a similar adapter with no 3.3v output and there are no problems.
 
unhappy_mage said:
Should work fine. I have a similar adapter with no 3.3v output and there are no problems.
Click to expand...

ok, just wanted to make sure.
 
No
I dont even remember reading about a 3.3v line in the SATA spec....
If there is a 3.3 line I would think it's there for future expandability
I have over a dozen SATA drives here (2 dvd-rw's included) that are all running off of molex to SATA adapters, so none of them have power to the 3.3 line if one is on the sata cable
 
I'd have to agree with the previous posters. It probably isn't required. I have used many of the molex to SATA power adapters that don't include the 3.3V orange wire without issue on several SATA drives. However, I would check the owner's manual. If that's not available, the sticker on the drive itself should tell you what its power requirements are. For example, I have a Seagate Barracuda 7200.7 sitting here that has the SATA-style power connector, but the label lists +5V 0.72A and +12V 0.35A. Since there are no 3.3V requirements listed, I'd think it's safe to assume it's not using the 3.3V portion of the power connector.
 
Given rumblings of solid states storage Coming Real Soon Now (Samsung did demo the hybrid flash hard drive recently), I would not be suprised if +3.3 is tapped there. The overall goal is to get storage away from +12 to leave that current available for the high draw chips like CPUs and GPUs. That is not going to happen while hard drives still have 3.5" spindle motors, but is quite feasible on a 2.5" or 1.8" drive, or a solid state drive. Expect +3.3 to be brought into play then.

However, as others have said, no current drive requires it - too many ppl would be SOL and have to repalce their PSU if they bought a drive that required +3.3
 
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