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Power supply cables for new components

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  • SATA
  • Power Supplies
  • Cable
  • Components
  • Power
Last response: in Components
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January 11, 2014 8:39:39 AM

Hi.

I have a XPS 8300 which has a D460AD00 power supply.

There are two SATA power cables each with a pair of female connectors. One pair powers two Seagate drives (a 1TB and a 4TB), one connector on the other pair powers my DVD drive, and I intend to use the second to power a 240GB SSD.

I have recently installed a SATA powered StarTech USB3 PCI-e card.

The existing SATA cables do not reach the USB3 card and, as mentioned above, I hope to use the last female connector to power a SSD.

There are a couple of unused 6 pin PCI Express power cables.

What is the best way for me to power the USB3 card?

Can I run a SATA splitter cable from one of the existing SATA female pairs? Can I use one of the PCI express power cables with a SATA adapter?

Any help would be much appreciated.

More about : power supply cables components

a b ) Power supply
January 11, 2014 8:56:29 AM

Best way to do this is use molex -> sata connector.

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a b ) Power supply
January 11, 2014 8:56:47 AM

Dave Grant said:
Can I run a SATA splitter cable from one of the existing SATA female pairs? Can I use one of the PCI express power cables with a SATA adapter?

Yes you can use a SATA splitter/extension cable. No, don't try to use the PCIe power cables. Use something like this, it'll work great: http://www.amazon.com/StarTech-com-Power-Splitter-Adapt...

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a c 298 ) Power supply
January 11, 2014 9:08:09 AM

I'd just do a SATA splitter, ones like the one Larkspur work great for hooking up all your hard drives and optical drives on a single chain, he found the exact thing I was looking to post! That will free up your second SATA line from the PSU to run to the USB 3 card.
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January 11, 2014 9:08:47 AM

larkspur said:

Yes you can use a SATA splitter/extension cable. No, don't try to use the PCIe power cables. Use something like this, it'll work great: http://www.amazon.com/StarTech-com-Power-Splitter-Adapt...


Thanks. Do I need to worry about which SATA cable I attach the splitter to?

To recap, one SATA cable is powering two HDDs and the other will be powering a DVD drive and a SSD.

With either cable still be able to supply enough power to cover the USB3 card?
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a c 298 ) Power supply
January 11, 2014 9:20:43 AM

Many people ask that question, each drive pulls less than 10 Watts normally, I would have no concerns about pushing 100W down the wires feeding the sata string, I wouldn't pull it all from a single connector but the PSU and the wires feeding each connector can do it without issue so it doesn't matter how many drives you daisy chain together or which string you power the USB card from.
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January 11, 2014 9:28:55 AM

hunter315 said:
Many people ask that question, each drive pulls less than 10 Watts normally, I would have no concerns about pushing 100W down the wires feeding the sata string, I wouldn't pull it all from a single connector but the PSU and the wires feeding each connector can do it without issue so it doesn't matter how many drives you daisy chain together or which string you power the USB card from.


Thanks, that's good to know.

Thanks to all who helped out with this. I have just ordered that splitter from Amazon.

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a b ) Power supply
January 11, 2014 9:30:32 AM

You're welcome, enjoy your system, and come on back to Tom's if you have any more questions.
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!