SATA vs Molex power connectors HELP!

[Top Nurse]

Before I get flamed...yes I did search the forum.

My PCP&C supply comes with both SATA and 4-pin Molex power connectors. I'm a little concerned though by the force applied to the SATA connector as I'm stacking my drives in a HD cage at the bottom of my Lian-Li PC-601B case. As close as the drives are to each other it seems to bend the female SATA connectors on the HD itself.

If there is a clear advantage to using the SATA power connectors I will remove the connectors and press them on in a manner that doesn't cause the bending problem. Otherwise I will user the Molex 4-pin connectors which seem much more solid to me.

Comments appreciated

 

[UICompE02]

Nope, you won't see any difference between using the molex or SATA power connector if your drive supports both of them.

The reason the SATA power connector was designed is to facilitate hot-swapping. The ground pins are longer so they are first-mate, last break so that shorts are less likely to happen when plugging in a drive with power turned on.

If you're not hot-swapping the drives, the SATA power connector will give you no advantage.

 

[TLS2000]

The reason the SATA power connector was designed is to facilitate hot-swapping. The ground pins are longer so they are first-mate, last break so that shorts are less likely to happen when plugging in a drive with power turned on.

That's new info to me. I don't remember reading that anywhere before. Makes sense.

 

[Top Nurse]

If you're not hot-swapping the drives, the SATA power connector will give you no advantage.

And a lot of disadvantages if the stressed connector breaks off the drive

Thanks so much for that answer! I have been looking at the SATA connector and just couldn't figure out what all those leads were for. I can see the 5v and 12v wires and 2 grounds, so what is the orange wire for? And why does the SATA connector have about 15 pins and the wiring loom only has 5 leads? Are there 3 redundant pins for each wire?

I've been using a couple of 36Gb Raptors in a RAID 0 array since they first came onto the market and haven't had any adverse effects using the standard Molex 4-pin connector. The plan is to now use one 74Gb Raptor as a system drive and use the other two 74's in a RAID 1 array. I don't think I would hot swap the drives as I could just power down and insert a new drive and re-boot.

 

[UICompE02]

And why does the SATA connector have about 15 pins and the wiring loom only has 5 leads?

Here's the pinout for the SAS/SATA 15-pin power connector:

P1 V33
P2 V33
P3 V33, precharge
P4 GROUND
P5 GROUND
P6 GROUND
P7 V5, precharge
P8 V5
P9 V5
P10 GROUND
P11 READY LED
P12 GROUND
P13 V12, precharge
P14 V12
P15 V12

 

[feigned]

That's new info to me. I don't remember reading that anywhere before. Makes sense.

Yeah man, USB and Firewire connectors have the same feature.

Static charge is a huge bane on electronics, you know.

 

[xonik]

I can see the 5v and 12v wires and 2 grounds, so what is the orange wire for?

Somebody correct me if I'm wrong, but usually the orange wire would mean the 3.3 volt line. The 3.3 volt line would be used in the smaller 2.5 and 1.8" drives, mostly.