My motherboard came with the ASRock USB 3.1 Front Panel which uses a USB power-only cable to power its ports (as well as a SATA power cable, as a side question does anyone know why it needs two sources of power?).
After plugging everything else in I have no USB headers left to use with the panel, so the way I see it I have two options:
1. Use a splitter for one of the USB 2.0 headers (something like this) so that I can plug a normal header and this power header into the same slot on the mobo.
2. Power it from the 5v pins on a Molex connection from my PSU. This involves a little soldering, and shouldn't be too difficult. It also has the advantage of being free.
In both cases I'm worried about the power output. A USB 2.0 port can provide up to 2.5W (I think), so in the first case that 2.5W is spread over 2 ports for a smaller power output per port. And in the second case the maximum power output of a Molex cable is a lot more than 2.5W (I don't know exactly what it is).
So my question is this: Would taking the power from a Molex cable be likely to fry my components due to too much current? And would powering 2 USB ports using the splitter reduce the current per port, like I thought (and would this be much of an issue)? Or is there a better way of doing it?
After plugging everything else in I have no USB headers left to use with the panel, so the way I see it I have two options:
1. Use a splitter for one of the USB 2.0 headers (something like this) so that I can plug a normal header and this power header into the same slot on the mobo.
2. Power it from the 5v pins on a Molex connection from my PSU. This involves a little soldering, and shouldn't be too difficult. It also has the advantage of being free.
In both cases I'm worried about the power output. A USB 2.0 port can provide up to 2.5W (I think), so in the first case that 2.5W is spread over 2 ports for a smaller power output per port. And in the second case the maximum power output of a Molex cable is a lot more than 2.5W (I don't know exactly what it is).
So my question is this: Would taking the power from a Molex cable be likely to fry my components due to too much current? And would powering 2 USB ports using the splitter reduce the current per port, like I thought (and would this be much of an issue)? Or is there a better way of doing it?
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